There is hope for the 2009 garden after all!

If you have been a regular reader of my blog you have had to wait THREE weeks for a new post. My apologies for that! I can report that the summer weather finally arrived in Maine and I am a happy gardener again. Also, after a visit to Richmond VA to help my uncle, Ralph celebrate his 90th birthday, I returned to Saco with my son, Julian and we tackled a huge project. We finally tore up the hated railroad ties and sinking bricks at the front door entrance here and built a new front porch. It was a major undertaking and took us three days. The first pictures below are the before and after images of it.

Thanks to some summer-like weather the garden has really taken off and is growing well and also producing results. The 100 garlic plants have now been harvested. The first batches of green and yellow beans are harvested. One plus from all the rain and cool weather has been my best lettuce crop ever for daily salads. The blueberries are now ripening on a daily basis and I am about to make my first batch of jam. The tomato plants are thriving and many small green ones are emerging. The first zucchini and yellow summer squash are nearing harvest size. The flowers are bursting forth everywhere as the pictures below indicate. I can now harvest some carrots, chard, beets, and more turnips as well these days. I am starting to feel confident that the garden will be okay after all in 2009. It is about a full 3-4 weeks behind the normal schedule so I am hoping for a warm August and September and a late frost to let the harvest be very successful.

Skunks are digging small holes in my yard on a nightly basis to find grubs to eat. I don't mind because the Japanese beetles are at a minimum this year thanks to the skunks! My priority is the veggies and also the flowers so I can tolerated the lawn abuse.

I have seen the first cucumbers forming as well but the plants are small and not running very far along the ground yet but I am hopeful about the "pickle harvest" now as well.

During this past three weeks I also hosted a garden walk vist from members of the Saco Bay Garden Club. I think about thirty showed up during the hour that was for this stop on a three house tour. I receive many accolades and good advice and gardening tips. I do think many people touring thought I must be crazy to have such big gardens for a team of one!

So that is my July story... a good one. No travel in August for me so a lot of time to devote to garden work and harvesting and canning the results.