Posted By FarmerJ on June 18, 2011

Our Modest Little Garden

It’s been a while since we’ve updated you on this year’s modest little garden.  Some things seem to be progressing quite well, while others…not so much.  The girls and I did a bit of tending out there this morning.  We pulled grass from the bed boxes and did some general tidying by raking the pathways.

June Bearing Strawberries

Ever Bearing Strawberries

One of three potted Ever Bearing Strawberry plants.

Our little 'bushel' of freshly picked strawberries.

The strawberries are doing really well.  Last week, I’d picked enough to make Darling Husbie a pie ~ it took three separate pickings to get enough berries.  Yesterday, Abigail and I picked enough for another pie!  Plus, there’s a lot more still on the plants ripening.  We have three pots of strawberries placed in the flower bed along the front of the garden.  I transplanted them from one of the 4′ x 4′ boxes a few weeks ago in order to make room for other plants.  We weren’t sure if they were going to make it, but felt it was worth trying.  It looks as though they’re going to give it a good fight, at least.  This one is even putting on berries!  I think a robin had just used this berry as a healthy snack ~ half of it was cleanly sliced off, as if I’d done it with a knife.  Silly birds.

Yellow Crookneck Squash

The Other Yellow Crookneck Squash

We’d started some green and yellow scallop squash seeds in March with hope Darling Husbie would be enjoying his favorite summer squash again this season, but those plants keeled on us.  None of the local nurseries have those plants, and we think it’s probably too late in the season to start all over from seeds, so we bought a few yellow crookneck plants last weekend.  We may be enjoying our first squash before too long ~ if the wind and hail doesn’t knock the blossom off, that is.

Roma Tomato...I think.

Here is our sad little tomato plant, started from seed indoors.  We planted four Roma and two Arkansas Travelers plants. There’s only two surviving,one of which is still very tiny and probably won’t get big enough to produce anything before it runs out of season.  I think this one is a Roma plant; I’m going off of memory here, which isn’t very reliable.  I can’t find the little plant stake, so we’ll just have to wait and see…if it ever produces anything to see.  Husbie says we are going to the nursery today to get some proper plants.

Ambrosia Sweet Corn

We should have sixteen sweet corn plants, but four didn’t germinate for whatever reason despite me planting two seeds ‘just in case.’  This is just killing Husbie.  He’s used to having a couple thousand plants.  Going from that to twelve is like planting none at all to him.  Actually, he does have a few rows planted between the slough and the field corn, but it’s been struggling along after being completed flooded three times.  We may get a few gratuitous ears yet from it.  We sure hope so, because there is nothing better in the world than fresh-picked Ambrosia Sweet Corn!

Cucumbers, Green Beans...and Abigail

The Kentucky Wonder pole beans are taking off like wildfire.  They’ve been in the ground just over two weeks now.  We need to get our trellis in place sooner rather than later, me thinks.  You can see three cucumber plants.  The tiny one is ours started from seed.  It’s not looking too great.  It seems to be the pattern this year ~ every plant we started indoors has either completely died or has gone into some sort of dormant stage.  The other two are plants we picked up from the nursery last weekend.  They are a space saving variety, one a pickler and one a slicer, but I couldn’t tell you which is which.  So, please don’t ask.  A certain someone is taking a little siesta, obviously tuckered out from all the weeding she’d just finished.  It’s a tough life being a tewowist, and all.

Salsa Pepper

World's Hottest Pepper

Sad Little Pepper

Again, to continue with the theme, we planted six pepper plants we’d started from seed.  The Sad Little Pepper is the sole survivor, and I can’t even tell you what kind it is…because, again, I can’t find the plant stake.  I think it is an Anaheim, though.  It doesn’t look like it’s going to do much in the way of producing, either, does it?  The other two are plants Husbie picked out at the nursery last weekend.  I’m excited about the salsa pepper, but I don’t ‘do’ hot peppers, so he’ll be enjoying the world’s hottest peppers all to himself.  I’ll have to go look on the stake to tell you what it is ~ apparently it’s hotter than the Habanero.

Red Potatoes...or maybe Kennebec Potatoes

Kennebec Potatoes...or maybe Red Potatoes

'Leftover' onions from last year.

Okra...trying to take hold.

The potatoes are growing faster than we can keep up with the mulch.  Remember those onions I’d forgotten about last year that Husbie found in the box of grass earlier this spring?  I’d say they’re happy onions.  The okra?  Well, not so much.  Again, plants we started indoors from seeds.  They’re really trying to take hold and do something.  We’re not giving up hope just yet.  We love our okra!  Especially since I learned how to pickle it last summer.

Fordhook Zucchini, Green Beans...and Abigail

“Are we done yet, Mama?”  A certain someone was trying to tell me it was time to go in for some lunch.  I’ll give you one guess as to whether we started the zucchini plant from seed, or if we got it at the nursery.  Sigh.

South end of the field corn.

My favorite view of the field.

The field corn is doing really well.  It should be extremely happy having a freshly plowed alfalfa field feeding it all the nitrogen it can stand.  We have approximately 15 acres in field corn this year.  I haven’t even been to the back forty (beyond the line of trees you see in the ‘top’ of the photos) since the corn was planted.  Perhaps we can go on a walk this afternoon.

I just had to share that last photo with you.  I cannot tell you how peaceful it is to sit or stand out there by the garden and gaze off into the field through the Mulberry trees.  The birds singing and squawking, the leaves wrestling in the breeze…oh, wait.  The tewowist is whining about lunch again.  I guess we’d better go in for now.

We hope you are enjoying your summer!  ♥

It’s been awhile, so we’re linking up to the Farmgirl Friday.  Yes, a day late.  Again.

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