Farm Fresh

Our garden has been pretty productive, considering that I let it get really weedy for a while there. It's hard to get out into the garden every day when a) it is super hot and muggy, b)your kids won't nap, or not at the same time, or if they do you have like 10 minutes of overlap, and c) if you garden with the kids out in the yard, the 3 year old begs for you to push her in the baby swing, while the 1 year old climbs to the top of the playground. So unless another adult is handy or I slip something into their smoothies, gardening is an early am or late pm proposition.

All that being said, we are eating something from the garden every day, and almost at every meal. We've got tomatoes, cucumbers, turnips, patty pan squash, zucchini, string beans, dill, parsley, chard, carrots, beets, and some radicchio.

Our pumpkin and cantaloupe vines are really taking over and we have lots of fruit on both of them. Here's a shot of a pumpkin vine that has escaped the garden. It's turning the corner and I'm sure it will become a border soon enough! I'm hoping the critters don't eat too much of the fruit, but maybe this one gift will dissuade them from working hard to get the stuff inside the fence.

I just planted the second batch of lettuces, so we should have a nice fall crop as well. One of the things I really love about gardening is that I am always thinking about the next season. I already have plans for how I want the new garden beds to lay out and how I want to rotate the crops. I have ideas about better ways to support and trellis plants, amend the soil, and keep critters at bay. I learned that carrots need much more friable soil than I have given them this year, so next year they will go in a raised bed with really nice loose dirt so they will grow down instead of split. I think these look just like a nice pair of pants!