in the garden: july 2015
if you’re new to this space, welcome to the “in the garden” series! during the spring & summer months, in celebration of gardening, i share a garden overview of what our garden currently looks like along with what we plan to plant throughout the month! welcome!
unlike most summers at the farm, we were away from the garden the entire month of june. it was a big decision for us to make, but ultimately we decided that life’s too short so we took our big trip. thankfully, we had the best farm sitters ever that took amazing care of our little homestead.
in the garden – july 2015
so much has changed in just one month! see the june garden here.
right before leaving the farm for the month, we harvested almost all of our spring crops including cabbage, beets, onions & potatoes. we now have plenty of empty space for late summer goodies!
it was extra rainy this past month (very uncharacteristic to our region) & our flowers loved it! we have the most impressive flower garden this year. i am harvesting big bouquets of flowers daily for our home, our friends & our family. it’s such an easy gift to give & it’s free!
we are harvesting big bowls of sungold cherry tomatoes (our favorite variety!) every day & eating them for breakfast, lunch & dinner.
i have finally filled in our entire front landscaping beds with perennial flowers & the echinacea are just stunning this year!
we are also harvesting big baskets of basil for pesto. we eat it fresh with every meal & freeze the extra for the wintertime.
bell peppers are coming in nicely. we will eat these beauties with tacos, burritos & fresh with dips.
this is our side flower bed with cosmos, queen ann’s lace, basil, lemon balm & zinnias.
we are finally harvesting big & juicy cherokee purple tomatoes from the garden! we are also harvesting a few eggplant at a time. last night luke made eggplant parmesan for the first time this year & it was gloriously good!
other garden news:
+ we are fighting weeds this time of year with nightly weeding dates in the garden. we heavily mulch to keep the weeds at bay, but you can still find us in the garden working away plot-by-plot.
+ we lost our entire crop of garlic (about 300 cloves!) to the rain. every single clove rotted. it was quite heartbreaking, but this rain has taught us a lot.
+ we are planting cucumber & squash this week. in this area, squash bugs are almost impossible to control. last year we planted our squash after july 4th & didn’t suffer as much as our other gardening friends. we’re going to try it out again this year & see what happens! i will report back.
what is happening in your garden? please share!
love,
natalie
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Ashley Bakke | 8th Jul 15
Your flowers are incredible! It's my dream to be able to build up a cut flower garden – being in an urban area makes it difficult to plant everything I want without running out of room! Your garden looks fantastic! Well done indeed!
Unknown | 8th Jul 15
I love seeing your garden posts, but would you consider ever doing a post on what happens after you harvest? Like a canning and preserving series? That would be amazing and really helpful!
Rebecca | 8th Jul 15
URGH! Squash bugs are the worst!! I had been struggling with them for the past three years and finally followed some advice from another fellow gardener. I've planted marigold in between and around all my squash plants and it seems to be working so far. There were a few in the very beginning but now I haven't seen any at all and the squash plants are doing great! Just wanted to share! thanks!
ericka winston | 8th Jul 15
We have a small community garden plot since we live in an apartment. Our lemon balm is growing like crazy! We have been able to harvest a few peppers and some herbs. We have just started adding mulch to the plot to try and win the weed battle. I once seeing all you garden updates as well!
Anonymous | 8th Jul 15
You may know this,but I found not mulching my squash bed has greatly helped with the squash bugs. Squash bugs hide in mulch and winter over. Keeping your squash bed free of mulch and debris greatly helps. We have not mulched this year and have had a bumper crop of squash.
Anonymous | 10th Jul 15
We live in a suburb of Dallas and have a large verg. garden (no raised beds.) B/cof the 43+ inches of rain we have had, many things have failed: sugar snaps, green beans, onions. We planted more tomato plants than last year and have far less fruit, not even enough to can relish. We have definitely learned that neither drought nor excessive rains are idea. I think we are going to pull the plug on the old tomatoes, plant new ones for fall and hope for the best.
However, the red potato crop was 124 pounds! We have had plenty of zuchinni, oven fried, in casserole and finely shredded into brownies.
Purple hull peas and okra are getting going presently.
I would love to grow flowers like you do, Natalie. Do you purchase seed in bulk? If so, what kind and where, please?
Kim
Stephanie | 10th Jul 15
Gardens in MN are just starting to get going. My tomato plants are huge but only a few flowers so far. My snap peas are almost there. I was a week or so behind planting this year as I'm pregnant (due today actually) with my third and just didn't get in the garden. I do have a question. I have cosmos that reseeded themselves. Do you replant them every year or do they just do it themselves (for both zinnias and cosmos). I just love those seed flowers.
Thank you. I love your blog.
Autumn @ Autumn All Along | 12th Jul 15
Your gardens are absolutely beautiful!! I am sorry to hear about your garlic though…that is super sad :(.
Tammie | 14th Jul 15
Your garden looks amazing. What beautiful pics!