Monday, August 3, 2009

And The Garden Goes Wild . . .

Wild in a good way, that is. Our vegetable garden is growing wonderfully this year! Last year, we gave it a rest and didn't plant anything. This year, we added about 6" in depth of topsoil mixed with composted manure on top of the planting areas.

To control weeds, we put down black landscaping fabric over the paths/walkways and have been putting grass clippings on top of that throughout the summer. That has really helped keep weed maintenance to a minimum; we'll definitely do that regularly from now on.

This is what half of the garden looked like about 2 weeks ago:



And this is the same area yesterday:



Our crop of sugar peas was much more abundant than any other year. They've been producing steadily for several weeks, but are about done for now. I think the fact that our weather hasn't been too hot kept them growing throughout July. The sugar pea plants grew to a height of at least 6' - I had to reach up to pick the top ones!


(we had to quickly rig up an additional, though awkward-looking string trellis when they wouldn't stop growing!)





The cucumber, zucchini, and summer squash plants are showing lots of promise with tons of blossoms.



We just picked out first zucchini and cucumbers last week. In past years, our cucumber plants started dying off just as they began producing. I'm not sure why, but am hoping that doesn't happen again this year.




(some of the last of the sugar peas and lettuce, and the first green pepper)

Coming soon, tomatoes and green beans:




(the poor tomato plants - I planted them a little too close together, so as they've grown, it looks like a tomato plant forest!)

Healthwise, I've been hitting some bumps in the road again. It seems like I have lots of old, long-hidden "stuff" that wants to be noticed and taken care of. Sometimes it's very frustrating, but I continue to seek natural/nutritional healing and hope that I'll soon be back in more of a maintenance mode rather than a trouble-shooting repair mode. Fresh vegetables from the garden are sure to help too!