A little tour

Ah, the guilt of being a lax blogger.. this summer is rather busy. Not only am I trying to keep up with magazine deadlines and the weekly radio show, but the manuscript for my 2nd book is due in 5 weeks! Yikes!! That means my lovely summer days are spent working madly on my computer and the garden has suffered tremendously. Firstly, the deer have been making nightly pilgrimages to the garden.. my beloved beans have been desiccated. Secondly, the dry weather has made the soil like dust. We did finally get a rain 2 nights ago, but when I snuck up to plant some leek seedlings yesterday morning, the soil was still dry 3 inches down.

I knew that this would be a busy summer, so I tried to plan ahead and choose plants that wouldn't need me so much - tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, pole beans (damn deer, sniff), kale and such. The heat has been kind to the tomatoes, which are over 6 feet tall, but my lack of time means that they are inadequately staked. Oops! Maybe this weekend I can get out there and do a bit of work. I did find time to start some fresh trays of seedlings indoors for fall/winter though. I have more kale, broccoli, kohlrabi, endive, lettuces, swiss chard and a few other tidbits coming nicely under the grow lights. Soon, they'll be moved into the garden.

And I also sowed two beds of winter carrots. I still need to tidy up the cold frames and get them enriched for the late season crops, but again, it's on my list!

Lettuces, endive, Swiss chard and more - 1 1/2 weeks old!

One part of the garden that I'm thrilled with is the high bush blueberry patch. The plants are 3 years old now and bearing their first heavy crop of super delicious berries. Last year we harvested about a cup from each bush. Now, they're 4 feet tall and we've gotten 2 cups from each already with many more to come. The staggered ripening process means daily handfuls of the berries and I already have plans to greatly expand that bed next spring.

Next season - no book deadlines (or so I tell myself) as I want to get back to the pleasure of gardening and not 'speedy gardening', where both the crops and the gardener suffer!! :)

I promise to be a better blogger! Thanks for hanging in.. much appreciated!

Five types of kale, 2 quick maturing cabbage and kohlrabi