Garden Update: July

Oh my goodness ya’ll, I’m sorry it’s been so long. The summer has been so busy, and nature is really testing us this summer. The grasshoppers are eating everything! They are now turning to locusts and eating their way through whole apple tree leaves and taking out every tasty green leaf they can find. Here’s a little bit of the damage to our rutabagas and tomatoes:

Then there’s the deer in the small garden… If I thought grasshoppers were bad deer are absolutely horrific. They destroyed my dahlias, ate my apple tree, ate the roses off my rose bush, ate the growth tips off my peas, ate all the chard and kale, broke a pot and took down one entire decorative shrub. So now the small garden looks like this:

Seven foot wire fencing for the deer, and netting for the grasshoppers. Hopefully, we’ll still be able to get some butternut squash and pie pumpkins from this garden.

In better news, there is a lot of beauty and productivity still!

This beautiful berry is called a wine berry. In more northern parts of the country you might consider this a noxious weed much like blackberries. However, I love these berries. We got sent three wineberry plants in error last summer and to my delight they are delicious!

The summer veggie tunnel is a bit chaotic in this picture. In the last few days we put in a lot of effort to get things trellised and organized and now it looks amazing. Peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, cucs, melons and chilies for the win! New picture coming soon.

Last, but not least is the corn and all the flowers! This is my absolute favorite view in the big garden. Our specialty corn breeding project combined with all herbs, medicinal flowers and fruit trees! This view brings me joy and calm every time I need to chill out.

I hope your summer is going well. How is your garden growing? Leave me a link below if you have a blog or other social media.