The Mid-July Garden

I love the garden this time of year. The beds have filled up nicely; everything is looking lush and green yet still manageable. It will be another month or so before the tomato vines become overgrown and our early planted cucumbers succumb slowly to disease. Now is the time to stand back and appreciate the beauty of the garden.

On the other hand, it's also the time to clear out most of our spring planted veggies to make way for fall crops in the coming weeks. The pea plants have been pulled and the garlic will be harvested soon. This may sound strange but already I can feel the days getting shorter, which is why I definitely consider July to be a transitional month in the growing calendar.

In any case, here are some random pics of what's going on:


As I mentioned, the cleanup has begun. This past weekend, I weeded the entire garden (which took forever I might add) and built another raised carrot bed (lower left). We started harvesting some of our spring-sown carrots this week and all but one were perfect. Last summer the majority of our carrots were either forked or stubby. What a difference a few extra inches of fine topsoil makes.


The perfectly ripe wild strawberry - I popped this one in my mouth seconds after I took the picture.


Most of the Fava beans have now been harvested but I did leave a few plants untouched, setting them aside for seed saving. While I've marked these plants with string, I'm still fighting the urge to pick the pods.

My blogging buddy Mac gave me this English lavender plant last year. It has since grown into a fine specimen.

The other day I was about to harvest the lavender to dry but then noticed quite a few honey bees at work on it. I ultimately decided against it as I figured they needed the flowers more than I did.


The back garden is like a forest these days. Pretty soon it will become a great challenge to navigate.


Since taking this picture, the tomato vines have reach the top of their trellis, which stands close to 8 feet tall. I'm really loving this trellising method. The strings easily twist around the vines and the vines themselves feel well supported.


In addition to the weeding, I also got around to trimming off the bottom few rows of tomato leaves. Hopefully this will mitigate the spread of any blight.

I picked this artichoke earlier this week. Already the plant is producing two more.


I'm really impressed by how well the Hungarian Wax peppers are producing. The Poblanos on the other hand are still doing nothing.

Lastly, I've been hand-pollinating the corn. Hopefully this will work out for me as well as it did last year.