It’s time for another garden update!
Some quick background for new visitors: I garden in NE Minnesota where we have a very short Zone 3 growing season (this year’s last frost was June 8th). I use hugelkultur raised beds and apply permaculture methods throughout my garden. Nearly everything I grow are heirloom varieties and all are organically managed- no chemicals, pesticides, or anything unnatural.
We’ve continued to have a steady amount of rain. But the temps have been warmer, so the combination of rain and heat and resultant humidity has been great for the garden. I’d love to go the rest of the season without watering! We shall see.
Without a doubt, mid-July is my favorite time in the garden. It’s so full and green. Nothing has started dying back yet, only just starting to produce. We’ve canned pickled garlic scapes, could eat lettuces and other greens for days, the herbs are in full swing, rhubarb is just about finished for the season, strawberries are ripening daily (which I have to fight the chipmunks and birds for) and I am looking forward to shelling peas this weekend. So the “spring crops” are happily feeding us while green beans, garlic, cucumbers, and new potatoes are on the horizon. Tomatoes, peppers, onions, and sweet corn are a bit further out yet.
Without a doubt, I’ve found my most favorite shelling pea to grow. I’ve depended on “Canoe” for the last couple of years to supply my family with enough peas for the freezer, and this heirloom bush variety just can’t be beat. These plants are abundantly filled with huge 6″ pods with a dozen large peas inside. Couldn’t recommend them enough. I save my seeds, and I look forward to being able to swap and share where I can.
The corn really took off this last week with the heat. Being such a cold region, it’s a bit of a commodity being able to grow sweet corn in the short amount of time we have, provided we don’t have too cool of a summer. Just the other day, a friend stopped by and was taking a look at the garden. When he saw the corn, he said, “Hey, that’s CORN, isn’t it? Wow!” Haha…to most, corn isn’t exciting. But to northerners like us, it’s pretty special.
The cucumbers planted on either side of the corn have enjoyed the heat as well and will be climbing before we know it. I also have some random volunteer potato plants growing here, as this bed was used for potatoes last year. I may already have 4 beds of potatoes, but hey- the more, the merrier.
Both the runner beans and bush beans have just started flowering. I planted Sunset Runner Beans which have beautiful baby pink flowers, in addition to seeds I saved from my Moonlight Runner Beans from last year.
Tomatoes, nasturtium, dill, calendula. I love this group of companions as I love my tomatoes probably more than anything else that I grow, and I want to protect them. This protective group wards off tomato hornworm, aphids, and whiteflies. Young dill will even help improve the taste of your tomatoes (but don’t let it grow too big as it can stunt the growth of your fruit!).
The climbing roses have finally started to bloom, and I’m really enjoying the variety in their color. They start out more yellow when they start to open, and turn pink as they mature. Awesome. And the hollyhocks bloomed this week, which the bees have been crazy about. Really loving getting some good perennial flowers established.
Finally, we’re really excited to have started our future market garden. This will grow what we need for the farmer’s market next year, as well as supply a small number of CSA shares. I decided to go with a hugelkultur mandala style garden, which maximizes available space in a beautiful way. I get a kick out of how shocked people are by how much can be grown in smaller spaces. You don’t have to have a full acre garden. When utilizing raised, double-reach beds on which you can plant the entire surface, you ultimately need 1/4 of the walkway space as that of a traditional garden. And while it may be more work up-front building those beds, you will end up doing less work as you have zero tilling to do- and you can build your soil every year, making it better and better as time goes on. I love that. I also love that as we continue to clear our property, I can make use of everything we cut down. That’s a pretty awesome feeling.
More updates to come, you can be sure of that.
Thanks so much for talking this mid-month walk through my garden. See you next time!
