Where has summer gone? And how can it possibly be almost the end of July – without me getting any garden pictures up?!
This is sad.
But cheer up . . . I have a whole post full of pictures. We will begin with a few vegetables – this is sweet basil that I am growing for the first time. And I hope to cut some soon to make pesto with!
Pesto on panini sandwiches . . . oh yum.
If I am remembering correctly, there are somewhere between 15 and 20 broccoli plants here. I honestly wondered if the fragile little things would make it after I took them out of the greenhouse in May. But they look awesome – especially considering how windy it has been here this year!
My lettuce has done superb! I planted Buttercrunch – that is the green stuff. The red lettuce is Mascara. Both come back quickly after we cut it off. So far we have kept it eaten about as soon as it gets big enough, so it hasn’t bolted and is only now getting slightly bitter.
I plan to start some lettuce plugs in the greenhouse this week and then put them in the garden to replace this lettuce.
Last winter I had found a free garden design program online and had such fun planning how I would lay out these gardens. Since we had so much smut on our corn last summer, we rotated gardens. So all my corn is in the garden at our house, while all my “fun vegetables” are in the garden at our neighbor’s place.
I even designed it so that I could put flowers along the front edge of the garden. Unfortunately, I didn’t start enough flowers to go the whole length, so pepper plants filled in the empty spots.
My brother showed me the basket weave for staking tomatoes. In the spring, I started tomatoes in the greenhouse and soon realized that I had way more than I needed. But do you know how incredibly hard it is to throw out a seedling that you have watered, fed, loved, and talked to since it emerged through the soil? Ok, so maybe that is a little dramatic . . . but it really can be a struggle!
My husband nearly fell over when I told him how many tomato plants we now had to bless us with. Especially considering he doesn’t like tomatoes. 35 plants. Maybe I went just a wee bit overboard, but my argument was that since tomatoes are harder to grow in Idaho, surely there would be some ladies who would love tomatoes already grown for them. This didn’t make tomatoes anymore appealing to him.
So when I finally got the tomatoes planted and they began to grow, I ran into a snag. How in the wide world would I stake all these tomatoes? Tomato cages can cost around $4 each . . . and although my mental calculator broke before it reached the total . . . I knew my man would not approve footing that kind of bill for “slimy” tomatoes.
Thus, I could have kissed my brother when he told me about the basket weave. I was able to even get free wooden stakes out of the cabinet shop’s trash bin and with a little green, stretchy stuff from the hardware store . . . we had our tomatoes staked!
All for around $10. 🙂 Let me add another smiley. 🙂
On to the cabbages. These guys came from the nursery, not my greenhouse. And they filled in the holes of tomato plants that didn’t quite make it.
Most of the vegetables and the flowers were all ones I started in the greenhouse this spring. It has been one of the most rewarding adventures I have undertaken!
But I have been grateful that the local nursery is nearby to supply what I did not start . . . or what flopped.
The flowers bless me to no end!
And . . . I will be picking green beans probably this week.
More of the flowers that line the garden. I love these little ladies!
Zinnias are something new for me this year and I don’t think I will let a year go by but what I plant them! They are simply gorgeous.
Megan wanted a little flower bed, so we gave her one of the corners of our square garden . . . where it’s hard to get the tiller in . . . and she has kept it looking lovely. I told her that someday I would love to give her a much bigger plot to plant anything she wants!
This is my corn. It is rather sad. We have a huge tree next to this garden and are finding out that it sucks out the water and nutrients from the garden edge closest to it. So this corn is the furthest along, while the corn close to the tree is much shorter. I don’t foresee a huge harvest.
Aren’t they beautiful? I am so glad God made flowers. He knew some of us women would need their quiet . . . yet vibrant beauty.
This is one of the planters I made from scrap wood this spring. The planters that sat out in the rain are beginning to fall apart, but the one that sat under the porch roof is good!
This is what I see when I look at flowers:
When I am sad . . . this makes me happy.
When the world screams hate and confusion . . . this reminds of the One who brings peace.
When people say God does not care . . . a simple flower silently shouts that they lie.
It blooms as proof that He has cared from the beginning of time.
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Jan says
You have a lovely garden!! Save your zinnia heads for next years seed. Here in zone 8 they return voluntarily.
Kendra says
Thanks for this tip!!
Kendra says
I’m always so impressed with your gardens!! They look lovely, and well-planned out. I like the idea of lining the vegetable garden with flowers. Very inspiring 🙂