Peek at the "Farm" in early July

Pictures of my garden as it stands today, July 7th, 2013:

Blueberry barrels in front, raised beds just behind. You can barely see the chicken wire that's attached to the EMT conduit frames. Left to right, you see: sunflowers, corn, tomatoes, beets, green onions, parsley, the cucurbit tent, and strawberries.

Fruit orchard. Left to right as pictured: white peach, red pear, cold-tolerant peach (we actually got 1 bloom on it this spring!), green pear, honeycrisp apple, and red rome beauty apple

And of course, the ladies: Penny and Roo in the front, Spot and T.O.E in the back. We still get 3-4 eggs a day, except when 4th of July fireworks scare the girls silly. We only got one the next day.

New this year: family pots on the patio. Bobby, Susan, Alice, Robert, and James. Bobby has peppers, one rogue pea plant, and a newly transplanted fiery nasturtium. I've got pink zinnias and Mexican mint marigold. Alice has peach nasturtiums. Robert has a bushy Mexican mint marigold and a rogue cantaloupe. Poor James' pot is so little that it dries out easily and gets knocked over several times a week. That little marigold is the toughest flower I've ever raised.

What I'm not showing you is all the bare dirt. There are large swaths of raised garden that I left barren this spring because I didn't have the energy to grow big this spring. That's okay. It's saved my energy enough that I think I'll try a fall garden for the first time ever. The cucurbit tent has consistently protected my melons, zucchini, and cucumbers from their respective insect nemeses. Maybe this fall, I could actually keep the cabbage moths away from broccoli and kale!

The cucurbit tent has a major drawback, too. It excludes pretty much EVERY pollinator. My zucchini, melon, and cucumber plants are lush and loaded with flowers, but haven't produced a single fruit. I will have to hand-pollinate if I want to harvest anything this year. Next year, I can plant varieties that don't require pollination. Yes, they exist. A little biology lesson from OMFRA:

"Both watermelon and cucumber are normally monoecious, an exception being that the seedless European (greenhouse) cucumber is parthenogenic--meaning that fruit development occurs without requiring the normal process of pollination (i.e. the transfer of pollen from the male flower part to the female flower part). As well, the triploid or seedless watermelons do not require pollination."

 Now to find a parthenogenic cantaloupe...hmmmmm. I just love that word, parthenogenic.

Some of the wheat we've been throwing to the chickens has sprouted in one of our less protected garden beds. It's popular with the bunnies, however, and stays at a nice, even 2-3 inches in height :)

Once I tie up the loose ends on the squirrel exclosure, then maybe I'll tackle the bramble beast.