Mid Summer Garden Update

Wow, the middle of the growing season is already here! It's a time of transition from tender beginnings to maturity and harvest. My garden is lush, full of flowers and food! Come along on a photographic journey of my progress over the past few weeks.

I've been blessed with bees - both traditional honeybees, and the bumble variety, seen here pollinating a snow pea flower. I think wildflowers growing around the property helped attract them.

The peas did well this year, despite early heat waves threatening to end their season before it could even begin. Luckily, this part of the garden gets shaded during the peak heat of the afternoon by a nearby tree, and I kept the pea plants well-watered. They have returned the favour with plenty of flowers!

This row of shelling peas outgrew the trellis I built for it!

The bush beans are flowering, too. I have 4 rows, half planted a couple weeks after the first half, and they've all been flowering.

These are some roma tomato seedlings I still have in a starter container. But keep in mind, about half of those have since been planted out into the garden, filling in spots where other plants failed, or have finished up for the year.

This poor pumpkin plant has tried its best, but it can't seem to produce any new green growth! It just keeps putting out flowers, which fall off. My 3-year-old believes if he tries hard enough, it will produce him a pumpkin, and he cares for it diligently. I don't have the heart to tell him yet that we might have to get a pumpkin from the local farmers market in October. The ring of sunflowers around it is looking quite nice, though. I expect they will start putting out flowers soon.

On the other side of the yard is another ring of sunflowers, and a couple little squash plants in the middle.

Speaking of flowers, here are some garlic flowers - also called scapes. Each plant sends out a single scape, once a year (generally in June). This can be removed to encourage more nutrients to go down into the bulb (making your harvest bigger and tastier). The scape itself is considered a delicacy, excellent in a stir fry, which is what happened to these ones I brought in from the garden.

The snow peas have been incredible here, despite suboptimal weather this year for growing peas. I'm pleased. My son and I have been snacking nonstop for a couple weeks now, and we've also brought in several handfuls to be added to salads and cooked into main courses. Crisp, tender, and sweet pods.

The shelling peas have done really well, too. I think I'll do at least one more row of them next Spring, and definitely plan to have the seeds planted earlier in the year. This year I've had to dig up the garden (once the ground thawed in April) by removing a huge area of sod (grass, moss, and roots). Next year I'll be a few weeks ahead because the garden's already here. I look forward to an even bigger pea harvest in 2024.

That said, I'm pretty happy in 2023! I've been growing this particular strain of green pea for several years, and I think this has been my best result. I'll save a few handfuls of them for next year... and the cycle of life continues!

That's a red malabar seedling coming up under the pea trellis. The peas will be gone soon, and the malabar can grow up the trellis. I got the seeds from my buddy @smithlabs. Apparently, they like it hot! It's a heat-tolerant type of spinach.

My potato plants are flowering! They're cute, but I think I will remove the flowers to send more nutrients down to the tubers.

As you can see, the potato plants are healthy. A few are starting to yellow, but that's probably just a sign they're almost ready to harvest. Most are vibrant and green. I'm growing 4 different varieties. It will probably be a good harvest. I hope they're nice!

Garden overview photos

I take a photo each evening after doing my gardening. Here are the latest additions:

The observant reader may have noticed the lettuce patch shrinking and disappearing. Some tomato plants are finally starting to get bushy, and the potatoes and peas have matured. I plan to use the new images to put together a GIF image of the entire 3+ month process... stay tuned for that! Here's the most recent GIF:

And for a video tour of the garden (taken about a week ago), check this out:

Harvest

Mid Summer brings the harvest of various crops! The lettuce has finished up, and we're in the middle of pea season right now. The green bush "wax" beans are also starting to come in, with carrots, potatoes, and more coming soon!

Piles of pea pods! On the left is a variety I started growing last year (at my previous garden in Southern BC). It seems to do well here! Quite the producer, on very tall plants. On the right is a variety I've been growing for several years. It's smaller, but still produces a good amount of food, and the peas are really tasty.

There's the big ones. Please note, these peas are still young, tender, and sweet. They have been harvested before reaching their full size, to minimize bitterness and maximize tenderness. So these peas could have been up to 50% larger if I had really wanted to show off.

Here are the smaller ones, which I've been growing for longer. Classic sweet green peas, good raw or cooked. Full of healthy carbs and protein.

Speaking of protein, the beans are ready! It's going to be quite a crop, despite a rocky start for these plants.

These went into a homemade pad Thai, and it was fantastic. Really nice beans! We're looking forward to several more meals off these plants.

I pulled out a test carrot, and was pleasantly surprised. Nice length, and definitely starting to fill out. Very healthy-looking. Crunchy and sweet! Glad to have a nice full row of them.

Putting down roots

I decided it was time to invest in a berry patch! We took the kids to a local plant nursery and brought home a couple young blueberry bushes. The back right side of the yard seemed appropriate, as it gets plenty of direct sunlight.

I don't really have the energy (or money) for another move anytime soon! The last one (Oct 2022) was forced upon us, long-distance, to a small town where we have no support, and got screwed up in a way that really hurt my family's health and finances. For that reason, and many others, I would like to stay here for a while. My kids need stability. Hell, my wife and I need stability! We could use a few years in the same spot.

And so, blueberry bushes!

I don't think we'll get a crop this year, but if I get them big and healthy this year, they'll produce me some nice blueberries next year! I can almost taste the pancakes now...

Thank you for making it this far! This post could have been split into several to maximize profits, but I'm not in the business of cluttering up the blockchain to make a buck. I had all the photos together at the same time, so I figured I'd give you a nice visual feast to scroll through! I hope you enjoyed it. Comments and questions gladly welcomed! And before you go, please take a pea.

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