Mid-Summer Garden Update | 2022

Hello from my favorite place to be - in the garden! 

Walking around my garden has become the "bookends" to my summer days. It's my favorite way to start the day, and to end it. A couple weeks ago, my husband added lights to the deer fence he built for us this Spring. The lights have completely transformed this space. After we get the kids to bed, Nick and I meet out here in the garden to sit and admire the space as we chat and wind down from our days.

Things are growing quite nicely, despite some pest pressure. We have battled slugs - which was mostly a problem in the Spring. Our more recent pest pressure has come from cucumber beetles (which are also loving our bean trellis). A new pest I found this morning was a clicking beetle, which is wreaking a new kind of havoc on the cucumber foliage. 

I'm just glad the pests have been leaving my tomatoes alone - which are my favorite plants in the garden. I chose to spend a lot of time learning about how to care for tomatoes and how to prune them for the best yield. I think we'll start to see the fruit of my efforts in the next month! Then, I will divide my focus to add harvesting, canning and preserving to the mix.

Speaking of harvesting, I finally got to harvest my first round of garlic last weekend! For my zone (6a) I will continue to plant garlic around Halloween and harvest around Independence Day. It worked so well! I cannot wait to start using this garlic in our different canning recipes and cooking in the coming months!

I love to look back on the progress we have made with the garden. It was only last Fall when I was sitting in a chair with my sketch pad, dreaming of what this space could look like. I made a five year plan for this space and Nick has absolutely helped make year one come true! 

Fall, 2021

Spring, 2022

The beds and fence are in - next we will be working toward a chicken coop for the Spring. But, that will all come in time. For now, it is important to stay in the present moment and to appreciate the space we've built, just as it is right now.

For more on our garden, you can follow our new YouTube channel: Gracefully Grown.

If you're interested in seeing a peak of our homestead from last Fall - Spring, you can watch this new video I just posted about overwintering garlic.

   

It's incredible to see how it once looked like compared to the mid-summer garden we have today!