We put in a decent amount of time in the garden last week, though Brooke’s been out there most days this week weeding. Needless to say, with a garden this size, it’s almost a full time job if you really want to keep all weeds out of it. For the most part, we’ve just kept weeds out of the western portion of the garden and are letting the corn go, as it’s getting big enough that we can barely get between the rows anymore.
Here’s the second half of the pea crop. Last year, the peas did absolutely nothing, so getting just about two buckets like this is an improvement. Took us longer than expected to shell all of this while watching “Modern Family” last night!
In the future, we’ll probably have to plant peas even sooner. These went in the ground in early May, but it probably needs to go in even sooner, even with the risk of an Iowa frost. Hopefully Meg still loves peas next summer!
The tomatoes are starting to come on, with small little green ones like this on practically every plant (pictured in the top image…we’ve got something like 16 of them, in various varieties). Nothing edible yet, but we’ll have plenty soon enough!
The beans (green ones to the right, soup beans to the left) are doing alright. The plants aren’t all that large yet, but we’ve got buds on the green beans, so they’ll start producing relatively soon. Brooke spaced these rows apart pretty well, so it’s somewhat easy to get in there with a hoe and take care of weeds. And believe you me, we see plenty of weeds between those rows…
The corn got its “tassels” this week, but still isn’t as tall as Brooke’s parents’ corn down in Hannibal. This is our first year trying to grow corn, so anything we get will be a “bonus,” so far as I’m concerned. We’ve got 4 rows that we planted earlier than the two on the right (tassel-less), so hopefully that spreads out the corn harvest a tad bit. We’re starting to see a corn stand or two as you drive around the area, so it appears that other people’s garden crop aren’t too far behind.
This is a “Meg,” growing beneath the broccoli. While Meg is developing pretty well, the broccoli isn’t doing as well as I’d like. We have a row of plants this big, but we only have one plant that we’ve found so far that has any actual broccoli on it. Brooke’s parents had some fresh broccoli off their plants over the July 4th holiday that was wonderful, but ours doesn’t appear to be doing that well.
Regardless, the garden is doing alright. As per last year, the tomatoes will probably do the best out of everything, but we’re starting to see some results from the crop as a whole!