Soon to be harvest...

Soon the harvest will be going full swing. I'm starting to see color in the rows of tomatoes and I spotted the first pepper! Green cabbages are in. Although I may not actually get to use one of them since Bear decided to use it as a ball the other night. He was entertained for quite awhile. He also got a kick out of the 1/2 bushel of potatoes that I had dug out of the compost pile. So much fun. Makes me glad I have the garden.

August Rain

We got crazy rain on Friday. For Missoula it was the wettest day on record. Over 2 inches in a 24 hour period. I couldn't believe it. And in August! I'm sure it made my garden happy. It is coming along quite happily. I need to harvest some more green cabbage. Someday the red/purple cabbage will be ready. My cauliflower is just about ready too. Now if I can get my tomatoes to ripen I can pick those and start my canning for real. Of course it would help if my peppers would get a move on so I can make salsa. So far I've only had a few flowers on the peppers, but no fruit.

I have lots of volunteer plants in the garden. Tomatoes everywhere, and some squash of unknown variety. I thought I only planted zucchini and one pumpkin. The one squash that is coming up in the middle of my tomatoes is some sort of round squash. It might be a pumpkin, but it might be an acorn squash of some sort from seeds that went into the compost pile. I think that may be where all of my volunteer tomatoes are coming from as well. I seem to have several yellow pear tomatoes like I had planted last year. I never planted any this year, but a couple of my plants seem to be producing little pear shaped fruits. Its kinda fun to see what is coming up and producing on it's own.

I have beans that are getting ready. We've eaten 3 zucchinis already. 2 green and 1 yellow. Bear loves fresh sauted zucchini. He isn't such a big fan of the broccoli I cooked up with it, but he ate an entire zucchini by himself. Makes it very worth having a garden.

Mmmm...what else? I should dig potatoes and get them stored in the root cellar. My peas are yellowing and are seeming to slow production. I'll just have to pull them soon. Strawberries are done. I didn't get lots this year, but they only got planted this spring. It is almost time to plant my garlic for next year and I think I might try some fall onions for next spring. Not sure how that will work. I'm thinking about maybe a few more beets for this fall too. That's a big fat maybe right now since I'm the only one that eats those.

Notes

Just a few notes here... I'm getting more cabbages but I'm starting to really have to fight the slugs for them. I've gotten some broccoli although with our hot weather it pretty much just bolted straight to flowers/seeds. My peas are wrapping up it seems and the beans are just getting going. I ended up direct sowing some beans since frost got my seedlings I had going. I seem to have a plethora of earwigs and squash bugs. This is in addition to the slugs. I'm not too keen on using anything on them though. I was using beer traps for the slugs. Those seem to work, but you do have to be diligent about resetting them. I have not been. That's one thing, I'm sure I would get more out of the garden if I worked out there more, but I just can't seem to get out there. After working all day in town I want to see my kid once I'm home. The garden really doesn't seem to be all that much worse for the wear though. Plenty of bugs and weeds but my veggies seem to be hardy enough to fend for themselves. Good thing too.

I should get my broccoli in the freezer at some point this weekend. We don't seem to have the worms that get into broccoli. Yay! At least that's one thing I don't have to worry about. I haven't decided if I really want to add more stuff for this fall. I'm going to have a heck of a time keeping up with my harvest as it is. I need to pick up some canning jars and lids so I can put my tomatoes up.

I think that's all for now.

July update

Potatoes freshly harvested.
First two cabbage heads of the season.
Tomatoes everywhere!
The garden getting a much needed drink. The tall plants just under the spray are my tomatoes and the bushier plants in the forground of the garden are my cabbages.
I'm a little behind on this but summer has been busy. My garden has been going nuts. I'm harvesting peas almost every day. Pulled red potatoes for 4th of July potato salad and I pulled up a bunch of Russet Burbanks tonight. The green cabbage are maturing quickly as well. We have gotten lots of onions, some broccoli (even though most bolted with our hot weather), lots of lettuce, some strawberries, and we are going to have LOTS of tomatoes. I have about 18 plants and they are producing like crazy. I'll be busy canning/making salsa later in the year.

Other than that about all the news is that I am having a tough time keeping up with the weeds. I don't have a huge bug problem. Some slugs and some ants. So long as you don't mind a few holes in the leaves it isn't a big deal. I ended up growing a bunch more Russets than I had intended. I dumped my seed potatoes into the compost pile without thinking. So I have lots of potatoes there. Works for me. It is the no work way of planting potatoes I guess.

Off to bed after an evening of weeding, harvesting, and storing...

How the Garden Grows...

Growing, and growing. It has been pretty hot so things are growing like crazy. I have cabbage heads forming and broccoli flowering. The potatoes have bloomed and the peas are starting to pod. Tomatoes are forming as well. Last but not least the slugs have moved in. Also, we ate the first strawberries of the year this evening. Yummy.

We finally got some rain this last week. Wow, are the weeds ever growing! We need to go after them. The horseradish is up. I put it into containers for now so it wouldn't take over my garden. I do wish there was a way to get rid of the ants without getting rid of all the good bugs. Chickens are not an option at this point. We checked with the city. They think we will be able to later since Missoula allows chickens now, but don't know when that will happen. That's okay though since our fence isn't up yet. We got the permit from the city and all so now we just need to start digging. I think. I'll have to double check with Tom.

Better go check on the Bear and see if I have time to pull some weeds...

How the Garden Grows...

Hanging basket of impatients: Front porch of the house with the last of the lilacs hanging on:

Strawberries and herbs:

Veggie garden. The milk jugs are protecting the watermelon...

Well, everything but my one cucumber is in and I'm not so sure I have room. Things are coming along nicely. The tomatoes are establishing themselves alright in spite of going from being frozen to getting sunburnt. The ones that got frozen seem to be coming back. I'm impressed. I thought for sure they were done. I have lots of flowers that need to get going but the veggies are in. Whew. Now comes the work. The weeds are trying my patience.

I am trying an expirment. All the tall grass and weeds I pull from the edges are going in between my rows as mulch. Hopefully this will cut down on the weeds and it will add the organic matter to the soil nice and slowly. We shall see. It kinda looks like hay laying in the wind-rows. I'm hoping it will help with the water as well since it looks like it will be a dry year. May was supposedly about an inch under normal for precipitation this year. Yikes! That doesn't bode well for my garden even if it does for the pocket book what with us being in the fire business.

Who would have thought I would find gardening so enjoyable. I like building the tomato fences and winding the peas up some poles. I even enjoy pulling weeds. Goofy. I do wish I did better with herbs. I just don't know what/where to put them. I have a few here and there though. The parsley, chervil, and chives are going great guns. Now if I can keep the lavender and basil going.