Vegetable Garden Update July

This unusually wet and warm July mean my garden is in full bloom and then some.  Our vegetable garden has completely taken off, with one small and odd exception.  We planted three types of carrots – multi-coloured, purple, and plain ol’ orange Nantes.  The orange Nantes have barely come up at all.  The other two, more delicate ones, have grown like gangbusters.  I have no real explanation.

I have been thinning the various colours of beets as they grow.  My neighbour is using the tops for morning smoothies and other healthy things.  More power to her.

Goose devised a staking system for the tomatoes.   Using simple 2X2’s, he staked them in along the plants, then used twine and wove it back and forth.  Not only will I not have to deal with the cages at the end of the growing season and how to extract the defunct tomato plants without inevitably breaking the flimsy wire cages, we will be able to neatly store the stakes for next year and the twine will break down.

You may recall our back yard looked pretty abysmal.  There really is no other word to describe it, to be honest.  The same neighbour who is using up my beet greens has also been working in her yard, with her husband, and ordered too much sod.  Rather than pay again to have it removed, they brought it over to us.  After a quick re-arrange of what were my original afternoon plans, a quick bit of rototilling, and some child labour, Goose and I managed to get down all 57 rolls of sod.

 

This is the result.  I can hardly believe it, myself.  Our neighbour’s generosity and timing were amazing.  I definitely owe them a pie or two.

I seem to be growing peppers reasonably well this year, something I do not usually do well.  We will see if this little guy and his friends manage to make it to full size or not.

My specialty and heirloom tomatoes have been put in cages this year.  They are growing in a small flowerbed on the side of the house.  I don’t grow grape tomatoes – I find them to be rather tasteless.  Grape tomatoes were bred to look nice on a salad and survive long road trips, not taste good.  These are Tiny Tim’s, a miniature variety my family has always grown.  They are the first to turn and ripen this year.

Not all of my gardening has been a blockbuster success this year.  This is my lone strawberry plant.  I originally planted 11 tubers.  Only one survived.  Ah, well, you can’t win them all.