In the Garden This First Week of August

Posting a weekly look into the garden has been a goal since April.  Well, it's August.  Many of the plants have already yielded much, are very tired-looking now, and here it is, the first entry.  Better late than never, right?

The highlight of my time in the garden this week was opening it's gates to out-of-town family, including my sweet, 91-year-old grandma!  I could hardly believe that she was there, in my garden!  It was such a sweet moment that I will forever cherish.

My amazing parents joined the fun Saturday morning, bringing bluegrass music and a whole lot of joy. Although the garden is looking quite tired, it is still providing a good amount of food for us, and for that I am so thankful.  I wouldn't get a fraction done in this plot without my mother's massive help with the children.  I bring them with me to the garden a lot, but when it's really hot, they get to stay with Nana (which is always their preferred option, anyway).

Corn was a crop I was really excited about, but it has done the worst, I'm afraid.  I have a lot to learn still.  I either pick it too early or too late.  We had irrigation issues during it's crucial growing time and that really messed them up as well.

I keep hoping every time I open and ear that one will turn out okay, but so far that hope has been deferred.

In the words of wise Ma Ingalls, There is no great loss without some small gain.  I plan to gather the stalks up, tie them in bunches, and use them as part of our front porch Autumn decoration.  We should be in our house by then, and looking at the stalks, thinking about them on our porch (our porch!) makes my heart leap.

The chard produced well, but has been scorched by the sun and is just plain tired.  We pulled it out of the garden today and will direct-plant a fall crop in a couple weeks.

Then there's this little helper.  Little hands do a lot of picking, but almost just as much shoveling-garden-treats-into-little-mouths.  I set him by the cherry tomatoes and let him go to town while I scurry about like a mad woman, desperate to get done as much as possible before he dissolves and it is nap time.  It's quite the site, I'm sure.  

We started planting the autumn garden this week, but first I had to irrigate the empty beds.  It's a glorious site, seeing a bed getting evenly sprinkled by a line that you put in yourself.  You just have to stand there for a while and look at it sometimes.

In the ground for the autumn garden so far are potatoes (Red Gold, German Butterball, and Austrian Crescent Fingerlings), and Half-Long Guernsey Parsnips.  I am hoping to get fennel and cabbage seeds planted before the week's end (meaning today), because next week, the plan is to plant lettuce, more cabbage and fennel, peas, radishes, and broccoli, oh my!  And that's just the beginning...

I'm sharing this at Simple Lives Thursday.