July is a great month to assess this year's progress in the garden. The summer is well under way, and the plantings are full of vigor. We consider the season's wetter and cooler weather, as well as the insect and disease challenges, the health of the garden soil, and the need for more mulch. In the native flower beds, I am reviewing the overall composition of the plants and adding some permanent edging to keep out the weeds.
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| Sunflowers really pop up in July! |
Regular Maintenance
Despite being the busiest time of the year for the garden, family activities take precedence in July. My goal--- and I have't reached this yet-- is to come home to a mostly-tidy garden after two weeks vacation. However, this year the garden definitely needed some grooming after my absence. As expected-- the parts of the garden that were properly mulched looked great. The weeds were minimal, and plants looked bountiful and healthy. However, there are a few parts of the garden that needed more work before leaving, and it definitely showed when we arrived home.No need to despair. The best thing to do when one feels overwhelmed is ... something. I gathered the children and asked them to rake up a few wheel-barrows full of some newly-mowed grass (my nephew was able to help us with the mowing while we were gone, so there was plenty available). They gathered their rakes and got to work, eventually leaving me with a nice pile of mulch to place on my garden beds.
Meanwhile, I took what excess mulch that was in the garden and redistributed it, covering what weeds I could. After adding the mulch my kids brought over for me, I noted that my garden is too big for the mulch I have freely available in the field. While it would be good to be able to properly mulch it all, I also have kids to help weed. So, over the course of the next couple weeks, I have been having them tidy up the rest of the garden.
Since my garden is sized to feed them, I don't feel bad about making them work on it. I do, however, weed the flower beds myself (for better or worse!).
Native flower berms
The native plantings on the berms are finally filling out, four years after starting the beds. Now is a good time to consider the overall composition of the plantings. There are a few misplaced plants in my Native Gardens--- too tall for the location. I plan to move them in September when the weather cools. Also fall plant sales begin in about six weeks or so, and now I have a clear view of what gaps should be filled and the seasons that need more flowers.
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| The bricks are added to the berm edge, while Bermuda grass is removed (background). |
The native garden is intended to need minimal maintenance. Unlike my vegetable plot, these plantings are perennial, and should shade out most weeds so long as the ground is covered with plants. The native plantings thrive in dry, more compact soil; their roots cling to the firmer ground. Many of the taller natives would actually topple over in loamy soil.
Lamentably, Bermuda Grass creeps into the berms via the edges, making these beds a lot of work. Since I hate weeding, but can't afford mulch on these beds, I decided to add a permanent edging around the beds to prevent the invasion using some old bricks I discovered in our old barn.
If you hate this grass, too, you can read my recent post on removing Bermuda Grass.
I placed these bricks around the front side of the berms, inset level with the ground. This allows the lawn mower to mow right over them, thus preventing future creepers from entering. The new border provides structure to the chaotic, natural setting.
Not having enough barn bricks to surround the whole perimeter, a church friend mentioned she may be able to procure for me what I need. Thanks be to God. He provides!
Harvests and plantings
Upon returning, I also noted the garlic was ready for harvest. The garden may look messy, but I knew there were some treasures to dig up in there to cheer me up. So I took my favorite tool, the Root Slayer, dug up what turned out to be 83 bulbs from the garden, and laid them out on wire racks to harden off.
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| Garlic Harvest! |
The garlic was planted last fall in a bed previously containing sweet potatoes. I pulled the potatoes out and left the prolific vines over top as mulch. After burying the garlic, the beds were covered with autumn leaves, mostly oak.
This bed is sitting between my asparagus patch and sand cherry bushes, so the garlic didn't get a ton of sun. The bulbs were mostly average sized, yet where the sun hit them, they were quite large. I will probably save about a dozen bulbs for next year's harvest, and be sure to plant them in a sunny location.
Here is a survey of some of my other crops:
Peach Tree
With all the rain we have had, one of my peach trees lost all its leaves. I am not sure if it died, or if it is "giving up" for the year. My other peach tree is planted on a small hill in soil that was mix with sand, creating good drainage for the tree. That tree looks great.
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| Peach tree lost it's leaves after too much rain. |
Beans:
The beans were planted in late May/early June. They are currently flowering and should be ready for harvest soon.
Tomatoes:
I have harvested a few red ones, but I believer the rainy weather is keeping the tomatoes green. Also, for the first time ever, tomato hornworm have found my tomatoes. There is some damage to their eating foliage off the top of plants, but I have been able to pick them off and squash them. They make a big mess when squashed as they are fat and juicy creatures. I imagine those people who enjoy popping zits would also be entertained by destroying these caterpillars. From my perspective, it is really gross.
Leafy greens:
The leafy salad vegetables are really thriving, perhaps due to the cooler weather this year. I have lettuce, kale, chard, bok choy, and some broccoli. The bugs are not too terrible this year, and I am really pleased to have some lovely greens for salads. I have been occasionally spraying salt water on them with a small spray bottle. Salt dehydrates insects. I am ok with this insecticide, mostly because I regularly eat salt.
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| Bok Choy still looking great at mid-summer! |
Strawberry plants:
I was going to mow over the strawberries to prevent further growth to the patch (see my June post), but the little push mower my father gave to me didn't start. My husband thinks I added ethanol gasoline to it, but I really don't know.
Root vegetables:
Onions, shallots, fennel, beets, carrots and turnips are all in the process of being harvested. The soil shows great improvement each year with the grass mulch and leaves; this is the second year beds containing root vegetables have been no-till and covered in mulch. Since the mulch retains so much moisture, it keeps the clay soil loose as well.
I have been growing these from seed each year since I have arrived in Missouri without much success (except the shallots, which I grow from sets.) This year, I have had modest crops from all these vegetables. I truly believe it is because the soil is improving. We have also had plenty of moisture.
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Viny plants:
The pumpkin plant growing in my compost pile has produced several large pumpkins for me, which will make my oldest son very happy. He loves pumpkins. So far the vine is alive and well. Last year I lost a lot of my pumpkin plants to squash bugs.
I have several melon plants growing as well. However, they got a later start, so nothing is growing on them yet.
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| Pumpkins are growing happily. |
Corn and Ocra:
I planted these out in June. The timing works for us. We are so busy in July; it is not an awesome time to harvest large crops of anything for me, so we will see first harvests hopefully in August.
Rutabaga, Cucumbers, and Zucchini:
I am actually planning on planting these tomorrow. I never got to adding cucumbers, but I think I should still get a crop if I plant them now, along with Zucchini because I was hoping to "miss" the squash bug invasion. I will try a new vegetable with rutabaga. Its packaging recommends a July planting.
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| There is plenty of room in the garden for new crops. |
While there are often disappointments each year, usually something else is cropping really well. Enjoy your garden!