end of june garden ~ 2018

end of may garden

end of june garden

cosmos seed for saving

 althea/rose of sharon

 lovely arwen

 rose moss

pennsylvania dutch squash

balloon flower 

stuttgarter onions 

morning glory

The gardens in June provided mostly beauty with so many blooms and color! We have had a trickle of firstfruits come in - some squash and tomatoes, our harvests of onions and garlic. Almost daily I cut blooms to bring indoors because we have such abudance, and I've begun to save seed from blooms that have dried. The vegetables are on the cusp of really providing us with significant pounds. July looks to be a busy month of harvesting tomatoes, potatoes, squash, more beans and herbs.

For the garden beds that have been harvested I have planted more carrots, flowers and green beans to harvest in the autumn. I'll replant kale and spinach in a month or so.

We are still fighting Japanese beetles and squash bugs. When time allows my plan is to get chickens. Egg production will be a by-product as I want them to provide pest control. We'll move them daily in the chicken tractor to routinely cover the yard. When we had chickens previously our bug "situation" was less of a situation!

In some sad news, our beautiful dog, Arwen, had to be put to sleep in the month of June. She was the most amazing dog. She was kind, friendly, faithful, protective of the children (always had to know where they were), adventurous (so fun on our family hikes) and my gardening companion in the yard (wherever I wandered, she did too). I'm not over thinking she is there, or looking for her because it was just second nature to have her with us and part of our daily routine. We would like another dog, but will not jump into that experience as we would begin with a puppy again. Arwen sets a pretty high standard for all the qualities we'd want in a dog. Such sweet memories she has given us as our first family dog.

end of june total: 87.5 pounds

strawberries~56 pounds

squash~3.5 pounds (pennsylvania crookneck, yellow scallop. orange custard)

bush beans~3.5 pounds (golden wax, calima bush)

garlic~2 pounds (inchelium red)

onions~10 pounds (stuttgarter)

beefsteak tomatoes~.5 pounds

cherry tomatoes~.5 pounds

cucumbers~11.5 pounds (japanese long, dutch yellow)

various herbs, kale, spinach and lettuce