Category: Around the Kisner Homestead

Every year the garden is different. This year we started season in a drought so watering every day was necessary. Now, in July, we’ve had over 8 inches of rain! Basically, the lettuce and radishes in the raised planters did well. They were easy to water when it was dry and drained well when it was very wet. The Romaine lettuce is starting to make heads.

The sweet potato in a pot has survived having most of the leaves chomped off several weeks ago by the deer. It has recovered well and is now sending out runners…not sure if the roaming bunnies will find it yummy.

In the next week or so, we’ll dig up the beets. The tops were a nice snack for the deer a few weeks ago that slowed down their growth.

Forgot to take a picture of the potatoes to the left of the beets…you can sort of see a little piece of that bed in the picture above. They are starting to die off but that’s normal. Bert said he could see a few potatoes above ground so he added some potting soil to cover them up. When the plants are dead we’ll dig up the potatoes.

The garden up on the hill mostly survived a wandering deer…the footprints in the wet soil gave them away. Bert has started spraying the plants with a nasty-smelling concoction that is meant to keep deer away. We’ll see!

The lavender is filling out and the bees love it. I’ll wait a little while before I cut too much.

We have lots of green tomatoes, but they are ripening fast. I expect in the next week I’ll have trays on the kitchen table with almost ripe tomatoes.

The carrots are finally looking good. We’ll leave them in the ground until November or December and dig up just what we need.

This empty section had green and yellow beans. After the last picking, I pulled the plants and replanted green beans. The dry/wet contrast was pretty hard on the plants.

The Delicata squash seemed to spread out all over…but it looks like we might get a few squash.

Even a “double” squash!

And of course, my favorite…Echinacea flowers!!

Enjoy!

Time to share the mid-July adventures in the garden! Last week, the view of the patio planters looked like this:

Radishes, lettuce and my sweet potato plant were doing well. I was pretty sure they were safe from roving bunnies and deer because they were so close to the house. Unfortunately, the deer saw the sweet potato plant as part of their salad bar! Sunday morning, the sweet potato plant looked like this:

Two days later, the plant is trying to recover:

Oh well, I tried!

Then we noticed the beet tops. They looked like this last week:

Sunday morning they looked chomped all along one side!

Very frustrating. Several beets had been yanked out of the ground so I cooked them. Yum…really sweet!

The potatoes and Delicata squash were not touched.

Up in the garden on the hill, amazingly, nothing was touched. When you look at the short but sturdy garden fence, we were surprised the deer didn’t just hop the fence for a snack! So far, that hasn’t happened. Maybe the hoses look like snakes.

The lavender continues to fill out:

The tomatoes are doing well:

The carrots have finally started to grow:

The beans are blossoming and making tiny beans!

The Delicata squash is getting huge, with little squashes starting:

And of course, my favorite…Echinacea!!

Bert has now sprayed the sweet potato plant and the beet tops with some deer repellent. We’ll hope it’s enough to deter the deer so the plants can continue to grow!

After struggling over a month with no rain, finally we are seeing abundant rainfall! The grass is slowly greening up and the garden doesn’t seem so parched. More cloudy days and rain really help. Time to show you some pictures!

In the patio planters, I’ve harvested radishes three times so far. The newest crop is pretty tiny but I have several bags in the refrigerator.

Another section has radishes a little smaller, but the lettuce in front has been donated to some bunny friends (or should I say…a friend with bunnies)!

The lettuce we have the most success with is Black Seeded Simpson, so I’ll fill in empty spaces with more of that.

Remember that single sweet potato that was growing on my kitchen counter? It is going to make a great plant. Not sure if we’ll actually get any sweet potatoes out of it!

The small potatoes that were sprouting in the kitchen are also doing well in the ground!

The beets are lush enough so the weeds don’t have a chance. I’ll thin them when they get bigger.

The last section of the raised beds was going to be several herbs…however, the seeds must have been too old…nothing came up! So, we put in the last few Delicata squash plants we had. A good choice since it’s quite handy to the bird feeder and the visiting deer won’t eat them. We’ll see!

Up in the garden on the hill, the lavender is doing well. I’ve cut the first flowers to encourage the plant to send up more.

The tomato plants have lots of blossoms so I’m encouraged that we’ll have lots of tomatoes this year!

Boo hoo! The poor carrots are having a hard time. I think the very dry hot weather was tough on them. You can hardly see them!

You can see how dry and cracked the ground is even though Bert watered every day!

The beans seemed to respond to watering over the last month so they look pretty healthy.

The Delicata squash plants finally look good. Bert had to replant them several times. Not sure why they didn’t sprout. They are a vining plant, so we’re not sure if we’ll have to add a climbing trellis.

And finally…the Echinacea!! I’m anticipating some beautiful flowers pretty soon!

This is about the time I’m glad that lots of people around here have gardens and sell produce at the Farmer’s Markets. We certainly couldn’t grow everything we need in our small garden, but it sure is rewarding when we eat our first home-grown tomato!

Hot and dry! That’s been our weather the last few weeks. We have had no measurable rain since May 2. It’s tough to see the brown spots in the grass and the cracks in the dirt in the garden. Thought I’d share some pictures. So far, Bert has been able to keep up with watering the garden plants directly but not the shrubs. I guess he won’t have to cut the grass for a while…it’s so brittle it breaks when you walk on it.

The only place the grass looks good is right under the bird feeders, since every day Bert dumps out and refills the birdbath right by the trees.

Targeted watering keeps the radishes and lettuce going.

My sweet potato plant is doing well. I’m hoping I get some pretty flowers from it.

The lavender is doing well.

Some of the tomato plants have blossoms already.

The carrots haven’t been able to push through the dry earth…even with watering every day.

Green beans have popped.

Bert had trouble getting the Delicata squash to even sprout this year. Hopefully the vines will take over this space.

The Echinacea is trying to make flowers already.

Another worry with no rain is how dry the woods are around here. Campers and hikers have to be careful. Maybe it’s time for a rain dance! I’ll get right on that!