Summer Is...(2nd)

Summer is...GARDENING!!

We decided this year we were going to put in permanent raised beds. Below is how our garden has come along since the beginning of this season.

We started with logs we cut out of our 10 acres of wood lot.

Added some composted manure.

A few teepees for the beans & peas.

And then added the vegi's. Let's see...this year we grew Spinach, Lettuce, Bush Beans, Pole Beans, Dry Beans, Tomatoes, Brocolli, Brussel Sprouts (accident...), Kale, Zucchini, Snow Peas, Yellow Summer Squash, Peppers, Cucumbers, Swish Chard, Basil & parsley.

Everything is growing really well. We didn't get much spinach before it bolted but we did have tons of lettuce. And the basil...it grew like crazy. Lot's of pesto making going on!

Picking beans with Gram. I've put up at least 20 pints of bush beans in the freezer (and given away a bunch more. I finally pulled the bush beans the other day as they had really dropped in production and put in some carrots.

Check out the pole beans behind us. That was less than a month ago.

And now look at them. Grew up the poles and are headed back down again. They are going to go to seed soon because there are a ton up top that I cannot even reach. Next year we will not do the poles so high!

And I threw some radom sunflowers into the garden also. We plan to dry them all and use the to supplement feed to our chickens through the winter.

And we are already planning for next year. We need to add beds for Corn, Potatoes, Garlic & many more tomatoes. We also might try some things like eggplant and turnips and rutabega's. We will see how ambisous we are this fall.

We've also been talking about building a hoop house to overwinter our chickens in going forward. Give them a lot more floor space and it will be warmer for them. Plus they can scratch up the ground and get it ready for spring. As soon as they go out on grass in the spring we can start things like tomatoes, peppers & eggplants in the hoophouse. We will see if that gets done also. So much to do, so little time!

How's your garden been growing this summer?