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!