Well I know it is August but that is the main reason I'm just now getting around to the July garden report. The garden is in! So far this has been a great gardening year although a few adjustments were needed. We mulched plants heavily in June after the weather turned hot and dry. Bare clay soil was like cured concrete while soil under the mulch was cool and moist. July came with heavy rains following the Derecho of late June. We had a few peppers drown in a low spot in the garden after heavy rains so we pulled back the mulch on some areas of the garden to help the soil breathe. Most plants continued to fare well under the mulch and the corn thrived with the constant moisture. We are now into canning and freezing season and have put up corn, tomatos and beans. Don is threatening to make our surplus cucumbers into pickles but neither of us are big pickle eaters. The beets we planted in the spring are mostly still growing into giant woody roots because neither of us are big beet eaters either. Someday we'll learn to plant things we actually eat.
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Second planting of Early Sunglow corn.
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| Nothing better than fresh-picked corn! |
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| Italian pepper - Giant Marconi. |
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| The personal size tomato Fourth of July ripening nicely. |
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| Sweet potato vines running wild! |
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| Pole beans - white half runners. |
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| Nothin' better that a bit of fried okra. Have to wait a bit longer. |
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| Basil growing nicely. |
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| The long view. |
Contrast this with the garden in early May.
I like all of the pictures, but the corn is beautiful! Have you tried freezer pickles? They have a fresh taste that is more like marinated cukes than pickles.
ReplyDeleteNo we haven't. I'll have to check that out.
DeleteBeautiful garden! It seems you do everything I don't and it shows. :-) Plants spaced appropriately and mulched. Next year... and freezer jam is a good idea. Check out the Joy of Pickling...there were at least two kinds of pickled cukes I'm going to try...cucumber with mango, and cucumbers w/lime and mint.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm such a lazy gardener so I mulch and believe me with all my silly goats that love to hang out in their barn I have a lot of mulch! Don is the main gardener here and thankfully is more ambitious in the garden than I am. He just ordered a pickle book too.
DeleteYour green thumb is showing---everything looks great!!
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh about you planting things you don't really like. James does that too. It must be the thrill of seeing things grow, more than eating some of it. We have loads of parsnips and we hardly ever eat them.
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