July Garden Update

The raised bed garden is doing very well this year. Almost everything is growing beautifully despite some minor baby-induced neglect. Luckily last year we came up with an easy setup that requires minimal work, and we repeated it this year. I’m really glad we went ahead and planted the garden despite my extremely large and uncomfortable size in May. It’s been a wonderful stress reliever for me and a great reason to get outside more often. Sometimes I bring the little forest ranger with me in a sling, or I’ll bring the baby monitor with me and slip out while he’s napping.

The tomato bed is doing very well. We’ve had a few early cherry tomatoes, and lots of green ones I’m waiting to ripen. While the plants are not quite as tall as they were last year around this time, they are still full of fruit and blooms.

The vine bed is also doing really well. The cucumber seeds turned into healthy vines with multiple cucumbers growing now. The yellow squash and zucchini plants have been very productive and we’ve harvested quite a few. The musk melon vines have several baby melons growing.

The flower bed has been a mixed bag. The zinnias have been growing beautifully, but the dahlia bulbs have been a disappointment. Half of the bulbs I bought didn’t come back and the ones that did are a little ragged. I’m not sure what I did wrong - I followed all the proper overwinter storage instructions and planted everything the same as last year... oh well.

The last bed is very overcrowded! The beans grew up the pole so fast and we’re already harvesting them. The carrots sprouted and the herbs are growing. The transplanted oregano grew a little out of control during my neglect and it’s still huge after a major shearing. I tried radishes this year for the first time, I had no idea what to expect. These literally took over for a while - they grew so fast and aggressively! I had cut them way back and they are still huge. And they are very prickly, I learned my lesson and now always wear gloves when handling them. Ouch!

The potted peppers are also doing really well, happily producing lots of fruits in their little pots. So far no animals have bothered them on the patio which is great.