Garden journal - July 2020
I spent the entire afternoon in the garden yesterday, something I haven’t done in a while. My energy for it tends to fizzle out toward mid-summer, when the heat of the afternoon gets to be too much. I’ve recognized this pattern over the last few years, so I’m allowing myself to walk away from it without guilt, to just be an observer of its growth, a harvester of its bounty, knowing the work will be there when I feel re-energized. The drip-lines Eric installed have made longer breaks possible. But yesterday was a cloudy, cool day with a light breeze - perfect for gardening. So I grabbed my shears for pruning and my bucket for weeding. It felt good to reconnect with it. I still have a list a mile long of everything I want to accomplish in there, but yesterday I just did some minor upkeep, and it felt so good to reconnect. For the first time in a few weeks, it felt relaxing, rather than daunting.
We’re harvesting more cucumbers than we know what to do with, as well as several spaghetti and acorn squash. We’ll start pickling the cucumbers as soon as we have some time. Since this photo was taken, the Japanese beetles and the aphids have gotten to the peas and I’m not sure they’ll recover - I might give up and just pull them - I’ve already frozen a bunch for winter steaming and stir fries. Some of the lettuce is starting to bolt, but the majority of it is still good. We’ve started harvesting string beans and the last of the carrots will be pulled this week. I’ll replant those for hopefully a second fall crop. The pumpkin vines have taken off, covering the fence and the flowers have started blooming. The peppers are looking a little weak, but hoping they’ll take off with the heat.
Every time a blueberry ripens, it gets stolen by a bird or insect, so we’ll have to do something about that next year. The Japanese beetles did a number on the fruit bushes and trees, as we didn’t treat the lawn for grubs this year. We harvested our first two red beefsteak tomatoes yesterday and the rest of the vines are full of green ones. I foresee a lot of tomato canning in the near future. Best of all, the cutting flowers have started to bloom.