July Garden

it has been about 6 weeks since my last garden update back on memorial day weekend. since that post the garden has come to life and is bursting at the seams.

it is amazing to see how a little seed grows big & strong with the capability of providing us with amazing fruits & veggies

so come on through and take a look at what's been growing (and not growing) in my garden

 it wouldn't be a garden post without a pic of the pup the day lilies are in bloom, gorgeous as always

 my lower garden is filling in better than i had ever imagined the helenium is about 10 x's the size it was last year the red bee balm has doubled in size

 a double headed bee balm  the roses are heading into their second round with new buds forming each day coreopsis and red fox speedwell are thriving this year my purple butterfly pincushion which was magnificent last year only came back in little sections this year

 blanket flower is a heavy producer this year the purple cone flower has doubled in size

 knee high by july is what you aim to be at for corn; mine is waist high. this is my first year growing corn and it has proven itself to be a easy plant i picked my first arrowhead pea pod and the sweetness was out of this world- this is my first year growing peas and certainly will not be my last. for some reason i had it set in my mind they would have no issue climbing up my old tomato posts- wrong! i ended up running garden twine up and down each side for the peas to hold on to - so far it has worked perfectly

 as you can see everyone seems pretty happy where they were put this year

 i am still waging battle with the cucumber beetles- they are less in numbers this year but mate like crazy ( a two for one deal when you catch them like this) i ran into my dreaded squash vine borer and reset my traps when he was spotted. the next day he was floating in the trap with the cucumber beetles to keep him company. so far he is the only one to venture over.  luckily the traps catch more bad bugs then good

 with the rainy june we had i ran into a major slug fest ( and i think my less than decomposing leaves aided to the slug fest) they have eaten 2 crops of basil seedlings (from seed), 3 crops of carrots, pretty much stripped my marigolds ( and at my marigold & cosmo seedlings) along with my hot pepper seedlings. this was a challenge that i was going to win- justin helped me one night by hand picking the little slim balls. the next day he was out in 90* weather stapling copper wine to the beds and helping create copper rings to be placed around each pepper plant and sunflower plant. the copper sends a small electrical charge that the slugs cannot tolerate- it seems to be working as i have not seen any new damage; we outfitted 3 beds with the wire. the onions are happy as long as the chipmunks and squirrels avoid running though the onion bed

 the tomatoes awesome; a few have already begun forming tomatoes!

 i have what i though to be a summer squash plant turn out to be a pumpkin that was left over in the compost- maybe this will be my first year i actually grow my own pumpkin. the last 2 years have all been FAILS so that in a nutshell is how my garden is growing.  harvest to date: swiss chardeaster egg radishes (awesome!) baby lettuce peas happy growing season!