Ridiculous Inconsistency

Okay, #fail! Completely. I have not updated at all this summer. It isn't as though I haven't been busy but rather there is nothing really blog worthy.

My garden had a great summer and I am learning more each day. For example, the previous owners called it a natural garden with native plants but that seems to mean weeds. And not the good kind...the invasive and spread by deep roots kind. So for the last month, I have been turning the soil to eradicate some of the weeds so I can actually find out what perinnials are in the garden. In total, I pulled more than 18 bags of weeds. It was ridiculous but now I know what is in the garden and can plan for summer 2013 accordingly. I even measured my garden space...just call me Martha Stewart. Now all I need is a hot gardener to do the weeding next year so I can just enjoy the garden sipping wine in the sunshine.

Everywhere you see bare dirt in the above pictures was once covered in weeds. Unbelievable! I am slowly "taming" the jungle that is my garden.

In addition to the crazy weeding adventure, my hollyhocks developed a rust fungus and my raspberries also appear to be fighting something...perhaps a fungus (online wasn't much help - but fungus is as close as it gets). As much as I want to have organic/natural garden, there really wasn't an organic option that would truly rid the plants of this fungi. So I battled it with a fungus spray.

I am pleased to report that the rust fungus is almost gone on the hollyhocks but the raspberries are still suffering.

In other news, my apple tree is still battling on despite the fireblight and I was able to harvest a bucket of apples. They are quite good and I just made a pie today out of them.

My raised vegetable garden also produced some great food. Beets, carrots, potatoes and lots of greens. The peas and beans were mediocre and the onions/leeks are still growing. My zucchini was a failure producing only two zucchini in total. I thought zucchini was like a weed here...I guess not. My herbs also grew well.

 

Now my tomatoes are having a stellar year. The cherry ones are turning red and I am harvesting a handful each week. My roma ones are nice and big and GREEN still. I will have to harvest them this week due to frost potential.

Well, summer is officially over as per the date on the calendar but it is still getting to mid-20's during the day so hopefully it will continue for a while long. As pretty as the autumn colors are, I just love summer most of all and am always a wee bit sad when the season changes. Enjoy the remaining warm days while you can.