Home and Garden Friday - Summer's Bounty!

This summer is heating up! 

Yep, temperatures are in the high 90's, low 100's now. Unfortunately, the humidity just about equals the temperature. However, I was a bit smarter this year and added soaker hoses to the garden. That is helping a lot. 

So far, since March of this year, I have harvested a little over 62 pounds of produce from the garden. It has been everything from asparagus and blackberries, to cucumbers, beans and tomatoes. Loving it! 

I have made several blackberry cobblers in the past month - mainly to take to work or a Seed Bank meeting. Canning - I have already canned 2 quarts and 1 pint of green beans. Tomatoes canned has been 1 quart and 1 pint. I have dehydrated some cherry tomatoes to make sun-dried tomatoes and some zucchini to save for soups. 

There has been about 7 pounds of potatoes harvested, 5 pounds of garlic and 4 pounds of onions. I have planted more seed potatoes for a fall crop. 

The cucumbers are mainly being picked really small at this point in time. I want to try making 'sweet gherkins' - my favorite style of pickles. I will probably pick up a basket or two of tomatoes from the farm stand in order to make salsa and sauce from. My tomatoes, which this heat, are really slow in producing. 

The bed above is now filled with cucumbers and zucchini, tomatoes and Calypso beans. In fact, it is actually overflowing and I love the look.

The pole beans are now to the top of this teepee and the tomatoes are about double in height. This year I am also growing sweet potatoes, which I have never done before. Will see how that goes.

But I am happy with the progress to date. My Toka 'Bubblegum' plum has set plums for the first time. The flavor is really good. I only have a couple dozen this year, so I am looking forward to next year when I should have more.

There will be some setting up of a fall garden soon. There are some things I want to succession plant or try out. I also need to finish up formalizing expanding my garden this fall/winter. 

For now, I'm hiding from the heat.