Walking Back Through Our Summer Garden

A Sharply Dressed Visitor

Goodness grows with the summers light. As the sun begins to rise high in the sky bringing with it the warming the of the ground and nurturing the of the Earth with it's soft reflecting glow.

This spring was chilly and wet. The rains poured and poured down upon us leaving the ground to soggy to plant. Thus, the planting had to wait a bit longer than usual.

Hey, that's okay...A good harvest is always worth the wait.

It started like this... 

My wonderful son brought home three truck loads of pallets and a truck bed load of untreated wood.

"YAY, I said!!" With cheerful excitement too! Some may think I'm weird...But, I love these kind of unexpected gifts!

I had been reading up on raised beds for a year.

So, when the snow began to melt we started our new long time planned projects.

The plan, with a whole lot of voluntary movement and homemade muscle rub became more visual.
Putting to use a lot of muscle power tearing the pallets apart we went to work. Laying them out to see what sizes we wanted. Turns out, by the time we were finished these were all the same size 4' by 8'. Because I liked that size!

The Beginning March 2013

Then it looked like this...

Before The Chickens Shade

After the reed fencing went up to provide shade from the hottest time of day to the chickens. 

And boy, the crew was happy!
This pic was taken later in summer but, you get the picture.

Our Flock

This is what it looked like before...

  Here's what the other side looked like in the beginning after it went up...
Planted in front is tomatoes. In the back next to the fence is Sunflowers and Foot-long Pole Beans.

Garden Side Of Reed Fence

    Then the kick-start was on!

Shaping Up

Soft as silk the plan transformed before the eyes!

Lookin' Good

All was good & growing!

Growing Bigger

A quick peek at some of the plants we grew...

Garlic, Carrots, Nasturtiums,

And we transplanted...

Sugar Baby Watermelon

Some more...

Musk Melon and Honeylope or Cantadew Whichever You Prefer

Chard, Basil, More Nasturtium and a Bunny...What?? A Bunny???

More Good Things We Grow!

Peppers

Strawberries

Flowering of Okra

Varieties of Tomatoes

Beefsteak And Hillbilly

This is the first I've ever used the "No Dig System" for growing potatoes. It wasn't a good year for them either. I'll have to let you know after next years harvest how they do.

Yukon Gold Potatoes

A nice crop of green beans. Yes, they do look purple. That's because well, they are. I don't know the real name of these. My family has always called them Kahok Beans. Harvesting plenty for the winter months.

Kahok Beans

The cucumbers produced really good until a blight  came.

With the rain all three varieties of corn in the garden did not fair too well. Barely growing to five feet high. We managed only to get couple of meals from them all.

Peppers And Cucumbers

 Two of My Medicinal Herbs and Flowers...

Echinacea

Calendula

And here's just one I use for for homemade dyes...

Bachelor Buttons 

Fall and winter crops are being sown in hopes of a nice fall harvest. Others are winding down as summer slowly turns to autumn. Garden beds are getting cleaned out and withered plants put to use in the compost bins. Twilight creeps though much too soon as the sun settles down in the evening sky.

♥Sunflowers In The Midst Of Sunset ♥

Beautiful!
At the end of the day we can say . . .
We are blessed ♥