Time for a Garden Update...

I have made the comment recently that I have put more work into my garden this year more than any I've ever had... with the least results.  So far, I have been very disappointed in the produce from my garden.  I purchased my seeds all in one place, as I was experimenting with going completely heirloom and organic.  All the seeds I planted were heirlooms, and were organic, with no hybrids or genetically modified seeds.

What I have been finding is that the produce from these seeds has been very sadly disappointing, to date at least.  To be fair to the heirloom/organic seeds, this was my first year planting a garden in this soil.  However, I did supply plenty of natural fertilizers including Epsom salts, lots of organic fertilizer, plenty of water (even though I've had to haul it in coolers every day over to the garden from our house, since we have never gotten the well we were promised we would get!).   And, another reason why I believe this has to do with seeds, is that I shared these seeds with several friends, and they have reported the same results that I have had.  They have tried the seeds in their garden, with lots of love, care, fertilizer, water etc., and very little produce to show.

With that being said, here are some pictures of the garden so that you can see  how things are going so far, and any suggestions, ideas, or comments are appreciated!

 This has been my morning ritual for the entire summer, except for the blessed days that it rained! (The watering cans have duct tape on them, thanks to our sweet Annie when she was a puppy and chewing everything in sight, lol!)

I filled up as many buckets, watering cans and coolers as the pickup bed would hold.

I would fill the cooler almost to the top, but by the time we reached the garden, at least one-quarter of the water would spill out.

These are my heirloom tomatoes so far.  There seems to be a good amount of them growing, but so far none of them have started to ripen.

And I did pick the best tomato plant out there to photograph.  The darker green tomatoes look like they should be about ready to start ripening soon.  We shall see!

My corn -pftt! The turkeys invaded my garden after I planted it, and these are the only corn that survived.  Even at that, they have been very slow growing, and have not even tasseled yet, so unless a miracle takes place, we won't be eating any corn from the garden this year :(

The zucchini and yellow squash have grown veerrrryyyy slowly this summer as well.  It has taken this squash 2 weeks to grow from a bloom to about 8" in length.   Again, squash usually takes over and wears me out with its efforts to produce, but so far this year, we've only gotten enough squash to make one meal so far!  Not so good!

This is one of the few teeny-tiny pumpkins that are growing.  I highly doubt they'll make weight before the first frost!!!!

Green beans  - they are growing, but slowly.  Have gotten enough green beans for one meal so far.  The rest I have been freezing as they come in slowly, and perhaps we'll have enough soon for another meal.

The green zucchini are doing okay, but they've been working on getting this big for two weeks!

The turkeys helped me plant my garden. I had all the lettuce in one row, but have found it growing scattered throughout the garden, lol.  However, the lettuce seems quite happy growing with the broccoli beside it.

This is one head of broccoli that is growing quite nicely!

More of my lettuce - growing now with the carrots... those crazy turkeys!!!

This is my potato patch. It was planted late, as an afterthought, and then the turkeys did their damage here too.  I had the potatoes all nicely planted in rows.  You can see here that the turkeys just scattered the potatoes everywhere.  Oh well. The straw was an afterthought too.  My dad had mentioned how well potatoes will do with straw covering them, so while he was here, we put a bale of straw or old hay over the potatoes.  The potato plants really seemed to like having the straw mulched around them.  So, we shall see what they produce come fall!

And last, but not least, my crop of peas.  Again, the turkeys had a hey-day with the peas too.  The few that did come up struggled to produce at first.

I have been getting a handful or two of these beauties a day.  Not exactly enough to feed a family on, but sure makes a great snack!

And that is my gardening update for now.  Maybe in a week or two things will change as fall approaches, and harvest season will have to happen, now or never!  One can always hope, and I guess that is what keeps gardeners like myself going.  Taking care of a garden is a lot of work, but reaping the rewards makes it worthwhile.  I truly hope that some of my efforts will pay off in food for our family's table.  That remains to be seen, largely thanks to the turkeys and gophers who invaded my garden in its early stages, the fact that this is the first time this soil has ever grown vegetables, and the fact that we don't have a well, and I have had to hand water everything.  Yes... we shall see :)