Well, I had every intention of breaking up my gardening posts into three sections a month: early, mid, and late blooms, but life just got in the way. The first of week of July, my daughter and son--in-law and grandkids came up for a visit. We spent the whole week running around and having a great old time. But unfortunately, the grandkids brought a sickness with them, and as soon as they left, I was sick with a summer cold for two weeks. I didn't have the energy to write up any garden posts, but I did manage to snap pictures throughout the month of July.
My pink hydrangea bush is still looking good, although a storm came and knocked a lot of the branches down.
The star of the July garden is lilies! I have so many tall orange and yellow Asiatic lilies. I also have a huge variety of day lilies.
Purple Liatris
I would say "One of my favorite day lilies" but they are all my favorites.
Yellow and orange Asiatic lilies with Bee Balm in the background
I planted a ton of wild orange lilies on my septic mound years ago, but they never bloomed. This is the very first year they are blooming and it is gorgeous! I think it's because my neighbor's tree fell down in a storm and now they get more sunlight.
A light pink hollyhock
This is a red "purple coneflower" or Echinacea. I picked it up at a local nursery this year and it is doing very well. It's been blooming continuously since I bought it and the butterflies seem to love it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it comes back next year. Most of the time I find these variants of natural perennials not to be as hardy as the real thing.
My white Vibernum or "Snowball Bush" is still going strong. That's the beauty of this plant, once it blooms, those blooms remain on the plant all summer long. Not many plants do that!
Purple Astilbe
Another "one of my favorites": a red day lily
The marigolds growing in front of the house look lovely as ever this year. I've been seeing so many bunnies in this garden this year, so I'm grateful I planted marigolds, they don't eat those.
Rose Campion Lynchis
Purple clematis with tall Asiatic lilies in the background
And now, for some vegetable garden news. Every year, it seems my veggie garden gets off to a rocky start and I begin comparing my "results" to other gardeners wondering why their vegetable gardens seem to be doing so much better than mine. Yet, inevitably, mine always catches up and grows beyond my wildest expectations. This year I am once again astounded at God's wonderful bounty. This is the squash section of the garden. I grew four different squashes this year: spaghetti, acorn, butternut, and buttercup.
After seeing another garden on-line last year, I followed their example and "trellised" my tomatoes. It's one of the best decisions I ever made. It keeps the tomato branches so neat and tidy. I simple tie branches to the very strong fence as they grow. It takes up so much less garden space this way too.
I planted peppers in front of the tomatoes. I also purchased these long hooks and hung flower baskets from the beams above. They not only make the vegetable garden pretty but they attract beneficial insects to the garden as well.
Yellow Banana Peppers
This is the lower vegetable garden. Potatoes are on the right and beans, lettuce, kale, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, herbs, carrots, and cucumber are on the left.
Have you ever seen a prettier vegetable garden? I never knew vegetables gardens could be this pretty. It's a joy to come out here everyday to water and harvest my bounty. I would rather be right here than any other place in my yard...and it's mostly veggies...not flowers!
Jackson loves to come down into the garden with me. He gets so excited when I wake up in the morning and he runs down the stairs and waits so patiently by the door for me to let him out.
Last year I planted my broccoli and cauliflower plants in the back row, near the porch screen. This year I decided to put them in the front row. They seem to like this placement so much better, however next year I think they will go in the middle row, because now I have to reach behind them to harvest beans every day.
I still have pickles left over from last year, so I only planted one cucumber vine this year.
Muesil lettuce
Bush Beans. I really love how the bush beans grow over the ledge of the top garden. I will plant all the bush beans in the front row next year. It will not only be easy to harvest them this way, but they will look super pretty too.
Out of all the things we grew last year, the potatoes were our favorite so we decided to grow more and now have three beds of potatoes. When we planned our first vegetable garden last year, I thought growing potatoes was kinda silly since they are so cheap in the store. But then I read that once you have a home grown potato you will never want to eat a store bought potato again.....and they were right! The flavor and light fluffy texture of a home grown potato vs a store bought potato is night and day!
Every year I try to grow peas. Last year, I was only mildly successful, this year they did much better although not as prolific as I would have liked. I think I just need to plant a lot more next year. They are delicious though! I picked and steamed my first batch a few days ago, and they were incredible! Once again, they tasted so much better than frozen or canned peas.
I've also picked three summer squash already. I made Yellow Squash Muffins with the first two, and I am going to make Yellow Squash Casserole with the the rest.
Well I hope you enjoyed looking at a very long garden post. Hopefully next month I will be less busy and not sick, and I can post more. I'd really love to do a video tape of my vegetable garden too, plus I never showed you our finished screen-in porch...so look for those posts to come.
Have A Great Day! Amy
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