Saturday, July 30, 2016

The Persistence of the Garden

Our garden just keeps giving us gifts and many times we hardly have to do anything to get them! Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of work to put all the plants and vegetables in this spring but with minimal effort, we just keep getting fantastic veggies and flowers. With three huge basil plants, I've been making fresh pesto every week. This weekend the menu includes a pesto pizza that also has some tomatoes we picked up at the farmer's market this morning... And then, as you know, we've had some cute little pests in our backyard that enjoy eating all my young plants. But the amazing thing is, some of the flowers have returned beautifully, like this day lily and the zinnias that the bunnies ate back in May...

Our butterfly bush is growing nicely and will have to be transplanted away from the path as I didn't know how big they get!
This week, I pulled a few vegetable plants out that are either dying or will no longer produce food this summer. The sunflowers were cut down, and I pulled out the eggplants and the cabbage. I also cut back our massive zucchini plant and found a few pepper plants underneath that I forgot were there! And Christopher actually has his first little pepper growing!
Chris wanted to include this picture of the gardens that he took himself...
It has been a learning experience this year and we are getting all kinds of ideas for next summer too. We will continue with the square foot gardens next year and plan our planting of them a little better. We would also like to build another (maybe larger, rectangular) plot for zucchini and swiss chard. And of course, bunnies, it's on! I will be building a chicken wire fence around my coneflowers and black eyed susans until they get bigger so our cute little pests will stay away. My grandfather used to sit out back with a BB gun to keep the bunnies away. I may try the less dangerous approach and fence off my plants!

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