Practical Nourishment: Garden Progress- July 2008

Another month of summer is done, and it really hasn't gotten very hot here... yet. Hopefully August will bring a few more swimming trips to the lake before fall comes round. This month the garden has been giving us broccoli, beets, peas (done now), carrots and kale. Just this week we've been starting to harvest zucchini, and cabbage is almost ready. I put down too much newspaper when I layered my beds lasagna style, causing my onions, carrots and corn to be stunted and seeds to have trouble germinating due to a very dry upper layer of earth. But, truth be told, there are veggies growing and providing food for us.

Squash starting to vine up trellis (right); corn and beans (back-left); zucchini (back-right); eggplant, basil, peppers and okra (middle); cabbage, cauliflower and dill (left); kale and beets (front).

Cukes and squash (back left); celery, cauliflower, dill, broccoli, and cabbage (middle); onions and carrots (front right). Cold frame in the back will soon have more beets, greens, and maybe cabbage and broccoli.

Tomatoes are coming!

I've been learning more and more about growing flowers and herbs planted with veggies to entice and provide shelter for beneficial insects. Next year is wide open for experimentation, but I think I'll go for more flowers, and maybe more of a wild, less structured look.

We've worked hard on Project No-Lawn, and it's still a major work-in-progress. So far the back portion of the lawn, as well as the sides, have transformed from lawn into woodchips and flowers, along with rocks and a living teepee. The vining plants that should be covering the teepee are just starting to climb, so hopefully this month the teepee will be clothed. The back in front of the fence has sunflowers slowly growing, but sadly not yet flowering. I'm feeling excited to continue replacing lawn with wood and plants, and soon to start on the front yard.

I also took down the fence separating the garden from the yard, so now my kids can feel more free to enjoy picking carrots, peas, tomatoes, etc., and feed veggies to the rabbits, as much as they want.

We lost one rabbit to the heat, which was so sad for me to see. I guess I'll know more about losing rabbits soon, once we get rabbit babies turning into meat for my family. We may be getting babies in the next month.