You might think that with all of the energy I spend being June’s biggest hypeman, I ignoreJuly. But July is also great. It’s just a liiiiiiiiiiiiiitle bit more cicada-y. A liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitle bit more humid. And once July 5th rolls around, people start trying to pumpkin the place up when we here in Southern NJ still have 2 more months before school starts. That’s a bummer.
So let’s do July. Let’s hit up some local summer festivals, let’s sit along the water’s edge, let’s toss some food on the grill, let’s eat tiny boxes of cereal for breakfast, and let’s eat popcicles every night.
But first, let’s check in on the garden.
Strawberry season has wound down, but we’ll have a few stragglers here and there to snack on as we water and weed.
This is half of the potato plants I’m growing. They are thriving and I think we’re about 2/3 of the way to harvest.
I’ve pulled two zucchini so far. One became zucchini muffins. There are currently 3 more. My radishes have been plentiful and I’m adding them to my salads when I can. Radishes only take 30-45 days from seed to veg so I’ve been planing a few each week to replace the ones I pull. Speaking of salads, I’m pulling the lettuce out this week. I had plenty of wonderful salads with harvesting leaves from just those two rows but now the greens are bitter. I’m going to plant green beans in its place.
I have too many tomato plants of three different varieties and so far they are fruiting and have had no issues with aphids.
I plant a bunch of seeds in March and I even give plants away and I still have too many plants.
I have two varieties of peppers and the jalapenos have fruited first. (The blue flowers in the background are borage, a good companion plant for vegetables.) I should be seeing the first bell peppers soon. Maybe by next week?
I planted three cucumber vines, and one from last year grew on its own. The only cucumbers so far are these two ‘pickling’ cucumbers. I have so many male flowers and these were the only two female flowers. It’s still only July, I have time despite what the pumpkin fetishists say.
Every morning, I watch the Angry Man Farm bees do their work.
One of my yearly goals is always to have an abundant garden and this year I think I’m on track for success! It’s already performing so much better than last year’s. I regularly post stories about the garden hijinks on my Instagram account, also named kimberussell. And if you want another Instagram gardener to follow, I used to work with Stefanie back at the C-P and I love following her garden. She’s another SJ girl.
If you’re also gardening, how is it coming along this year?
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