It is amazing how quickly the time rolls by – it seems like we were just taking photographs for May – and here we are in July! In spite of high temperatures, little rain and some bad storms – the garden and farm are faring well. We have begun to pick our green peppers, jalapeno, banana and mini belle peppers – as well as a few tomatoes from the “Big Mama” plant. We should hopefully be in prime picking within three weeks for our Roma’s. June was a busy month – we planted the new grape seedlings into the vineyard area – and finished up a lot of work on the barn and patio. Here is the Farm and Garden in pictures for July:
The Banana Peppers are coming on strong – Hot Pepper Mustard is just around the corner!
The Marquette Grapes arrived from the nursery just in time for the first big heat wave! So far so good – they are growing on their stakes. When they grow a bit bigger – we will switch them from the small individual stakes to the trellis lines next spring.
The Barn Pergola was finally completed in June! It will hopefully be a great place to relax in the coming months after long days in the garden.
The Tomatoes are filling out their stake-a cages – we have a lot of green fruit on the vine…ketchup, salsa and sauce should be right around the corner!
Close up of the Roma Tomatoes on the vine
We planted two clematis on the upper pergola – we hope they will grow to fill in the top grid with shade in the coming years
The deer found our purple green beans right before harvest…I hope they enjoyed…
Our newest ornamental pepper we are trying – the poinsettia. They have tons of blooms and little green peppers – now they just need to turn to their vibrant yellow and orange color.
Our favorite ornamental pepper – the Sangria. We put them in a mass planting bed and they are taking off – hundreds of little purple peppers that will turn crimson red in the fall.
Close up of the Sangria Blooms and Peppers
The Four Amigos…four of our hens looking for bugs in the yard. The girls have layed steady through the heat so far – about 8 eggs a day on average from the 9 hens.
The beautiful bloom of a spanish onion in the garden
Zucchini have been holding their own in the intense heat…this is one of the better plants
The Revolution Green Bell Peppers have been producing strong – here are a few on the vine right after a hard rain has splattered them with dirt.
We started work on the framing of the outdoor kitchen structure – we have built most of the shell in the barn to stay out of the hot sun as much as we can
Zinnias in bloom in one of the potted planters
With Dad’s old flagpole in place- the farm starts to take shape. It’s hard to believe just four stakes were in place a year ago to mark where the barn would go.
The front bench got a fresh coat of black paint to match the barn. The bench was a freebie that was discarded by a local business changing it’s decor.
Last but least – we had a few “extra” residents in the barn this past month…Momma bird found a nice place under our loft to raise some little ones.
Our garden signs we made form reclaimed barn flooring.