Colorful Garden

 I really love growing stuff. I suffer through the winters because I'd so much rather be outside tending a garden in the sunshine. This year I focused on veggies that my family regularly eat instead of the novelty crops like spaghetti squash that I had 15 of last year. I also planted a huge row of giant sunflowers and several rows of zinnias. I've noticed higher yields on years where lots of flowers were planted in the garden. They bring so many beneficial pollinators to the garden. 

Here is the early stages in May after I mulched it. Not much to see here.

These were taken early August. 

We've got a ton of tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupe, baby watermelons, basil, green beans and sweet corn. The baby asparagus are looking good, maybe next year I can harvest some. We've had to deal with corn thieves this year for the first time. I think it's raccoons as I saw a family of them near our house last week. They pull the ears off of the stalk and pull away the husk and eat every last kernel on the ear before throwing on the ground and moving to the next one. 

 

We moved the chicken A-Frame house over to the garden since they were demolishing the grass where ever they were positioned in the yard. This way they can work up the soil and leave their droppings, enriching new soil for the garden next year. 

 

I let the 4 batams out in the mornings to hunt for bugs while I'm in the garden.