To read more about how my garden is growing this season check out my past Garden Journals from this season:
Happy July! We are braving pretty high temps here in Maine. This Mainer isn’t loving it but her garden sure is. Seeing lots of growth since the last journal entry. Grateful for that encouragement. This time of year it can be a bit of a downer to see things get taken by pests, disease or just weeds. It’s easy to compare other gardeners Facebook posts of their full harvests when your own garden just isn’t there yet. I really love how much patience gardening teaches. Here is what is happening in my garden.
Herbs
My basil is growing and has nice full leaves but they are super duper tiny for some reason. I’m trying to pinch it back a bit to promote more growth and it’s helping it a lot. I did a quick check on how many days till our first frost (73 at the time of these photos) compared to the days basil needs (50) so I plopped some seeds in amongst the tomato plants. We’ll see! Parsley is doing well, I need to harvest some and keep it producing. The thyme is doing similar to the basil, growing nicely but is very small.
Peppers
These three plants are doing great! The banana pepper and the pimento pepper are ready to harvest and that’s on my to do list tomorrow.
Broccoli
Still harvesting small florets. I also started seedlings inside and they are coming up well enjoying their life in the basement. Really hoping to enjoy a solid fall crop of broccoli this year.
Tomatoes
It’s getting crazy in tomato land! I keep trellising and they keep growing. Gave them a solid weeding and pruning last week and they were grateful. Starting to see some spots on lower leaves so needed to make sure there were no leaves touching the ground. That’s how fungal issues begin and then spread so I wanted to nip them.
Cabbage
I only planted a couple of cabbage and 2 of the 3 have grown well. I harvested one and it weighed in at 7 pounds. I made my first batch of sauerkraut and it is delish! I have started several more cabbage as seedlings and plan to grow them for a fall crop.
Cucumbers
I’m stumped with my cukes. I guess I got mixed up and didn’t label well but it seems that I am growing spaghetti squash and see one plant with blooms and small fruit. I tried two new varieties so I don’t know what they should look like exactly. The Suyo Long cukes that we loved last year just didn’t grow well directly sown so we got rid of them when we were mulching paths.
Pumpkins
These are growing well and the squash bugs agree. When I was watering tonight Mister and I started flipping leaves and there were tons of eggs and newly hatched bugs. We removed them and squished the eggs. Really hoping that is a dent in a major outbreak. The volunteer pumpkin patch is growing so many beautiful squash, pumpkins and gourds. Really excited about that happy accident in the old pig pen!
Garlic
For the last 4 weeks I have said I’ll harvest the garlic but something keeps telling me it needs more time and I really think this week is it!
Flambo beans
This patch is growing so well! Nice lush leaves with small purple blooms. We should see pods forming soon. This patch will be grown for dried beans so I’ll just let them go until they are dry.
Green beans
Really cant believe how long these are taking but finally seeing some climbing action this past week. They are still small but have some blooms.
Yellow beans
I transplanted the indoor starts and though they are a bit leggy they are doing well finally in the garden. Seeing blooms so hopefully we’ll see beans forming soon!
Beets
Beets are coming up well. I found some golden beets among a lot of weeds so now they are much happier. The red beets are also doing well. I plan to pull my spent snap pea row and put in a fall crop of beets. My goal is to put more up in the freezer and or pickle them.
Carrots
I thinned these patches and they are finally taking off. I initially thought I had bad soil in my new raised beds so I gave them some organic fertilizer. I don’t know if I was impatient or if the extra nutrients were what these beds needed . Either way they are doing much better now.
Zucchini/Summer Squash
We have harvested a couple of zucchini so we are warming up our palate and creativity for these yummy and versatile veggies. I’ll have some in my breakfast tomorrow!
Flowers
This is another spot that really benefited from that shot of fertilizer. The Teddy Bear sunflowers are finally starting to get close to a bloom forming. Zinnias are bushing out after I pinched them back a bit. Stocks arent doing much. I did one more planting of sunflowers and zinnias and they are coming up well. I’m a little bummed the snapdragons I started from seed didnt do more but the one I have in bloom is making up for my disappointment. I adore that coral/orange color!
Thank you for reading and walking through the garden with me today. I hope you are seeing lots of growth and learning in your garden space this season!
