our garden, mid summer

The raised beds have worked out nicely for us, giving us (almost) enough space to grow what we want and making it quite simple to keep things weed-free, mulched and tidy.  We plan to add two more 4'x8' beds before the season is over, so we'll be able to get them ready for next year and add an extra 64 square feet of gardening space.   Those will go right next to the existing beds in a location that was previously home to an apple tree that recently had to come down due to some kind of root rot.  Mike has taken all but the trunk down and we are trying to root some of the stump sprouts (by bending and then pinning part of them into the soil) to see if we can get a viable sapling or two from the original tree to add to our 'orchard' of 2 apple trees planted this year.  Fingers crossed.

When I returned home from our whirlwind beach trip last week I found a pile of urban homesteading books from the library piled up on the coffee table.  Mike had been doing quite a bit of reading and had even written up a letter to the owner of the unused 1/4 acre lot next door.  A sort of "sending out some feelers" letter to see if she'd be interested in selling her property to us at a fair price.  You know, so that we could, perhaps:

expand our current 1/3 acre to a little over 1/2 acre,
add to our small flock of laying hens,
look into raising some chickens (to eat),
and a goat or two for milking,
increase our garden space in order to be able to can/freeze a fair amount,
maybe add several more fruit trees and a big 'ol blueberry patch.....

and so on.  you know, dream, dream, DREAM.

We hadn't thought to look into whether or not we were allowed to do all that.  Turns out, no goat.  I suppose we kinda should have figured as much.  You need at least 2 acres around here to have any kind of livestock so that they can be kept at least 150 feet away from any dwelling or property lines.  Of course we wouldn't have wanted to keep a cow or something that required much more space in an area so small, but we figured we could keep a goat or two pretty happy on 1/2 acre.  Oh well.  We haven't sent the letter out yet, but we're thinking about it.  Minus the goats, the rest of the dream is still pretty nice.

In the meantime, we're happily checking on our little garden, watching bees and tending to our hens.  (turns out the hen we've been assuming was the freeloader is actually one of the layers.... I went to shoo her out of the nesting box the other day because Pearl was getting anxious and I thought she wanted to get in and lay, and as I went to coax Mabel out she layed an egg right there in my hand!  I can't very well question who is laying that light colored egg anymore,  now can I?)

We are also smelling flowers,

and picking flowers,

and picking lots of beans.  Picking beans is Claire's current favorite garden activity.  She runs to the garden yelling "beeets! bee-eeets! pick-pick!" and then carefully picks them, transferring them from picking hand to bowl and eating a few as she goes.  (I wonder what she'll call the actual beets?)

The bees are busy coming and going, piling into our winter squash blossoms and drinking from the reservoir on the outside of our neighbor's window-unit air conditioner.  I discovered that yesterday as I was on the side of the house watering the fig trees and suddenly noticed a highway of bees going to and from our neighbor's window.  Sure enough, there they were, happily sipping at the cool water.  We had been wondering where they were getting their water since the level in the reservoir we put out for them never seems to go down.  I think, actually, that it is probably just serving as a mosquito breeding ground so I should just dump it out....

More on the bees to come later in the week~

I'm thinking it will be time to make a little pesto soon....

Anxiously waiting for the sungolds to ripen,

along with the Eva Purple Ball tomatoes (SO good), some yellow pear cherry tomatoes, red cherry, Brandywines and some mystery plum tomatoes.  We aren't big tomato sauce eaters around here, preferring our pasta with butter, garlic, oil and such, but I'm hoping to can some whole tomatoes and a few different kinds of salsa.

There is also celery in our garden for the first time ever.  It's getting there.

We are watching the winter squash take over the paths between the beds (and beyond).  I saved some seeds from a "Winter Luxury" pumpkin that I purchased at the market last fall because it was so, so tasty and now we have 5 large plants.  I filled in a hole with a "Long-Island Cheese" pumpkin, but think it may be getting shaded out by these monsters....

Our watermelon got a late start.... hoping to watch this baby grow so we can enjoy some fresh-from-the-garden-juice-dripping-down-our-chins watermelon moments later in the summer.

I could use some fresh ideas for preparing beets.  My go-to method is roasting them, which is so incredibly tasty, but I am looking for some other options.

And last but not least, we are enjoying eating some strawberries after picking off all of the blossoms earlier this year to let the plants get a good start putting their energy into setting roots and growing big and strong.  We planted 28 plants in a bed and there are probably already double that from all of the suckers!  Soon, another bed (or 2?) and we will transplant many of the suckers to a cozy and (for now) roomy bed of their own so that we can enjoy many many berries next year.  And strawberry jam, of course.  Thinking of squeezing in a rhubarb or two in the new bed as well....

There are, of course, some garden challenges.  I am regularly removing blighted leaves from the bottoms of a few of my tomatoes, trying to keep powdery mildew at bay on the winter squash, wondering why some things just aren't growing, and very much hoping that next year our fig trees will reward us with more than 4 or 5 figs each.  But those things are all just part of it.  We are lucky to be getting rain here on a somewhat regular basis and when we don't our rain barrels are helping to fill the gaps.

We used up a lot of our older seeds this year (I find they keep quite a while in the fridge or freezer) and I am already excited about starting fresh with new seeds next year.  And if we get the cold frames or mini-greenhouse we're talking about making with our old storm windows made in time, we just might be able to get a jump on things and grow most everything from seed.  If, if, if.  There are still lots of things on that list of ours.

And I'm sure it will stay that way for a long time, since we are adding things to it all the time.

Oh, those dreams.