Lush Green World

Almost four inches since this morning.

Despite what the news said (clocked us around an inch of rain for today), we've had almost four inches of rain in the last twelve hours. We also had the same last Sunday. It's been great for the growing of things! Including mosquitoes!

Purple and white flowers on field peas.

Red and yellow new potatoes. Made a tasty potato salad.

Really though, it's been wonderful. Our back field is thriving. We thought we might need to irrigate it - contemplated accessing the stream at the back of the property, rain barrel etc. But no need for that. Most of potato plants are already done flowering, aside from those planted late and those hit by the farmer's weed spray. *sigh*

The field peas have been doing fabulous. They are beautiful, and are also
smothering a lot of weeds, as we hoped. We still have to figure out something for harvest in a couple months. It might be me and my scythe, ha. Or with hubby's weed whip. Time to make friends with more farmers!

Strawberry harvest seems to have ended for my June-bearing berries. July has brought on the ripening of our wild blackberries though. They are tasty, but tiny and full of thorns and one must battle the legions of mosquitoes to get to them. This morning was nice and cool, so I could suit up and venture into the middle of the blackberry patch in relative safety. We won't turn down free fruit!

The garden has been growing great. This is my first year planting peas and cabbage, and they are both doing spectacular. I made a pea and mint salad yesterday that was so-so. I think eating the peas fresh is the absolute best - you can't top that sweetness. I made a slaw with half of the red cabbage for dinner tonight - very tasty and also quite sweet. Home grown is really worth it for health and flavor. And no worries about chemical types here. The white cover cloth has worked well for keeping most of the cabbage moths/ caterpillars from our crop. They were my main fear in planting cabbages, but so far, so good.

Turnips, red cabbage, zucchini, peas, lettuce, calendula and chamomile flowers.

Pea row, with volunteer sunflower, lettuce and other greens.

Under-cover cabbage, zucchini, flowering parsnip, tomatoes and sunflowers.

Beautiful volunteer Mayo Indian amaranth. Almost as tall as the sunflowers this year! 

Baby chicks in the outside "playpen" next to the garden.