Farm Fresh: June in the garden

Tiger 2 is so lovable and fat and lazy.  He gets lots of attention and looks a bit like Garfield.  I have seen him catch a few things and eat them so I guess he is earning his keep. 

Peas for dinner. Peas for snack. The kids love making little picnics with the peas and blueberries. Sometimes I get them to help shell them for dinner.

So many chickens... two more friends brought us their chickens since they are moving away. That means we are up to about 60+ now (2 x 20 incubator babies, some broody mama hatchlings, and about 20 from friends moving).  We will keep them over the summer, pick our 12 favs and sell the rest to the halal folks as winter rolls in.

This has been a good garden year so far. I am enjoying the ease of the Amish style long rows.  They are all mulched and not too bad for weeding. 

  There are 2 x 70ft rows of various tomatoes.  I made myself leave plenty of space between the plants this time. So far so good.  We are going to have a big tidal wave of romas in a couple weeks. The big beef, cherry, carbon, and moskvich are all putting on decent amounts of fruit already too.

Onions and carrots in one long row just like last year.  I have been using the thinnings in soups and salads.  Fresh carrot greens smell so wonderful.

 New asparagus patch with some late beans along the fence line.

I have been working on creating beds around the edges of the garden. I am filling them with perennial herbs and flowers... as much as possible.

 Feverfew and valerian:

 Chinese forget-me-nots are annuals, but they are so pretty and are supposed to self sow.  It was easy enough to start a big plug tray of them and then I had 50 little starts to add color all around the yard.

 Getting these Calendulas started was quite a struggle. I started them directly in the ground (per packet instructions) but then I had to fence them until they were big enough to stand the chickens scratching around them.

This year's compost-in-place aka. weed & manure pile is almost ready for growing melons.  

 Purple sage.

 Gomphrena -- trying these out as a flower for dried arrangements.

And in my spare time, I am making slow and steady progress on the new front garden beds. On the right side are (starting at the back corner) rows of: parsley, cilantro/coriander, papalo, horehound, holy basil, german chamomile, Saint John's Wort, summer savory, and thyme... with a few johnny jumps thrown in. 

 Nettle and purslane (with a couple bee balms in the center) in big planters. I love eating nettle, but I definitely don't want it to start growing all over the yard.

On the lefts side are various types of basil, chives, german chamomile, a few leeks, evening primrose, cranesbill (perennial) geraniums. Catmint is running along the log. The big pots have a bay laurel and a rau ram plant.

Everyone who comes to our house asks me about the water bottles.  Why are they there? Turns out that my dogs (and to a lesser extent the chickens) LOVE to dig and lay in freshly dug soil. It's hot. The soil is cooler. I get it. But oh my does it make me mad when they ruin a newly planted area.  The water bottles are my solution to that problem.  I station them around each newly planted area or single plant to make it less appealing for digging.  It is working well so far.

In the orchard the elderberries are coming in well. 

The comfrey patch has passed its prime, but it was gorgeous with all its purple blossoms. 

 The area where I first planted comfrey is completely filled in now.  I have 50 more starts sprouting under the grow lights.  I will put those around my other fruit trees.  In the foreground is my new strawberry patch for next year.

 Putting all those leaves around my fig worked!  It is already fruiting! We will finally have a fig crop.

 The newly transplanted old blueberry bushes look happy in their new sunnier location.

 Wild raspberries are growing all around the edge of the yard.

 I have also been adding a few shade plants to the part of the front landscaping that I am calling my "woodland garden".  Too many English cottage gardening books, I know.  Lots more to do on that area.

 The paw paw trees.