I realize it hasn't been that long since my last update, but it feels so long ago. This has been a really rough summer and I have spent most of it sick. I have a chronic illness and it's been kicking my butt. Yesterday I was full of energy and I did great and then in the evening it hit me and I needed help to bed. Today I have had to spend most of the day resting. It's all so frustrating, I have so many plans and things I want to do and I find myself unable to do most of it. The weeds in the back yard are totally out of control. We were going to hire someone, but I decided not to because I'd rather save that money to buy more food to plant. I bought 4 dwarf trees, two apples that are supposed to be really great for storage and two donut peaches because they just looked so fun! It's gotten too hot and dry to plant anything without worrying it will die so I am saving my plant budget to spend all at once in October when it cools down and I'll be able to keep things alive. I've also decided that fall is the best time to plant so the seeds have all winter to soften and begin to pen. They will grow when they are ready and do better than the ones I plant later in the year. A prime example is the sunflowers. On the seed packet it says not to plant until the threat of frost is past, for us, that's May 15 so I kept telling my girls not to plant. It was silly, though, because the sunflowers the birds planted had already come up and they were fine. Now my girls' sunflowers are almost knee high while the self seeded sunflowers are 8 feet tall!
Let me tell you about some other really fun things going on in my yard. My elderberry bush exploded with growth this year! It's probably twice the size it was in the Spring and the flowers are HUGE! They are stunning, don't you think? I planted a second one, since elderberries need two for pollination, and I'm excited to watch the new tiny one grow. It might be 2-3 years before I get elderberries, but that's ok. Gardening is teaching me to be patient. 
My Globe willow is looking a bit like a bush, it has put on so much new growth this year. I will need to prune it, but I'll wait until fall so that it can get the maximum amount of energy from all those leaves. Can you see how big the sunflowers behind it are? Those are over my head! They were all either self seeded or helped out by the birds. They are shading the honey berry and forsythia bushes I planted in May and they are very happy about the shade. One little honey berry is without shade and it's kind of struggling and needs a little more TLC. |
| I found a cicada! I've heard them across the street, but this one sounded closer and sure enough, here he is! |
My grapes are also putting on a show. We are going to have a massive amount of grapes this year! Only half of the tunnel is full, but I planted the last few vines to fill it in and it should be completely filled in my next year. My girls really want me to plant something soft and green for them to lay on, I'm thinking micro clover. Of course, that means I have to figure out how to reroute the stream we were going to have run under the grape arch starting next year. Clover doesn't always handle foot traffic well though and we walk under the arch a lot, so they may be better off with soft green things under a shade tree or in their sunflower house. I am determined that one will work. If we had planted the seeds last year and they were 8 feet tall now they would be in heaven.
At this point I'm back in the planning stage. Since it's too hot to plant I'm just dreaming. We have decided where to put the last 4 fruit trees we want. We want two more cherry, an apricot and a plum. That will put the total number of trees on our little quarter acre food forest at 21...if the fig survives. If not I'll buy another tree to put there. Abigail wants a cut flower garden so that she can make bouquets all year long, Glen wants a tea garden so he can make his own herbal tea mixtures, John wants more berry bushes back by the sunchockes, and I want more asparagus. I also want a specific area for tomatoes and green beans because I want to plant a bunch of those next year in a vegetable garden. Some things I can just put wherever there is space, like pumpkins and corn, but for anything that needs to be harvested frequently, like green beans, tomatoes, or zucchini, I want it close.Cross your fingers that I can get everything planted this year so we can do our grey water system next year.
