Gardening · Homesteading

July On The Farm

July was a mixed bag this year, really a common theme this entire year so far. It started chilly, and many days were overcast till at least mid-afternoon, before it warmed up. The evening temperatures were rarely above mid 50’s. This stunted crops but everything kept plodding along, trying its best to grow. If anything, it let us have peas until the 3rd week in July, which doesn’t usually happen for me. And it kept crops from bolting quickly in the heat.

I’ve been happy with the crops this year, though I have made many notes mentally and on paper of things to do different. Our garlic crop I was happy with, I followed a local book on it, and that reading paid off.

Shelling peas while the boys were at swim lessons.

Walker picking strawberries.

Morning harvest in summer.

The first blueberries of the year.

Sunflower. Only one plant made it this year.

Garlic, tiny onions and potatoes.

Thimbleberry coming into season.

Walker found a huge paper wasp nest in the woods. I have let it be as it isn’t near anything.

Nasturiums.

Red Robin tomatoes and green beans.

Tomatoes growing.

Bumblebee on lavender.

Alistaire helping me process the garlic harvest. He is quite good at it!

Yellow Wonder strawberry.

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Worked on the lonely herbal bed, adding in more plants. It has doubled in size in a month.

Purple Zinnia, a flower I had not grown before. It’s gorgeous, tall and produces so many bloom, that bees love.

Strawberry Calendula.

First of the Oregon Spring tomatoes, a shorter season tomato.

Tresca strawberry plant in bloom. These have produced some of my favorite berries this year.

Walla Walla onions getting ready to be harvested for a couple early season treats.

Tarragon in bloom.

Marshmallow flowers.

Thistles: The bane of farmers, yet in bloom are for a second beautiful flowers.

Munstead Lavender in its first bloom (grown from seed).

~Sarah