Garden in July

As the summer started heating up I’d go out to the garden looking and hoping to find some vegetables that were ready to eat. Things seemed to move a little slow for me, but when I spotted some zucchini I was about to just rip it off the vine just to say, “We have food!” I restrained myself, though, and once this little zucchini was finally ready there was much more to follow.
I was leery about our corn being knee high by the 4th of July, but it started growing like weeds. Soon we couldn’t even find our children in the corn!

Peek-a-boo!
Our little chicks weren't so little anymore. They started roaming around and exploring much more as the weather warmed up.

That little white chicken soon became known as Elvis and he now has several girls in his flock.Our green peppers were growing abundantly which has been quite nice since in years past they didn’t grow too well.
 We even picked up a few purple peppers. Did you know there was such a thing? I had no idea. They taste just like green peppers, not too sweet.
Again, it took longer than I thought, but the tomatoes were finally starting to grow. For the longest time, we just had a ton of little flowers.
We were getting so many jalapeños that they began weighing down the plants.This year we decided to try something new by growing green beans at the base of the corn so that they would climb the corn stalks.
I’ve read that San Marzano tomatoes have the least amount of liquid in them making them a good choice for making tomato past and sauces. We decided to try quite a few of those plants, so I could can or freeze them.
When I thought our kale wasn’t going to make it my sweet husband went and bought a few more starts. Somehow the kale that I didn’t think was going to make it pulled through and now we’ll be eating kale all winter. Oops!

Garden

With the long winter we were eager to get going on our garden, so we got cold vegetables in as early as we could, but then 2 feet of snow hit. Ahh!! The weather did end up warming up after awhile and we got the entire garden planted.

Then the weeds started growing,
and the hundreds of rabbit,s on our property, began enjoying our crops, so we built a fence one afternoon.
The weather decided to skip spring and go straight to summer. Our poor cold weather crops didn’t know how to handle it, so they went to seed pretty quickly.
A hail storm hit in late spring and I thought I lost my onions, but instead they grew a little longer, and then it got too hot for them and they went to seed.When I thought our beets were a lost cause I went out one day and they had bounced back and were super bushy.
The corn was knee high before the 4th of July!
We built a little trellis for the cucumbers, but they felt like spreading their leaves rather than climbing, so we had to go along and train them to go up the fence manually.
We planted 120 tomato plants hoping for a large crop so I could can vine-ripened tomatoes for the winter. There’s just something about the flavor of vine-ripened tomatoes from your own garden that a grocery store tomato can’t beat.
I forgot about how zucchini plants grow to an enormous size, so when my husband only planted four plants I was a little skeptical. I wasn’t sure there would be enough zucchini to feed our family.

The Heat is On!

With even the slightest hint of spring and a little warmer weather coming we got outside as soon as we could. Being cooped up all winter is no fun!

     

My parents came to town to help out with a little yard work, but there was more than a little. There's so much yard work to do around here that they are making a special trip this fall to help out with pruning and and cleaning.

I think my mom secretly wishes she was a chicken farmer. She had so much fun watching chickens and collecting eggs while she was in town. Maybe when she comes back she can clean the poop off their perches. Then we'll see if she still wants a chicken farm. As soon as the weather warmed up we cleared out a space in our wood pile area to get our planting started. We got the dirt tilled and even planted some seeds and onion starts. My lovely husband likes to take risks and this year I'm not sure if the risk was good or bad. The ground seemed to stay cold a little longer than we were hoping and I think some of our seeds didn't like that, so they didn't grow. We ended up re-planting a few things that never came up.

       

While my parents were in town we also celebrated my Lutheran Stud's birthday. He was pretty happy to get this tractor sprinkler.

We couldn't wait to get up and moving either, so planting the garden could not have come a more perfect time. Who would have thought that watching a sprinkler could be so entertaining?

The Garden

We've had an incredible year of garden goodness. It started out slow and now our garden has exploded to the point that now, with all the rain we can barely get into it.

These photos were taken over a month ago, long before the flood. Currently, we have a ton of tomatoes, peppers, carrots, and onions that are waiting to be picked. Who knows if we'll even get to them before they rot. If you're in the area be sure to stop by and pick some goodies for yourself. :)

We've enjoyed a lot of kale this year and can't even keep up with it. We've introduced many people to kale and now we're all sharing different recipes. It's been great!

Carrots are just popping out of the ground these days. A month ago when the ground was drier it required a little digging.

What sweet victory after all that digging.

Green beans are Anna's favorite thing to pick and eat straight out of the garden.

We've got a massive crop of jalapenos, so beware if you come over for some of my chips and salsa. My Lutheran Stud even comes out to help every once in awhile. ;)

Things Are Growing

Crazy schedules have left little time for us to tend to our garden this year. Since the garden is green I suppose things are still growing though.

Every year I always tell myself that I'm going to stay ahead of the weeds and every year the weeds seem to overtake our poor crops. Our kale has been plentiful and it's become one of our favorites since it grows well and keeps well in the fridge. I've made kale chips and that has been a win-win here since my kids love them! If you're near our church be sure stop by and get some. We have tons.

Our corn is looking beautiful. Not even the weeds have been able to keep up though they have tried. Last year something happened and our corn didn't grow at all. This year I'm excited to see how it turns out.

This bush is full of cute peppers that I think are ready to be eaten.

I even have some bell peppers this year.

Anna picked some onions for us since they were calling her name. "Mom, this one wants to be picked. Can I pick it?"

It's a slow go for our zucchini, but they're almost ready!

This one is ready. We can't wait to start eating them only to be sick of them in another month or so. :)

We planted beets early in the season, but they never came up. The other day I found this guy hiding out with some tomatoes. Then I noticed a couple more that will be ready soon. Yay!

The Garden

Besides all the weeds that are quickly taking over our garden things are looking pretty good, considering the late start we had in planting it.

We had a late spring snow storm and along with time we were late with the planting of our garden.

It's coming along nicely though. The onions have pulled through this heat.

We even have some corn this year. Hopefully it will be knee high by the 4th of July.

Our kale was looking pretty pathetic a few weeks ago, but now it's been great. We've been eating quite a bit of it too! Kale chips are on my list of things to make.

Our beans seem a little sparse and that might be because the weeds are trying to take over. Oh my! The weeds are horrible.

We have a thick showing of volunteer carrots this year. 

I pulled one out of the ground to see how it looked. We'll be picking carrots soon!

We even planted a smaller garden at home. My lovely husband picked up some peppers for me since I kept saying, "I wish we could plant some peppers."

Isn't this bell pepper adorable?

I don't actually know what kind of pepper this is, but it looks like it will taste great in some salsa.

As I was digging out all the weeds I founds some tomatoes. Yay! There are a lot more goodies growning in our garden. We'll have to say that for next time!