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The Gardens In July
The gardening continues to progress well. Though we started off at least 3 weeks behind where we wanted to be, due to unseasonably cool and wet weather– the excellent soil, location in a wide-open area with full sun, and fishy fertilizer water is working its magic. Now everything is growing so fast I can barely keep up. Every day I see changes, and sometimes its hard to believe anything can grow that fast!
The front garden, which is all flowers (lots of natives for the native mason bees) herbs, and berries is coming along nicely. Hard to believe this area looked almost barren in February. I'm letting much of my oregano and such go ahead and bolt and bloom because the little bees love it, and I like to harvest the seeds (which are not sterile) and scatter them in the field behind the garden. I think it would be great to have herbs growing along with the weeds and grass. Now that its drying out, the slugs are finally controllable, too.
Meanwhile, the seasonal garden is doing great! The sunflowers are already as tall or taller than I am and going strong. The tomatoes– which got started so late are making up for lost time and the largest have begun blooming. The watered area in the right photo is where my carrots, onions, green onions, and dill herbs are being grown. (Plus lots of weeds on that right path– having guests for 2 weeks cuts down on weeding time.) In the far back, you can barely make out the peas coming in and blooming.
Meanwhile, the south side is ending up lusher than I imagined. The vines (pumpkins, squash, cucumber, melons, etc.) are really filling in thickly and I'm successfully training them to go under the fence and spread out freely into the open field we've prepared for them with grass clippings and yard debris. They're healthy and already we have dozens of blooms and some actual cucumbers almost ready to harvest. What's weird is the saved seeds from smaller sunflowers growing up as if they're giants– and then we realized: they're started from saved seeds that were likely cross-pollinated with giant sunflowers. So my south side will get more shaded than I intended, but this is all part of that learning curve thing, I guess! The west side beans and nasturtiums are doing well, too.
All that barren earth (besides the paths) that is there won't be there much longer. I have more pepper plants coming out and some tomatoes that started popping up in other areas that are getting transferred over. Not to mention fast growing cilantro will be going in soon. Since it grows and dies so quickly, I'm trying to time it so that it gets harvested at the same time as the peppers and tomatoes for all that salsa sauce we'll be making. I want some flavored with cilantro! Those pop up and get bushy pretty quick, and August pics will have the entire garden totally green and full of things ready for consumption!
The insect pests that plagued us early on are now under control. I found natural ways to do it and it worked well enough. Mainly, I noticed that ladybugs moved in as well as some lacewings (which I don't see in western Oregon much) and other predatory insects. Because I don't use pesticide, they thrive as well and eat the baddies and it all works out. Right now my only bitch is spitbugs on my peas. Have to address that pretty soon– they're right ON the flowers so that's not good.
The pumpkins always do well in this climate. SO easy to grow. Just getting them started and then having LOTS of room for them and the rest takes care of itself! Here's a flower and a baby pumpkin, just getting started. We have dozens and dozens of these. All our friends are getting free pumpkins this year. We eat the seeds, the flesh (I make a killer pumpkin soup) and of course Jack O'Lanterns!
Morning glories (a purple one here) are another great flower that will grow almost anywhere, even in crappy soil, and make a great ground cover for a natural mulch. I put mine around the scarecrow to grow up him but also to cover all that barren soil in the center of the garden, discouraging weeds. While I experiment with some wild flowers that grow and act like weeds to see what I can do with those. Parts of my civilized gardens can look a little wacky, but the bees love 'em and that keeps the pollinators around for the other stuff. I also have hummingbirds in my gardens several times a day.
All in all, I'm quite satisfied with what we've managed this year– especially considering all the delays due to weather and finding a local to till the ground for us. But now that the garden's in and taking off-? Yeah, its all good. Its not nearly as much work as I thought it would be, and we could (and should) have had the garden 30% bigger than we planned. Its filling in more quickly than I anticipated!
I can definitely keep up with this plus chickens I'm thinking. There's still harvest yet to fret over, but that's almost the best part. Fresh produce! Canning! Cooking and salads and such… Yummers! And every day there's this routine of watering and weeding. An hour at least, but some days when its cooler I'm out there playing in the dirt and pulling weeds quite a bit longer. But its okay because you see your progress, and buy yourself more freetime later when you do it. Then, on hotter days I water and skip the weeding. On cooler, wetter days (not many of those now) I skip the watering and do weeding. So I'm learning to follow the weather in this sort of natural pattern and work with it and adapt to it and its really not that big of a deal. People are afraid of this kind of labor? Even with my issues, I'm able to almost do it all by myself, and that includes watering by CAN, NOT with a hose people! If an out of shape middle-aged woman with chronic health issues can manage it (and come to think of it, elderly people do this sort of thing all the time) then what is the big farking deal? I would be upset had I planted and had massive issues with storms and super hot weather like parts of the country, I suppose, but if things are fairly well-balanced it just happens pretty easily with not too much trouble.
People dread things before they actually know how little there is to fret over. Me? I'm liking this plant starting, tending, and harvesting thing. I don't know that I'll ever be able to give it up again.
2012-08-23 15:13:07
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