Garden: Midseason Success and Failure

How's your summer going? Ours has been so full of so many good things. I am so thankful for this season with our family. We've been having a lot of adventures together. But even when we are just at home we are staying busy. Our garden is one thing we all work on together. 

I am so thankful that we get to have a garden, and even more thankful that we don't rely on it alone to be able to eat. We are reading the Little House books right now and thinking about how families used  to have to grow enough to survive gives me a whole new respect for homesteading life back then. 

Every year we seem to have different challenges in the garden. This summer it's often felt like we are failing out there. Squash beetles have killed some of our squash, we have planted peppers three different times and they just keep dying. Twice I planted beets and something ate them the minute they come up. Half the green beans I planted didn't come up and none of the cucumbers. We started tomatoes earlier than ever and we've had fewer than ever ripen up. Nonetheless, the season's not over, and we are enjoying some success. Here's a few things that did work and are making us happy. 

The few beets that did come up have beautiful tops. I can't wait to sauté these up with some butter and snow peas. Our snow peas also did great this year and we picked several bowls full. 

Some friends of ours gave us this windmill. I love seeing it in the garden. It's perfect for our little city farm. We planted some spaghetti squash nearby and they have over taken the bottom of the windmill. There's five good-size spaghetti squash on this trellis.  The ones at the bottom are huge!

One of our planters was more weeds than veggies. A lot of things we planted just didn't come up there, so we pulled out the young onions (which are still a usable size), and tilled it up and started over a couple weeks ago. Everything else below we picked in the last couple of days. When I put it all together I realized, we aren't failing. Some things are working, and seeing this pile of stuff we grew makes me happy, and eating it together will make us healthy. What more could we ask for? It's enough. I'm still hoping for more tomatoes in the next couple months though ; )

I hope you are enjoying the fruits of your labor, whatever they may be, and finding that they are enough. Happy summer! We'll be taking advantage of the last couple weeks of summer fun before school schedule starts here. Oh how I love these long and full days.

You are loved!