Garden in Mid-July

Most gardeners would agree that you should step away for at least a week to let everything grow.  We went to Mexico the end of June/beginning of July, which was more than enough time to let everything grow.  Our tomatoes went for touching the bottom ring on their cage to reaching out.  We got home just in time to pick a couple of summer squash, many weeds, and we were able to start pollinating our tomato flowers.  It will be exciting to see what the rest of July and August have in store.  Canning, freezing, and blanching I'm sure.  Now we are also looking ahead to fall, to determine what we want in our cold weather harvest.  Enjoy!

Oh, we now have a flock of flamingos that guard the herb garden.  But they don't lay any eggs.

Mirco-toms & Red Robin Mini Tomatoes - Even if you live in an apartment there are plenty of options for you to have some fresh fruit/vegetables.

Alex did plant the tomatoes close to one anther, we barely have enough room to get around to see everything.  But they are looking good!

We have decided that for next year we can increase our pumpkin patch for sure.

View facing the pergola, it has been too hot to sit out during the day or night.

These are the green and blue hubbard trellising up the stands left from the previous owners.

Pole beans reaching the top of the pole?  That wasn't supposed to happen.

Alex is more than thrilled at the success of his rhubarb patch - Joe is not because that means twenty recipes with rhubarb next year.  Where is Seema when we need her?

Tomatillos and tomatoes outgrowing their cages.

The potatoes are slow this year, partially because we planted them so late.  But the potato box is in need of another slat and more straw.

Even the chickens are happy!

Apricot Jam

What would you do on the last day of your extremely relaxing vacation (pictures to come soon)?  Did apricot jam pop into your mind first, because that is what Alex thinks about.  Our friend Heather has an old and beautiful apricot tree in her yard with apricots ripe for the picking.  However, Alex is traveling this week, which met we needed to can yesterday!  Even though we always complain about the heat and sticky messes it can be pretty fun.  Don't mind the grubby clothes, you really don't need to dress up to can.  Thanks to Laurel, Chelsea, Bella and Hailey for making such a fun afternoon. 

This is the picture that started the entire mess!

Ready to jam and turn into apricot leather.

There are only a few ingredients: sugar, pineapple, brown sugar, orange juice, and of course apricots!

We paused to take a picture while Alex was bossing/instructing us to fill all of the jars perfectly.

We had to pause to feed Chelsea.  She is WTP to eat her own grapes.

Joe teaching Chelsea how to be practically perfect!

18 pints & 46 half-pints later.

Our Favorite Exchange Student!

We had the best time this past year with our friend Laurel's foreign exchange student, Seema.  Seema comes from Pakistan and has been a great part of our lives.  Alex and I are most excited about her knowledge she has gained over this past year.  Seema is going to be a great success with anything she does.  As well as doing a lot of "firsts" she has also given us a lot of firsts.  Thanks Seema! 

Check out our latest adventure when we took Seema golfing.  Men are allowed to golf in Pakistan and Seema showed those men that a Par 3 is not that hard.  There are many other stories and pictures of our fun at their blog, www.exchangeinthehive.blogspot.com  

Seema holding Martha Stewart.

Seema is always a good sport for canning at any time of day or temperature outside.

Halloween is a very big deal in our house.  Seema had just a small sampling of what we do for Halloween.

 

Garden in Mid-June

We have been working a ton in the garden this past month.  Everything is growing and will soon be in full glory.  This has been the place for some great parties these past weeks as well (maybe more pictures to follow).  Anyway, enjoy these pictures of our little paradise and if you want a tour, come on over! 

Our very own pergola which lights up at night.

The Meyer Lemon is in full bloom and smells amazing!  Come January we will have about 10 pounds of lemons.  When life gives you lemons...

Peppers, peas, tomatoes, onions, squash & herb garden.

Standard and purple tomatillos are already in bloom!

80 onions in the middle on each box.  We will trellis the squash up the sides.  We have blue and green Hubbard, spaghetti, zucchini, Casper pumpkins, and butternut. 

Garden peas with string beans coming up right behind.

Something new, potato box.  The box progressively gets taller as the potatoes grow.  We grow them in straw to keep them clean and for easier harvesting.  They are super late in the ground but I hope we get enough.