Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Around the Garden














What a week in the garden! Seeds are popping up everywhere....peas, beans, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and pumpkin, more seeds went into the ground...beets, carrots, kale, and Swiss chard, herbs have been harvested for eating and for infusing, the first red strawberry is ripening nicely on the vine, the raspberries are beautiful, and we harvested greens for our dinner for the first time on Monday. It has been a good week around the garden.

The one issue, our chickens. This is our third summer with chickens and the first summer they have really been a problem in the garden. They are not eating anything, I have row covers for that. But the bed where the tomatoes grow can't be covered because of the stakes, and the chickens have been going in there to scratch in the straw in search of bugs. Not a big deal until they took out two tomato plants. So we installed fencing this week, around the front beds and the potato beds. So far so good. The fence also keeps Shelby, our dog, out too. She was digging in a few of the beds looking for spots to bury the squirrels she catches.

There is a shift in the garden at this time of year, all the hard work is done, a little harvesting is beginning and for a few weeks I can enjoy the slow, easy days of checking in on things, watering a little bit here and there and just hanging out in the garden. As I mentioned last week, it is the tend and nurture stage, and I love it. It's a good place to be

How are things around your garden?

31 comments:

  1. Looks wonderful! Yay! Yes I will be building a very sturdy fence of wood and metal around our garden. Lily likes to eat vegetable plant leaves.

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    1. Thanks KC. Yikes, I am glad Shelby doesn't eat our veggies, just likes to dig in the beds. Although this is the first year it has been a problem. Maybe because the chickens have been in there too. Who knows for sure.

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  2. Look at that strawberry! And all that green growth. All of a sudden, after your late start, your weather and garden cycle seems to have overtaken us. We're stuck in a cold, wet spell. We do have gooseberries out there but they're just not ripening. We need some sunshine again!

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    1. I know! We are going to harvest it and a few others for breakfast tomorrow morning :) It is funny, we had a little bit of a late start, but now everything seems to be on schedule, pretty much.

      I will send some sunshine your way :)

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  3. Looking great! Interesting to see how the timing varies between our gardens.. Our chives have already come and the flowers are almost dead, and we have been enjoying our snap peas for a couple of weeks. But, we have also just had our first few red strawberries lately as well.

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    1. Thanks Taryn. It is interesting to see how different things are. Those strawberries are a few early ones on new plants this year. The ones in our beds from seasons past are just flowering, it will be a couple of weeks before we see berries on them.

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  4. Your garden is really coming along! We have a fence around our garden as well to keep our dogs out. Amazing the holes they can dig! Enjoy this stage of your garden!

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    1. Thank you! I know, I am amazed at the holes Shelby digs. This is the first year she has done it in my veggie beds though, it is usually in my flower beds.

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  5. I love checking on things this time of the year. It definitely feels like it goes from tiny seedling then bam something you can eat. Your mesclun greens are looking lovely!
    I hope your able to keep your chickens out with the fence. We made that mistake early in the year too, lost all our overwintered kale.
    I can't keep up with our nettle & herbs that need preserving! I should be dehydrating every day but challenging with the weather & little ones. (Our backyard is open to the forest so I can't even turn my back on the girls! Thankfully the garden is fenced but they get bored sometimes. I need more entertainment like bubbles or something).
    Our garden is doing great. So. Much. Food. But also so many weeds. This is our first year I'm aiming for 'food production' garden not just 'garden'. So far so good :)
    Here is our garden update http://littlemountainhaven.com/in-the-garden-june-4th/

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    1. It is so lovely to do my morning walk around the garden, tea in hand and check in on things. Just love it!

      Thank you, I am a little giddy with how lovely they look, and they taste pretty darn good too! So far the fence is working perfectly, thank goodness.

      Oh yes entertainment for sure. We are lucky our entire property is fenced in so the little man can have free range while I play in the garden :)

      Happy to hear it is all going well, will take a peek shortly.

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  6. I think your chickens are trying to tend your garden for you :) love that little strawberry!

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  7. Hey, how wonderful Kim. It's a beautiful garden and it's always a great feeling to see all the little seeds burst forth. Enjoy your berries.

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  8. goes so fast!!!!! and it seems to be such a beautiful place ...

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  9. Sorry to hear about the chicken problem, I hope your solution continues to work. So far we have been lucky with our dog but she is a tiny lab and has left the raised beds alone (30 lbs). We are also at last to the tend and nurture stage. Be well.

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    1. It is working, they haven't gone near the gardens or the fence since it has gone up. Win!

      Shelby usually isn't a problem, but for some reason this year she is digging in the veggie beds. Oh well, problem fixed now :)

      Enjoy the tend and nurture stage.

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  10. It's coming along beautifully!! Ours is (still) in the seedling stage. They are getting bigger though and the weather is finally warming up enough that I think we'll be putting them in the raised beds in the next week or two!

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    1. Thank you! Hang in there, it can be a slow process sometimes, but soon they will have a little growth spurt :)

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  11. GREAT garden! And....Adorable toes!!!!!!

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  12. What a lovely space you have. And I can see lots of the same things that I have here. I love this stage too, everything is growing with all its might, and the change every week is breathtaking. I've wanted chickens for quite a while, but I've always wondered how they would get along with everything that's growing out there, so it's interesting to hear about your experiences.

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    1. Thank you. The change each week is huge, and always fills me with such joy.

      I wouldn't let my experiences stop you from getting chickens, having them is awesome and so much fun, but you definitely need to be prepared for anything :)

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  13. Looks so good! I need to get some row covers for my garden beds...I am trying to not have cucumber beetles and squash bugs this year...hahaha :-)

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    1. Thanks! Yes most definitely do, they are suppose to work well. This is our first year trying them and so far so good.

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  14. Hi Kim! Your garden is positively lovely! I've strolled through your blog a bit, arriving via a comment on Stillparenting and FB. I look forward to following along.

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    1. Welcome! Thanks for stopping by. Hopping over to say hello to you :)

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