A temporary break from the birds and wildlife of Montana.
It’s that time of year. I usually post an annual garden update in July and many of my readers seem to be enjoy them so I decided to do it again. If you’re not interested in vegetable gardens or gardening in general, I wouldn’t blame you if you skipped this one.
These are all cell phone photos and I’m a little disappointed in their quality. Next time I post photos like these I’ll use a ‘real’ camera.
My (mostly) vegetable garden is long and narrow and it’s pretty big – over 1100 sq. ft. – so it’s hard to take photos that show good detail of the entire garden. This photo, taken yesterday morning, is the best I could do.
Let’s use the same photo to see what’s out there.
- Grape vines. More about them in a minute.
- Rhubarb. My rhubarb is always a great success. I use it mostly to make rhubarb cobbler and to give to friends and neighbors.
- Chives. I don’t eat many chives but I like their flowers in spring. I have more chives in a flower bed behind me.
- Rosemary. I use a lot of rosemary. Used it again last night to baste filet mignon (which is usually out of my budget). A few days ago I used it to make rosemary potatoes.
- Sage. I don’t use much sage either, but I think they’re a handsome plant.
- Zucchini. You know how that stuff is. I’ve been eating and giving away zucchini for nearly three weeks already.
- Regular cucumbers – 2 plantings to spread out the harvest, growing on a vertical trellis.
- A mystery imposter. This was supposed to be lemon cucumbers (my favorite kind) – that’s what it said on the seed packet. But I can tell these aren’t cucumbers – at this point they look more like winter squash of some kind. I just hope they aren’t pumpkins. I’m not particularly fond of orange and I’m not a fan of Halloween.
- Amaranth. Growing along my back fence. More about my amaranth in a minute also.
- Tomatoes. Nine tomato plants of five different varieties growing in a long row. My garden gets slightly less than an optimal amount of sunlight, so my tomatoes aren’t as early as those of some gardeners. I should be eating my first BLT’s with garden tomatoes in a couple of days.
- Golden beets. Three rows of them. I love golden beets and will never grow red beets again. I’ve been eating their greens for a couple of weeks now and harvested my first beets two days ago. I gave those beets and greens to a good friend. She said they were “freaking delicious”.
- Nasturtiums – in front of the beets. I like old fashioned flowers, orange or not. These are just barely beginning to flower.
- Peppers. Five varieties. Some are doing better than others.
- Eggplant. Two plants, with only one fruit so far.
- Spaghetti squash. My spaghetti squash is hiding back there behind my tomatoes. It started flowering this morning.
- Zinnias. Just because I like zinnias.
I did have one complete failure this year. When my Swiss chard plants were still small, insects, probably earwigs, wiped them out. I don’t use unnatural pesticides or herbicides in my garden so that’s a chance I take. I suppose even earwigs deserve something to eat but I’m a reluctant donor.
Part of my herb garden in a planter I built decades ago. Two types of parsley, basil, marjoram and thyme, growing right outside my kitchen door. Yes, my basil needs deadheading again. I have oregano growing in its own pot just out of frame to the right.
Here we see amaranth growing against my back fence. That stuff grows very fast and tall so I planted it there to provide privacy from neighbors. As I sit on my patio looking out toward the garden it’s obvious to me that my amaranth is growing like it’s on steroids.
But I wanted to know precisely how fast it’s growing so…
two days ago, June 30th, I measured one of the plants precisely and marked its height with a horizontal line on the fence behind it. Then yesterday, July 1st, exactly 24 hours later, I marked the height of the same plant on the fence. In 24 hours that amaranth plant grew slightly more than 3 1/2 inches.
Edit: At 8 AM this morning I measured that amaranth plant again. In the last 24 hours it’s grown nearly another 3 1/2″. At that rate it’ll be at least as tall as my 6′ fence by 8 AM tomorrow.
In previous years some of my amaranth plants have grown to slightly over 13′ tall.
Interestingly, nearly all of the growth of my amaranth plants occurs at night.
When I bought my house nearly 35 years ago there were two small grape vines growing on my east side chain link fence. Since then those two grape vines have nearly taken over the world. They’ve spread along my entire east side fence and about 1/3rd of my back fence, for a total of 88′ of grape vine in my back yard alone (yes, I measured it yesterday).
Those two vines have also invaded the yards of three of my neighbors. But everyone seems to like them for the privacy they provide and for…
their grapes. They’re a small variety of green seedless grapes and when ripe they’re very sweet and tasty. There are many hundreds of grape clusters like this one growing along the 88 horizontal feet of vines. Here they’re still small but they’ll get larger, although not as big as most grapes. I eat a few of them but the birds get most of them and I’m fine with that. Bandito the fox squirrel likes them too.
OK, enough (probably too much) about my garden. Here in northern Utah, we just entered our annual monsoon season so at this point my biggest fear regarding my garden is hail. Hail could wipe my entire garden out in just a few minutes.
Which makes me wonder if I should be making wine out of my grapes. I might need it.
Ron
PS – Obviously, I don’t know when to quit.
This is the best year I’ve ever had with weeds in my garden. Every morning I spend about 10 minutes weeding my garden but weeds are few and far between so most of that time is spent trying to find weeds rather than cutting their nasty little heads off. So, I thought I’d provide my readers with a few tips that I’ve found helpful in keeping weeds at bay.
- A drip system for irrigation not only saves a lot of water, it keeps weeds down because the ‘barren’ parts of my garden almost never get any water.
- Grass clippings on garden paths are very effective in suppressing weeds.
- Never, ever plant morning glory in a vegetable garden. I did about 13 years ago and it’s taken me this long to get rid of their awful and persistent volunteers.
- Use a scuffle hoe for weeding. I think traditional hoes are close to worthless, at least for weeding, although I do have one. Scuffle hoes are quick and easy to use and they’re very effective. I have three of them but the only one I ever use is the ancient one on the right that I inherited from my dad. It’s lighter than the others and from use its working blade is very sharp, so it cuts through soil and weeds with ease. I believe that hoe I got from my dad is over 50 years old. Maybe significantly older than that. I tend to like old stuff.
That is a beautiful and well organized and managed garden Ron.
Looks like you put a lot of work and love into it. Great job.
“Looks like you put a lot of work and love into it.”
Probably too much, Everett. Money too. Saving money on vegetables by growing them yourself is expensive. 🙂 Thanks.
I am envious!!! I remember seeing your garden the one time I came out and it was big then – 1992. I have planted 3 years out here and the only thing that survived were the grasshoppers and crickets. They eat everything as soon as it pops through the ground. Living next to the railroad and all it’s weeds does NOT help matters. I did have good luck with citrus in Gilbert – and tons of different things – including grapes on the fence – in Snowflake.
Keep up the good work. Loved all that you shared. I imagine you are still a great cook.
“1992”
You have an amazing memory, Judy. I remember that you were here, but I couldn’t have told you within a decade of when it was.
One pest I have very few of is grasshoppers.
Your garden is a thing of beauty!
Take Care,
Kaye
Thanks, Kaye.
Your garden is phenomenal every summer! I envy you your skills and sticktoitiveness (as well as your rhubarb — my favorite!). I’m more than happy to have you share additional shots of your garden as often as you’d like to. I’d love to see closeups of the different produce you’re producing. 😀
My parents both had wonderfully green thumbs, although they must have been heterozygous, as I inherited recessive “dead thumb” alleles from both of them. I’m glad my folks aren’t around to see how many of their plants I’ve managed to kill. My mom’s 2nd favorite rose (Brandy) bit the dust a few weeks ago. It did take me almost 20 years after she died though, and her favorite rose (Double Delight) is still going strong in the backyard, so I guess that’s sort of a win.
Marty, I almost killed one of my favorite roses just recently. Some vines had grown next to a sprinkler head, which kept water from getting to the rose. I didn’t notice for almost too long.
Glad you caught it in time! 🌹
Very nice Ron. Besides the edibles and the beauty, gardening is therapeutic.
I know this because I was cured by deciding to plant a vegetable garden starting with digging hard dirt. This occupied my time and helped tremendously when in my mid-thirties I found myself paralyzed a lousy broken heart.
Agree that it’s therapeutic, Susan. That’s something we all need from time to time in our lives.
All so interesting. That’s quite a healthy garden there. In my younger years I had a nice garden with raised bed. i had beets, cauliflower, onions, potatoes, and chard. The kids would pick whatever I wanted for dinner and that was fabulous. I admire your excellent garden skills. Wish you were my neighbor.
Thanks, Linda. I never had much luck with cauliflower but I usually grow green onions. Not sure why I didn’t this year.
Hey there the garden looks very nice and clean and no clutter . I have seen hoes like you have. Interesting !
They’re the only kind of hoe I’ve used for weeding for years, Trudy. Sometimes I’ll use a traditional hoe for planting seeds but that’s about it.
A glorious garden! I am not a gardener in any way, shape or form, but I’ve always appreciated the talents, patience and delicious bounty of those who are (my Saskatchewan grandmother among them). I’ll keep a good thought for your ‘maters and other lovely veggies (and Zinnias—who doesn’t love Zinnias?) that the hail is somehow diverted from your location!
Thank you, Chris. Including for the good wishes regarding hail. As a Montana farm boy, I have lots of traumatic memories of hail.
Abundant and gorgeous! Rivals any I’ve seen up in milder, wetter So Willamette Valley, OR! The rewards for your labor are also tasty!
“Rivals any I’ve seen up in milder, wetter So Willamette Valley, OR.”
Wow, that’s saying something. Thanks, Elise.
Now THAT is a vegetable garden. Impressive.
Don’t know how you find the time and energy.
Thanks, Michael. I work slow out there but I’m persistent.
VERY nice! I’ve never had a garden that large except as a kid when we had most of a 50 x 150′ lot in garden – with 6 kids lots of mouths to feed and cheap labor… 😉 I’m down to 2 tomatoes in pots that I’ve had to put shade cloth over as it’s just TOO hot on the E side of the house at present. Rhubar/Asparagus and a few strawberry plants are always there plus many perrenial flowers I’ve put in over the years. Haven’t spotted any Amaranth so far this year. The “darlin” whitetail deer find it VERY tasty. “Great White Combine” has skipped us so far tho not far away they’ve had major damage.
Judy, Cut Bank was a terrible place to try to garden. Just too cold, too much wind and a short growing season.
I’m very nervous about hail this year.
It’s great to see these garden photos! I love to garden and I’d love to have a big a spread as yours… and one as neat! I also envy that you already have cukes… mine are just flowering here on the east coast. Thanks for the weeding hints.
Joanne, I don’t have cukes yet. Flowers but no cukes.
Impressive.
Thanks, Laurie.
What a fabulous garden/yard, Ron! Your garden posts from last year were fun, but this one is even better – I am so envious! And I bet your neighbors are clapping their hands, too – since they share in the bounty. Gorgeous grapes!!!
Here’s wishing you gentle rain, no hail this monsoon season. Didn’t you make some hail-protectors last year that you could quickly put over your tomatoes? Are they still operational, ready to go?
Thank you, Carolyn. Yes, those tomato “hail protectors” are in my shed, ready to move out into my garden. And based on our forecast I might need them as soon as this afternoon.
I’m not sure how effective they’ll be but to save at least some of my tomatoes it’s worth a try.