Mushroom huntin, berry pickin & flower garden lovin

Today, I wondered into the garden. The tomatoes are my height, the cushaw and cucumber plants will be growing passed my head as they continue to climb the fencing. The corn is not as tall as most corn this time of the year, but for as late as I planted the corn, it's impressively tall.

I stood here proudly by rows of tomatoes in the garden.

Here are some snapshots of the garden progress. I picked my first cucumber today. Those should be coming on more prolific as the tomaotes will soon.

Cucumbers with tobacco sticks tied

Patches of different corn, tomatoes and corn growing

Ash exploring the garden for fruits, and giving us a wave.

Cushaw and cucumber growing on fence

Rows of corn growing alongside cushaw, cucumbers, and tomatoes 

More rows of corn 

My grandpa said that he has some cushaw fruits that are growing so it should be time for the rest of the rows of cushaw plants to start producing.

worms eye view of cushaw and cucumbers

Sunday was my only free day, so I hoed in rows of seed to replace the bean seeds I had planted. There were some bean plants that had come up, but not enough to make a big mess for canning. The seeds I planted in their place was 7 top Turnip, Purple top white globe turnip, early Jersey wakefield cabbage, bloomsdale spinach, black seeded Simpson lettuce, and buttercrunch lettuce.

Sowed seeds of turnip, lettuce, cabbage, etc

Here is another patch of tomatoes, growing alongside some beautiful begonias and coleus flowers that are hogging all of the attention.

Another patch of tomatoes with flowers

Below are the flowers working the runway this fashion week. Some flowers are my grandma's garden that I planted, like the gladiolus, and the whimsical little wildflower garden is my own that I planted.

Last week when I had a day off, I went mushroom hunting for chanterelles. I went to a spot where I hadn't been in almost a decade. But lo and behold, there they are, still growing in the same spots! I fried them up and ate them over rice. 

Here are other pickins from the garden, potatoes, berries, and jalapenos.

I have directly composted with fresh food scraps around the figs trees and grape plants. I have two Chicago hardy fig trees full of fruits and I hope the compost will make the get big fast, as well as the grape vines producing their fruits. But, we desperately need rain for them to produce juicy goodness, as well!

Growing a vertical garden & container gardening in early July

Everyday, I smile at this whimsical little flower garden. I planted these back in the spring but I couldn't tell you what the varieties are except identifying some sunflowers.

Other flowers growing at my garden are hostas with their dainty purple goblets. Mimosa trees are blooming hair-like, heavenly fragrant flowers. The daylilys died out and now the tiger lilies are blooming in their place.

Mimosa 

Hostas

tiger lilly

At my grandparent's, I planted these gladiolus and they are absolute royalty!

There's so many beautiful flowers at my grandparent's garden. I admire each individual flower every time I visit which you can see in the previous post.

Phlox and gooseneck

This hot weather has turned dry. It has been nearly 100 degrees everyday for a week here in North Eastern Kentucky.

There hasn't been rain in over a week. So I have been watering my container garden for the last 3 days. The containers dry faster so I focus on their needs first.

As well as watering the veggies in the containers, I have been using my own compost too as fertilize for the veggies. I have tomatoes, peppers, squash and cantaloupe in the container pots. They respond really well to the compost and grow quick!

Desperately, I need to water my grapes, berries and fig trees as they are fruiting now. I have been harvesting blackberries for over a week. It is early July, and that's the exact time to start picking berries and foraging chanterelle mushrooms here.

At least these plants are growing food. I was disappointed that the cherries, plums, peaches, nectarines and peaches were affected by the late frost. This should give you a tip if you're first starting a food forest: focus on late blooming fruits if you live in a cold climate. Of course, there's advantages and disadvantages to every garden endeavor.

At my apartment, I have many tomatoes and some pepper plants in pots as well.

Used my own compost to make the
plants grow big,  fast!

Jalapeno pepper plants

These were tiny tomatoes weeks ago before I mulched them with compost 

Basil plant too!

Also, I have cleaned up two garden beds, slowly trying to clear out all of the old radish, lettuce, spinach, cilantro plants. I harvested cilantro and arugula seed and cut it out yesterday.
Today, I spread soil overtop of the garden bed and transplanted Coxcomb flowers in the bed. These are plants that my grandma had growing extra from her flower garden, so I took some to add a little pizazz to the garden as the Phlox and Hibsicus and other whimsical flowers bloom.

Coxcombs planted

In the garden bed next to this, I cleaned it up last week and spread soil overtop then sowed zucchini and pea seed. Some zucchini and peas have come up, but I have struggled this year from pests eating seeds

Slowly I am cleaning up the garden, I'm hoping to get them cleaned up and ready for sowing cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli and brussels sprouts seed.

In my garden over the mountain, I tilled and hoed my tomatoes today.

I also hoed around the rows of corn. I strung up twine around posts as support for the corn.

Then, I put up more fencing for the cucumbers that are intertwining with the corn and cushaw. I wanted to keep all of the vining plants separated so there are barriers for them to grow up and not entangle to strangle any corn.

Cushaw growing on fencing

Cushaw, corn and cucumbers 

Now in this garden, there are big cushaw plants in 4 small rows, corn growing in 4 small grows, cucumbers in 3 small rows, and tomatoes in 4 small rows, and 3 rows of potatoes. I have beans planted but the seed was old, so I may plant lettuce and radish seed here now because this garden is cooler and shady.

Because it's early July, I don't have much time to plant any more beans, corn or any summer crop. But, any further planting will be for fall crops. And in this stage of planting fall crops, you have to be more diligent in composting and watering to ensure healthy, sustainable growth even in the cold nights that will soon come in October.