July Garden Still Grows

Here are some snapshots of the garden goodness from the first half of July.

Green tomatoes setting on the Early Girl and Celebrity plants.

A cucumber vine climbing up the tomato cage. I planted a couple seeds between each of the tomato plants hoping for lots of cukes. Some came up, some didn't. Our family, (not counting Dad), will eat a whole raw pickling cucumber twice a day if they are available. That makes 12 daily, 84 a week. I think I am not planting enough in my garden!

Green beans! Crispy, crunchy, fresh Jade and Contender beans! We have eaten several meals worth of beans and blanched a few for the freezer. 17 1/2 pounds total and they are still blooming. There again, I need to plant larger QUANTITY.

The Candy onions did not grow well this year. Perhaps they were planted too early, perhaps the soil isn't right for them. Their tops were knocked over numerous times from wind and storms, so we finally pulled them even though they are itty bitty.

We left a few in the ground to maybe grow a little larger.

And the sets stayed upright the best, but globes are still small.

one morning's harvest

Now pictures nearer the end of July...

lemon queen sunflowers

chives (and oregano on the right, carrots behind)

buttercrunch lettuce

non GMO corn for grinding to cornmeal

I planted an heirloom pumpkin, Jarra Blue, from seed given to me, and the plant is huge! So far there are no pumpkins though.

snack pumpkin that has edible seeds without even roasting

kitties in the compost pile

This year we have harvested radishes, turnips, lettuce, peas, chard, kale, green beans, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, beets, onions, okra, potatoes, basil, cilantro, dill, and chives. I read a blog where the writer weighs her produce that comes from gardening, so I thought that would make an interesting experiment. At the end of July our little patch has put out nearly 71 pounds of yumminess!

And the garden still grows...praise the Lord!