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| Our Garden A |
I also plan to try to make a raspberry and strawberry jam for the first time. It's so funny our freezer is full of strawberries (we harvested over 15 lbs) and raspberries (2 lbs so far), that it never dawned on me to make jam. You can tell I'm still new to this homesteading stuff huh? I often have moments like that where I realize, "Oh hey why don't I just make that myself". This thought (sadly) usually comes from products lacking the quality I want. The most recent example of this has been to make my own salad dressings and mayo (which I have yet to try). I was frustrated shopping to find that it's nearly impossible to find any mayo or salad dressings that use only olive oil. What a shame! It's such an easy way to get good omega 3 oils into our diet. But I ramble, back to the garden!
Strawberries
Our June bearing strawberries are done for the season, and our ever bearing seems to be nearing it's end too. Since only about 1/3 to 1/4 of our strawberries are ever bearing I think the need to harvest slipped my mind (our hot rainy weather didn't help much either). I'm hoping by next year to have 1/2 our strawberries June bearing and half ever bearing, so I harvest are more staggered. I plan to do this by removing some plants I know are June bearing and transplanting an ever bearing in it's place and giving lots of space to sucker out by this fall. I'm already excited for next years harvest. I think it will go much smoother. We harvested all together 17 lbs of strawberries. Our freezer is full so I plan to attempt to make strawberry raspberry (since that's in season now) preserves soon. I've never made any before and I want to try to make a no added sugar version. So look for that post to come soon. If you've ever made any no sugar added preserves before and have any tips, I'd love to hear it!
Garden A
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| cherry tomatoes grown direct seed (right) WI Tomatoes (left) carrots and brussel sprouts (middle) |
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| cilantro, purple broccoli, tomatoes |
Our broccoli, brussel sprouts, and tomatoes are really starting to take off. I need to harvest some more kale just so it does not overshadow our struggling tomato plants. I'm actually wondering if they're be enough room for the broccoli. I guess we'll see. It takes awhile I think to get the sq foot gardening spacing really down. Our cilantro is still bolting and I'll probably just let it go to seed soon and just plant more. Our container cilantro is doing well so far. Our carrots seem to finally have started to sprout (I was starting to worry that we wouldn't have any).
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| Our Garden B |
Our spinach is officially dead, I still need to cut it down. Our peas, beans, and cucumbers are really starting to grow, and I haven't even started to build a trellis for them yet. Ekk! The chicken fence is acting as a temp support but soon it will out grow it.....Look for a how to post coming soon about building cedar trellises! Our turnips, beets, carrots, rutabaga, and radishes are doing well so far. Our bell peppers seem to finally start to grow. Our jalapeno plant and purple basil (transplanted 2 weeks ago) seem to be doing OK but not growing. The purple basil is however turning green. Has this ever happened to anyone? After doing a quick search I can see that it might not be getting enough sun (due to issues with my basil not getting enough sun last year I made sure to plant it where there would be no issues with that). Or it could just be natural? Any thoughts? I'd love to hear it.
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| Check out our cucumbers! Will this be the year they grow for us? Bell Peppers right, purple basil and Jalepeno left |
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| Mr Cat's friend eating our catnip |
Holy catnip! It's actually going to seed now and taking over our view in our window. I've been meaning to harvest some for awhile but due to our recent hot rainy weather and busy schedule I haven't gotten the chance. I'm just hoping it doesn't spread seed to the point it because a nuisance. Mr cat's friends sure like it. I got a pic of one eating it. It's so funny cause Mr Cat gets really mad. The cat pictured above will roll around on our lawn for awhile after getting his nip on. It's so funny. Our Lavender seems to have transplanted just fine (about 2 weeks ago) but haven't grow yet. Our chamomile seems to be dying, and our broccoli, and brussel sprout plant seems to be doing well.
Back Yard
concrete raised garden
It's getting crowded! Our helper tomatoes are getting big and need to be transplanted soon! Our mustard is already going to seed and our kale, spinach, swiss chard, and brussel sprouts seem to be doing well
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| On New Garden Bed with Squash, Zucinni, Pumpkins |
New garden bed
none of the cucumber and letuce seeds seems to have worked but most of our pumpkin, squash, and zucinni seem to be doing well so far. I'm crossing my fingers there will be.
Side Garden Bed
Our onions are going to seed right now and we still have about a square foot of empty weed filled space. So I have alot of weeding to do and transplanting, the question is transplant what...?
Raspberry Patch
Is in prime season right now, were harvesting about 1-2 cups a day right now. They seriously ripen in a day so were trying to harvest every day if possible.
Containers
Our potatoes are going to flower now and desperately in need of hilling up. Our lettuce box is full of baby lettuce, whoops I guess I should have thinned out after all. I think I will harvest some baby leaves in order to thin it out and see what happens.
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