Our Summer Garden

It's not summer around here without a garden post :) This year our garden hasn't been as fruitful as it's been in years past, but we planted a lot of new stuff this year so we've still had lots of fun watching everything grow! We planted our new potatoes earlier this year in a separate plot so we wouldn't have to worry about digging them up too early to get the summer garden in. Since we did that, we were able to plant our summer garden a couple of weeks earlier than we did last year. We thought this would work in our favor but unfortunately it backfired on us. Josh sprayed round up on everything like normal but since we were a couple of weeks earlier he was pretty much spraying round up on dirt and leftover mustard greens. We tilled everything up, planted, and a few weeks later we started noticing the weeds. UGH! I hate weeds. They really only attacked the first two rows of the garden so it wasn't as bad as I make it seem, but we've never had them before so I wasn't a happy camper. I like for my garden pictures to look pretty and those weeds make it look unkempt to me! Next year, we'll probably end up waiting until later to plant so we can spray the weeds once they emerge and kill them for good. (#killalltheweeds) Other than the weeds, it's really been a good year. Here are some pictures that I've taken of the garden since we planted. 

Going from the fence to the yard there are two rows of purple hull peas, three rows of lima beans, two rows of snap beans, onions, and bell pepper. Looking past the row crops you can see our corn , squash, and zucchini. You can't see the rows of okra but they're back there too. 

This year we planted three blueberry bushes. They're small this year but we hope they do lots of growing so we can have fresh blueberries next year. 

Onions

Bell pepper

Corn

Squash and zucchini

We pulled off three ears of corn to see how they looked and I was quite pleased!

My work was cut out for me after picking all the corn. 

Fresh corn all ready to be put away. Yummy! It took a lot of hard work to make this corn crop happen so this was a welcome sight! Three separate storms knocked my corn plants over again and again. I stood the stalks up three separate times willing and praying for them to keep living and they did! I was never more happy to see such a good looking harvest of corn!

Eli's class did a unit on seeds and each kid got to pick a type of seed to plant in an individual cup in class. Eli chose sunflower seeds. Once they stated to sprout his teacher sent them home so we could transplant them. While we were deciding where to plant them we left them outside for some sunshine and Mr. Barkley decided to give them a little taste (#thatdogeatseverything) Eli was really upset when he found out he didn't have any sunflowers left to plant so it was off to the store for us. We bought a packet of mammoth sunflower seeds and planted them by our back fence. Every day we went to check on them and when they started blooming they were beautiful! I never tire of the miracle of planting something so tiny and watching it grow into something so big. It's one of life's wonders :)

Our bell pepper crop has been really fun. We planted 12 small bell pepper plants and they have produced like crazy! (#peppersfordays) I've given them away, chopped them up and put them away to use for seasoning blend, sliced them and put them away for fajitas, and cooked with them. This particular night I picked four of them to make stuffed bell peppers. They were so yummy!

Our okra crop is just starting to produce and we already have had so much we've had to give it away. 

There's nothing like fried okra though and several times this summer that's what has been on the \ menu for lunch or a pre-dinner appetizer. #friedokramakesmehappy #irunforfriedokra

Usually I check the garden either in the morning (if I'm already stinky from an early morning run) or later in the afternoon (so I can jump in the pool afterwards). I love checking on my garden and seeing what wonderful veggies it has ready for me each day. We just planted sweet potato slips and another round of squash and zucchini so we're still set for fresh veggies through the fall. We're already making plans for what new veggies we're going to plant for our fall/winter garden and I can't wait. I'm so glad we have our garden. It makes this southern girl's heart very happy :)