Gardening in June

It’s very dry in our area, my garden is thriving in the summer heat. The past weekend was in the 90s, I normally drink plenty of water to stay hydrate while working in the garden. I’m happy to say that the fence is done.

After moving out to the country I told myself that I want a country garden, rows and rows of vegetables and the freedom to plant where ever I want. We had plenty of rainfalls the past months and the rainwater washed most of my garden soil to the lower part of the garden. I don’t know why I didn’t see this coming.

I’m back to the box garden again, I didn’t want one too high and decided to go with a 4×4 post. The one above is metal and it’s too expensive to use for the whole garden and I actually like the wooden look below better.

I use leaves compost at the lower part of the planting bed to help stop the water from carrying the soil away. I have plenty of leaves in my yard and won’t need to buy compost for the garden.

Just a few days of raised planting beds made a huge improvement, the plants are growing faster despite the dry summer heat.

I picked a few bell peppers last week, and this one is ready for picking.

The snow peas are climbing the trellis.

Lemongrass

I have plenty of the blue lake bush beans.

Mints

Sweet basil

I have to put net/fence wire over the watermelon plants, they looked like weeds and I kept stepping on them. I’m looking forward to seeing them grow.

This is how dry my garden is, the dirt cracked and the scary part is to see the snake in my garden. I feel like I’m gardening in the desert.

I have to work on my tomato planting skill, these plants are skinny and tall and not bushy like most tomato plants that I have seen in magazine.

I think anybody can have a greenthumb planting peppers, they practically care for themselves.

The Trumpet Vines grow in the wild and I was surprised to see them in Lowes for $19.98. I like it so much and bought one to see how it will do in my garden. I might add a few more to the back of the garden.

The butterfly bushes are growing fast, but so far I have not seen the butterfly yet.

I didn’t think this poinsettia made it through the winter and was kind of surprised to see the greenleaves. I’m planting it in a pot so I could bring it inside this winter.

My Backyard Garden

I can’t believe almost half a year flew by and my last post was in April, which means I have missed posting in May. My only excuse is working, most companies are now working toward going lean.  Our company is working toward that, which means cross-training employees in another job function and cutting back employees. Regardless of what is my excuse I know I have to find balance in what I do. I don’t think I’m alone facing this situation, a lot of people like myself are having a hard time finding balance in their work-lives because there have been cutbacks or layoffs where they work, and those remaining employees have to put in more hours than they expected. Even though I haven’t done much posting, I still find time to garden and my backyard gardening is coming alone. I know I can’t control my work situation, but I sure can control life and living.

My sister gave me her water lily plants last month, and it has several blooms in my pound so far and hers hasn’t bloomed any yet. This tells me that my pound environment is healthy.

I planted several Jalapeno peppers this year, I still have frozen chili peppers from last year and since I didn’t have much space I only have enough room for the Jalapenos.

The pickling cucumbers are climbing the A-frame trellis.

I planted several cherry tomato plants.

I’ve been joying eating freshly picked salad.

Freshly picked radishes are great with salad also.

My Kirfir lime tree grew new leaves, this one was given to me by Bo’s mom over 15 years ago.

My lemon grass are not growing fast enough, if I ate 2-3 stalks per week there wouldn’t be any left by the end of the month. I ended up buying some this week.

The Thai basils are not as pretty this year, it has been very dry in our area and perhaps not getting enough water since they are planted toward the back of the garden.

I don’t have much luck with the parsley, and seeing this much coming up is a sight for me.

I think my mints have mutated since the leaves are fuzzy looking and it doesn’t smell as minty.

My sister gave me a pot of her mint and it’s time to replace the old with the new.

Did you know that the Poinsettia is a tropical plant? I planted one last year but forgot to take it inside in late Fall and it didn’t survive the Winter months. I hope to remember this year, I want to see how big it will get.

I planted some snow peas, this photo below was taken last week.

This is what they look like today, with a little help they were able to climb the trellis.

They have beautiful white flowers.

And the snow pea pods are ready to harvest, I expect to get a steady snow pea pods through the Summer and Fall.

Blueberries

The quails are happy in the backyard.

We get an average of 4-5 eggs per day and they are great with salad.

Bo hatched two more quails, this is the reason why we need to buy a farm.

Golden Hour

I went out to feed my fish this morning, the garden looks so peaceful in the early morning hour.  I didn’t have time to take picture, but couldn’t resist and here are a few snap shots of my garden this morning.

Snow peas

Beans

Sunflowers

Sweet Basil

Gardenia

All photos were taken with Canon T2i, and EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens.