Monday, August 2, 2010

Mid-Summer Lull; Harvesting Food

I've been very busy the last few weeks:  I've landed a full-time teaching job starting in the fall, so I've spent most of my time preparing classes (and raising my daughter, and everything else).  My garden has suffered because of it, as has this blog.  But here's an update:

We're in a mid-summer lull.  The front garden looks beautiful, I've been harvesting food for a few weeks now, but there's none of the excitement of spring and early summer, where new plants are popping up and new blooms are opening all the time.  There are a few new blooms, however, including most of my annuals (sunflowers, zinnias, and morning glory), as well as my garden phlox.  


I've also realized something about myself:  I'm much more of a flower gardener than a food gardener, which I regret.  If the flowers fail, you just get new ones.  If the food fails, it's much more disappointing.  So I have to work on improving my vegetable gardening skills -- next year.

My main success in food production is with fruits.  We've been picking blackberries in the back yard, a few strawberries now and then, and just yesterday, I started pulling the most-nearly-ripe peaches off my tree, so as not to snap the branches.  A few were soft enough to eat, even if small.  I pulled over 30 off the 5 year-old tree, and probably have over a hundred left.  It's going to be a bumper harvest.

3 comments:

  1. I would like to be both a flower and food gardener, but I find most of my attention is diverted to food gardening. Hopefully some day I can devote more attention to the flower gardens. Yours are an inspiration.

    Lovely peaches! I didn't realize we can grow peaches here in Maine.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, you can grow peaches here, if you can stand fighting off the Japanese beetles. I planted a "Reliance" variety, and it's done well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. David, congrats again on the teaching opportunity. You will be the best!

    Great looking garden! And those peaches look great--remember I am always hungry!

    What a great gardening year. Little did I know that day after day in the Falmouth poly house when I promised to customers over and over again that this year would be the "best gardening year--EVER! that I might be right.

    I have not grown the Reliance Peach but we know it to be a great fruit tree for Maine!

    ReplyDelete