Gardening · Homesteading

On The Farm In June

June was overall cool, with a few few warm days in the start. I am still learning how to deal with the micro-climate here on the island, and I am getting results finally.

The start of June and my little garden pots barely going.

The strawberry plants putzing along.

My anemic looking tomato bed.

Thyme in bloom.

Blueberries getting there.

The first peas.

At the end of the school year we got a tour of the school’s farm school – and brought home a few starts that were getting sad in the greenhouses. This little mint start came home.

And a tiny kale that was barely holding on.

My overly pampered basil started showing signs it would make it.

Kale did great in June, with harvests weekly.

The first Golden Raspberries, from the plants I brought with us to the new land.

In a bid to defeat the chronically cold weather/winds, I had a light bulb moment of wrapping plastic sheeting around the fencing, and using binder clips. Who knew it would work so well. I will be writing about this soon – it took my very sad plants and gave them a leg up – quickly.

Wild strawberries.

In June real work began. We hired a local tree company to remove the dead and severely sick trees near the house, and carved it back to a 30 foot perimeter, to create a fire break. Having trees knocking on the roof was scary enough in windstorms, and we didn’t want these to fall on the house. This was a time to hire professionals. They did the tree removal, and to save money we did the limb stripping, and bucking of the trees. We are still working on it, but it has opened up the forest incredibly. It is SO much healthier.

The first carrots, doing a thinning.

Zucchini, kale, lettuce, lettuce, chard and carrots.

Wild Evergreen Huckleberries. They will ripen in late summer/early fall.

Native Black Caps (black raspberries).

First zucchini flowers.

Little baby deer, toodling around. We have multiple mamas that eat in our lower fields. One has twins, with the spots still on. I put up with them for now, since all they do is trim the grass.

However, these 2? You can’t grow anything without pillaging going on……