Saturday Garden Journal 3

Time for a garden update!  The garden has been so abundant this year!  We are so blessed and the work has been worth it, I think.  Brian has done the majority of the work and has been diligent about keeping up with watering during such a dry year.  (One nice thing about this drought is the time saved on lawn mowing.)  


The garden itself is not very pretty to look at anymore.  It's beginning to look tuckered out after all its hard work.


Corn is tall but still not ready.  Not sure if it will actually be edible or not...


At least it looks corn-like.


We had our first ever successful cantaloupe!!  It was quite exciting and we shared it for lunch today.  


And and and a watermelon!!  There's more to come of both!  So exciting!  (Here's hoping this one's not green inside like the only one that survived last year...)


 We have been overrun by tomatoes.  I've been freezing and canning and giving away as many as I can.


This is nothing.


These are some of the cherry tomatoes that grew in our compost pile.  Huge, no?  What is up with my hand?  Why does it look so swollen and ogre-like?  I promise it doesn't look like that in person.  And if it does one of my real friends needs to tell me or something.  I'll wear gloves.


Prepping the green beans to freeze.  They have been abundant as well and are still going strong.  Most have gone in the freezer or been given to friends.


Basil, rosemary, and lavender


And honeybees


These are the lavender leaves I'm going to put in the baby's room tonight and he will sleep soundly all through the night.  Stop it.  Stop that laughing right now.


Mary's tip of the day:  Use popsicle molds to freeze all that pesto (yes, I finally made it and THEY ATE IT!!).  The molds keep the pesto from turning brown and are a great size for individual recipes.  Figure out how much your molds hold (ours hold three tablespoons) and thaw when needed.  Then consider yourself a genius.  


That whole area in front of the corn (not ours) is our pumpkin patch!  I've always wanted a pumpkin patch! 


And unlike previous years, this one is actually growing pumpkins!  It's such a smart pumpkin patch. 


Fingers crossed that we've outsmarted the deer with our super tricksy fishing line and plastic bags.


Oh, it just keeps coming!  We have potatoes!  I can't believe these are the potatoes from the clearanced 99 cent pack of seed potatoes I picked up on a whim from Aldi's.  We are definitely doing lots of potatoes next year.  Just have to figure out how and where to store them.


Caught in the act pilfering said potatoes


"Mom, I think storing them on the floor is a great idea!"


Oh, that face makes my heart just about pop.

So there's our garden update.  It's the best we've ever done and we are blessed.
How goes your growing?  Oh, and do I have ogre hands?  Now I'm self-conscious.


(Linking up with Homestead Revival's Barn Hop!)

9 comments

  1. First congrats on the fabulous garden! With the drought and so many comments that produce prices are going up you could think about paying the piano teacher in produce. Just a thought.
    The corn by us is terribly short and I heard that many farmers turned theirs under. So sad.
    I don't think you have ogre hands and bremember you were honest and told us it was your hand - we could have thought it was any of the other family members.
    So glad you didn't feed them the pesto by passing them off as a gormet flavor popsicle.
    Luke the Potato Snatcher!
    Happy produce!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow - great gardening. Ours was such a disappointment this year. Of course I don't have the set up you have. The only thing that was amazingly successful was the basil. I made some pesto today - I wish you had this post up 5 hours earlier, I would have totally used my popsicle molds to freeze it.
    Our corn was a total flop - really short and then it just stopped growing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ummm, if you're really trying to get rid of tomatoes, I know the perfect person :-))

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is so awesome. How fun for your kids.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice garden and thanks for sharing your goodies with us too! and no you don't have ogre hands only in pictures:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. What great food you grew! I so want homegrown food but don't want to do the work ;) Loved your little boy in his Steubie U shirt. Go FUS!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gotta represent. The only reason there is anything from the garden is that this is yet another project where I enthusiastically got the husband all on board and then he did most of the work. I then fizzled out but still get all the benefits. It works well for us ;)

      Delete
  7. Goodness you have had a lot producing! That is fantastic! Your lavender looks beautiful. I have started some from seed this year, but am having a devil of a time getting it going. It has reached about 5 inches and refuses to grow anymore. I do not know if it is the heat or what! Any tips you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I'm the last person that should give tips on lavender! I've had so much of it fail. These were new plantings from the nursery this year. Around here they love the sun since it's a cooler climate. It's one of my favorites and I'm hoping it comes back stronger next year! I put it in a spot we had tilled but the soil has a lot of clay so it tends to hold moisture well.

      Delete

Thank you for visiting and reading! I love hearing from readers so if a comment box on a post is turned off, it's because Blogger is terrible about filtering spam. If you'd like to send me a message, please use my contact page. Thank you!

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.