July

It rained again today, which made for excellent evening weed pulling. Our backyard is still in the process of being landscaped and mulched and such. Mike has had to remove landscape rock and fabric and slope around the house in areas, so the foundation plantings are all works in progress. Tonight, I was able to weed and mulch part of it while the little one watered things with buckets of water filled from her pool.

may not look like much; if only I had a before pic!

Finding safe entertainment for the toddler is the most critical gardening chore at this point in our lives.

 Mike continues to have challenges with his garden, including finding ways (and time) to beat weeds organically, and fighting with pests, like a bug that almost destroyed his tomatoes, and the return of the Japanese beetles. He also didn't get a spot at the Saturday morning farmer's market, which limits him to selling at a much smaller Wednesday morning market. So far that hasn't been a big deal, since he hasn't had enough of anything to sell yet! Just starting to get into the business, it's hard to know just how much of a market there is, but after attending the Saturday morning market today, I was very disappointed not to see any organic growers. The green beans we purchased there could easily have more pesticides on them than the ones at the grocery store! So despite the hurdles, I'm still hopeful he will find his niche.

Below are some pictures from a couple weeks ago when we were still getting strawberries. The little one is working to overcome picky eating, but if dinner doesn't go over well, she has no problem foraging in the garden. Here she filled up on strawberries after refusing to eat most of her supper. She has done the same with raspberries, which we are now getting and she seems to enjoy, and one of the first cherry tomatoes of the season, which she promptly spit out. Guess it wasn't quite ripe yet!

And just a few other photos as evidence that produce is growing:

sweet pepper

kale

This last one is a poor quality picture, but this is Mike on one of his morning trips into the garden to spray for beetles. He sprays with a combo of insecticidal soap and neem oil, which are apparently organically approved ways to deal with these very difficult bugs! I just think it's funny to watch him walk around with his cool ghostbuster-like backpack!

Hope to have some more nice pictures of a (weedy and partially bug-chewed) vegetable garden soon!

Summer in Swing

The growing season was late this year, and it's been a wet summer. It may not be working out great for farmers, but my garden is faring well. The days are so long, which is just so wonderful, and makes it hard to get the little one in bed before 10!

There's still so much to plant and tweak in this one little perennial bed, but at least things are growing and blooming! This is what it looks like currently:

allium, bleeding heart, peony, coneflower, iris, delphiniums, columbines, coral bells, catmint

it may not be finished, but it still adds curb appeal

from the porch

What's blooming:

This is my first year for lilies. They're really convenient, because they're planted in Spring and are beautiful the first summer. I'm interested to see how they do over the winter. As you can see on the left, I probably planted them too deep or something, because they are little midget lilies. And I was worried they would be too tall! I've never been much of a lily person, but they smell wonderful, and in the right colors aren't too showy, so I may try more varieties next year.

 

The coneflowers (below) are just starting to open. If you like them, I recommend planting some. You just can't go wrong with them. They're native to the midwest, keep their shape, bloom during summer when a lot of others aren't, and work well as cut flowers.  And there are some cool varieties that have been developed-- just google image search "coneflowers."

 

OK, so I admit I'm not a daisy person. But when you have a certain color scheme and are aiming for particular bloom times, you tend to branch out from your favorites. On the left is one from last year; I think it's "snow lady." It's short and sweet, a good little accent, but didn't look pretty all summer last year. On the right is "Becky" shasta daisy, which is taller and supposed to stay pretty all season. It cost a little more, but already the flowers are obviously way better for cutting, and the plant is doing awesome in its first year. 

And I'm excited for this allium to bloom. Definitely need some more. 

So, overall you can see my garden is a little bit of a test garden. Pulling it together into a cohesive look is still a work in progress; however, adding plants a few at a time makes it easier for me to balance size, colors and bloom time to give the overall effect I like. And clearly I'm not the kind of person who wants instantly balanced and attractive landscaping; I'd rather garden and work with it as it evolves!

My future plans include duplicating the plants that work well to fill in the empty spaces, adding in some Fall bloomers, and potentially, as things grow enough to divide, moving them to a separate cutting garden, so I don't have to remove all my flowers from this little one just to get a bouquet!

If you have any favorite summer bloomers, leave a note in the comments!