The garden has really taken off in the past few weeks. We have been having plenty of hot weather so all of my peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers have been super happy. The weather here has been mostly dry, though monsoon season is in full swing, so there have been the occasional short lived afternoon showers. I have been trying to keep the garden well watered, but my squash always look wilted in the heat of the day, though they are being plenty productive, so they can't be too stressed.
This summer squash bed holds my zucchini, yellow and patty pan squash. These plants seemed slow to get going, but now that the heat of summer is here, they have been blooming nonstop and my kitchen table is slowly being taken over by squash. I usually dehydrate the extras but I have so much left from last year, that I have decided to give my extras away to whomever wants some and what doesn't go to feed humans will help reduce my chicken's feed bill for the summer.
This bed holds the glass gem corn. I have had some trouble making sure they are getting enough water, but I have hopefully resolved that problem. The ones that hung on through their little drought are starting to make a come back. I don't think they will get as tall as they should this year, but I hope they still produce plenty of ears for me.
The cucumber bed is just coming into its own right now and I expect I shall be picking my first round of cucumbers in just a few days. From the looks of things the next couple of months will be filled with long hours of canning pickles. I am beginning to worry that I am in over my head with how many cucumbers I will have, but it's too late to back out now. I have a feeling that my chickens will be eating plenty of fresh over-sized cucumbers this year as well.
The pepper bed is doing very well so far. I have only pickled a couple of peppers, but I think they will start coming on about the same time as the tomatoes which will be perfect for making my locally renowned salsa. What doesn't make it into salsa will wind up in the freezer to be added to my menu all winter long.
The tomatoes are very happy in this sunny location in the garden. They got over their transplant stress very quickly and have already gone into production mode. There are dozens of small green tomatoes hiding among the leaves and yesterday I discovered my first cluster of red tomatoes and tasted the first ripe tomato of summer straight off the vine. Nothing tastes sweeter that a juicy ripe tomato still warm from the summer sun.
Behind the tomatoes the potatoes have been humming along nicely. There are tons of flowers on the vines and they have flopped themselves outside the boundaries of their bed. I have felt a few good sized tubers beneath the soil, but I want to wait until they die back before harvesting them. If they look as good underground as they do from above, then I should be getting plenty of potatoes for my winter food supply out of this bed.
This is a tiny stand of my Pungo Creek Butcher corn that I planted from seeds that I have been saving each year for the past 4 years. I was sad that only this tiny corner of the plot germinated, but I hope to help them pollinate each other so they still produce full ears for me. They are already taller than I am and show no signs of tasseling yet. In years past I have grown plants of this variety that were well over 10 feet tall. This years crop is looking like it will be keeping that tradition.
The onions are nearly done for the season. I have been harvesting the ones that have sent up a flowering stalk and waiting for the rest to bulb up. They had been growing nice and tall in the past few weeks, but then suddenly just a few days ago, they seemed to fall over en masse. This is usually the signal that it is time to harvest the onion crop so I removed the irrigation lines from the bed and will let it dry out for a little while before I harvest this crop.
This is my embarrassment of a bed of bush beans. I have had to replant this bed about three times now and I still have large gaps between plants. I tried a new variety this year, but they don't seem to do very well in this climate. I'm not sure if it's the soil, or if I am giving them too much water, or maybe I have bugs eating them that I don't see. In any case I think I will only be getting a handful of green beans this year which is too bad because they are one of my favorite garden veggies.
This is my salad bed. The first area I planted was the back row which has now bolted in the summer heat. I am letting them go to seed so I can collect some for next years garden. The second row I planted is just in front of the first planting and I am still having fresh salad from this area. I did plant a third row just a few days ago, and that round is just starting to come up. It seems as though my succession planting in this bed is working out well for me this year. I have been eating fresh salads whenever I want for months with minimal input.
This bed holds the flavoring herbs for my pickles and salsa. The white flowery bushes in the front are cilantro and the tall yellow/green flowers in the back are dill. Tucked between them are carrots and parsnips filling in otherwise unused space in this bed. Once the herb crops die back I will be able to harvest the root crops from the center.
Last but not least is the broccoli bed. This crop had a very late start for me this year because of how many times I had to replant this bed. I think it was a third replanting before they actually took. They seem to be growing fine, though I wonder if they will just bolt when they start to flower or if they will make heads worth harvesting. This is another crop that I love to keep on hand in the freezer for winter meals, so I hope to be able to get a decent harvest despite the bumpy beginnings.
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