I have finally figured out what my gardening problem has been for the last several years. It's heat - pure and simple. I can't stand the heat, so I just don't go out there and spend much time working at maintaining order. Okay, to be honest, I already knew that. I have boundless enthusiasm for the garden in early spring and in the fall, and can hardly stand to walk through it in the middle of summer. I realized this anew last Sunday when I was out there in the lovely 70-ish degree temperature, weeding, pulling out spent plants and preparing some beds for fall planting. I spent hours toiling away and was so happy to be doing it. At least for this very moment, the weeds have been beaten into submission. I'm not delusional enough to think it will last long, but I'm just so pleased to have accomplished it.
Besides the weeding and bed preparation, I've been in the kitchen making pickles (bread and butter and dill), pesto from my basil and several batches of blackberry jam. Maybe another post on that later. We are still waiting on the first tomatoes to ripen, so there is much work ahead with freezing those. Though the peacock has done some unauthorized harvesting and the Japanese beetles are now thick in the blackberries, I'm feeling more successful than I have in many years.
That's my problem exactly -- the heat! Your garden looks lovely; I want raised beds but my midwestern husband cannot be persuaded.
ReplyDeleteMichelle-I know exactly what you mean because it took me 10 years to convince Mike. He'd rather have the garden unfenced and flat and be able to take the tractor in. I love having the beds contained and would really like the beds to be raised even more (but, I'm not pushing my luck on that one!)
DeleteI'm right there with you guys, and my garden is tiny! I put a batch of cukes in the crock yesterday to ferment into pickles.
Deleteit looks so orderly and I love order. our cukes grew right out of their raised beds. two of our raised beds are made out of concrete block so I planted some moss rose Mama Ceil gave me in between the holes of the concrete. I was going to make cherry jam but broke down and made a crumble instead.
ReplyDeleteHa! Who needs jam later when you can have almost instant gratification with a cherry crumble? (I made a blackberry cobbler first.)
DeleteWow! Everything looks great!
ReplyDeleteYou girls are making me hungry!!
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks like it's doing well.
There seem to be many gardens floundering this summer.....so many pests!
Enjoy!
Looks like your garden is doing fantastically well! I'm like you - I don't like the heat and if I don't get out early in the morning to do the weeding and watering - then it doesn't get done!!
ReplyDeleteLovely garden!