Look at me go, an actual week update!
It’s been a bit of crazy weather around here and it’s kept me on my toes hoping the garden survives! We’ve had a heat wave but with heat waves come storms. I’ve thought we were going to get hail a few times and we did get hail once. I watched and hoped it didn’t ruin everything and thankfully we had no complete casualties although there was some damage. There were a lot of damaged leaves to the tomatoes and peppers, a couple peppers that were growing ended up ruined, the greens were pelted pretty bad but there’s still lots left to grow and eat. The watermelon, cucumbers, squash, pumpkin and zucchini all had damage, the most being to the watermelon and cucumbers – I don’t think we’ll get any harvest from either of them anyways. The other damage was to the flower gardens, they are now laying down and leaning everywhere so I’m going to try and hold them up somehow.
Otherwise, this week I’ve been working away at getting the tomatoes all supported, pruned and fertilized – still not done, and never will be I’m assuming. I also hung the shade cloth in the greenhouse with some trial and error, but it’s hanging! The plants seem to love the shade, it still gets smoking hot in there but the sun isn’t scorching them. I got all the peppers either potted up or planted in the garden. I’ve now realized my big mistake with all the peppers in the garden – I didn’t bother to harden them off. See, I haven’t hardened off the tomatoes at all and they’ve done well so I didn’t even think about gardening off the peppers! So they’ll survive I’m sure but their growth won’t be nearly as good as it would have been had I taken the time to harden them off. I’ve also thinned out all the carrots and we’ve been munching on the babies.
Whew – when I write it all out I realize how much I’ve actually done! Sometimes it feels like I’m just spinning my wheels and getting nowhere. That’s another reason I like doing these updates, to remind myself that although some days (right now it feels like all days) seem like all I do is feed kids, put kids to bed and clean up all the messes that I am actually able to accomplish much more than that.
So here’s what the garden looks like:
The herbs are flourishing! I can’t wait to use these in my cooking soon! The fill definitely needs to be harvested, I’ll be using it in a lot of roasted/BBQ potatoes.
Ezekiel’s gardens are doing pretty well! I think the carrots and peas are going to be great!
The potted tomatoes seem to be doing great! I’ll need to fertilize these ones real soon.
You can see the greens, carrots and onions had some hail damage but I think they’re bouncing back.
The squash, zucchini and pumpkins are taking off but the cucumbers and watermelons suck.
The peppers! So many of them! Some days I look at them and think “they’re doing so well!” Then the next I look and think “they look so sad!” Despite that all, there are quite a few peppers growing and lots of flowers so hopefully we’ll get a good harvest.
The tomatoes….. allllllll the tomatoes. One is going to be ripe soon, and I can’t wait to eat it! The tomatillos are going nuts, I seriously under estimated how much room they would need, unlike most of my tomato varieties which growing like a vine and are easily contained – they grow up and way out! They are really pretty though.
The potatoes look like they’re growing well. It’s always a nice surprise at the end of the season to see what’s underneath the green!
I love these gardens more and more each day.
The greenhouse is doing fantastic, and I love it more this year than last.
Well, that’s it for this week. Always lots and lots to do, but it’s slower work and I can do a tiny bit each day. It’s been nice to slow down before the craziness of harvest comes and I’m drowning in tomatoes.
Ciao friends! Happy Gardening!
