July stormed in hot and stormed out flooding. Too much rain. Way too much rain. I heard about other gardeners who were covering their beds, trying to keep a reasonable amount of water in while keeping the rest out. I didn't cover anything in July, I just tried to roll with it, which was harder than I thought. However, the plants (for the most part) did better than I had anticipated. Mid-summer is always a time of bounty, fullness, excitement and loads of possibility left. We traveled for a week at the beginning of July but when we got back, the garden was exploding, despite the Juneau-like weather conditions.
You're about to see a lot of glorious photos.
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| The potted garden was doing well in mid-July. The terra cotta pots dried out a lot faster but I kept up watering them with my water catchment system. From left to right: The too-tall pansies, lavender, thyme & rosemary, more too-tall pansies (see what I mean?), very happy marigolds, and these weird flowers I keep getting that I shouldn't keep getting because they just shed dead flowers. |
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| The Fox Glove and Impatiens still doing well. No flowies from the Fox Glove though... |
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| The main garden in mid-July. Note the cute compost bin I built out of scrap chicken wire and thick wooden dowels, because I'm cheap. I will need to think of a bigger compost bin in the not too distant future. |
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| Main garden on the right side. From left to right: Wando Snow Peas, mystery flower (tiger something?), mixed color Beets, French Carrots, Pumpkins and Crooked Neck Squash. Time for thinning beets and carrots! |
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| The pea trellis could have had more limbs, the peas kept grabbing onto other plants, but they grew fast enough to be able to keep them on track. They got SUPER tall SUPER fast. |
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| First pumpkin! That's a lie. I weed whacked the first pumpkin by accident, this is the second pumpkin. Still crazy cute. |
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| Crooked Neck Squash was the first veggie (fruit) ready to eat, even if it was a little small. Three plants of this squash was plenty, I'd like to try winter squash and spaghetti squash next year. |
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| Baby kale after it's first cutting. It came back really fast after a cutting which means this was plenty of kale for us and the neighbors. We crammed most of one package of kale seeds into this bed. |
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| My melons had to be moved to where they could stretch out more, but the rain did a number on them and I didn't think it was warm enough for them. I made this tiny tunnel for them out of bamboo and a painter's drop cloth, because again, I'm cheap (and creative!). This tunnel is what kept them alive, although it took a good long while for them to really start getting their footing. |
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| This potato garden was here when we moved in. It is located under birch trees which isn't good for a garden. The seeds will change the soil and make it not-so hospitable. We cut spruce trees around the bed which gave it more sunlight, helping the potatoes to do well. But you can see which side of the bed gets more sunlight (the taller side in the foreground). We'll see come dig-up time if this was a good spot for potatoes. Fox Glove is in the corners and MUCH smaller than the Fox Glove by the Impatiens. What's with that Fox Glove? Too little sun? Too much rain? Doesn't like neighbors? |
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| Glorious zucchini. I eat a zucchini muffin as I write this post, made from these very veggies. Three zuc plants was one too many though. These were serious producers. |
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| By late July I had picked all the Tatsoi out of it's bed, two and a half cuttings got close to a very bitter green. They started bolting like crazy so out they went. (You can see where they used to live in the bed on the left where there is only soil). The kale was onto it's 3rd cutting and the beets and carrots were ripe for the picking! The Wando peas were growing tall ,but still not producing peas. Note: my trellis started to sprout. I nailed green willow branches to the inside of the beds but I guess all the watering of the peas led to them staying alive and producing new branches. I wonder if they'll keep going through the winter. We'll see. |
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| Late-July bounty. I gave this load to our neighbors who give us homemade cider and fresh eggs. It's a good deal we've got going on. For scale, the biggest beet is about the size of a golf ball. Things were still small but they needed to be thinned so they got ate! |
July was hard but good. The plants (again, for the most part) seemed to thrive through the down pours and revel in the sun when it broke through. By this time in the summer I was starting to wonder what the garden would look like if it kept on raining...
To be continued.
