Lots of you have emailed inquiring how the garden is growing.Well, it's growing alright...growing over with weeds!
I just haven't had the time or strength to tend to my garden while working so much and getting the older kids to pitch in is like pulling teeth. I finally had to suck it up and just get out there and tend to the vegetable patch myself.
I decided to leave the sunflowers alone for now. I kind of like the look of the seed heads drying on the stalks. When they're completely done I'll string them up from the branches for the birds to eat - 'cause you know I love my little red birds!
My tomato patch is absolutely pitiful. The plants have slowed their production and some are pretty much spent. The extreme heat and drought conditions have really stressed them out! I think I'll get in there and really prune them back, give them a good feed of compost, and hope for the best. I'm thinking they'll grow back out and give me one more harvest before winter. I have several bags of sauce and salsa in the freezer but I still want more!
I made a goal for myself to weed only four rows a day on my days off. Last weekend I got out there early in the morning and weeded and pulled up the spaghetti squash, yellow squash, zucchini and swiss chard rows. I think I'm going to compost and replant the zucchini and spaghetti squash to get one more harvest and a little more for the freezer.
It's hard work because it's so dang hot here now! Tackling the garden in small manageable chunks instead of all at once makes the task less daunting. Plus, I really do love my little patch of Heaven! It's my therapy and my break from all the chaos of life...weeds and all!
Our problem is the reverse of yours...we've gotten so much rain, with enough sun to cause things to grow, that we can't walk on the paths between the rows without getting close to mid-calf deep in mud and muck. Kind of difficult to weed if you end up 'backside over teakettle' every time you pull something up. Seriously--we've gotten rain just often enough (up until the last couple fo days--we've gotten it every day for the past 3-4) to keep us from even getting every thing planted!!
ReplyDeleteI'm making tomato soup, and, God willing, pickled peppers today. Canning it. Got my 'sous chef' chopping up celery, peeling the onion, washing, cleaning out, and chopping the bell pepper...it will make for a nice morning's work.
I kwym about breaking things up into manageable chunks though--that's the only thing one can do, when you've got so many irons in the fire...