June 25, 2017

The Homestead at the End of June

Inspired by Donna over at The Poor Farm, here's what's happening around our place.

Red raspberries

Amaranth

Black-eyed Susans

Blueberries

Corn

Marigolds

Apples

Goats (this is Daisy)

Daylilies

Cats (Sam and Riley guarding the ongoing hay harvest)

Echinacea

Green Beans

Lavender

Tomato blossoms (green tomatoes too)

Winter wheat

More on that last one here.

23 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Leigh,
I've been reading and enjoying your blog for a while now but whenever I tried to comment it would not let me. Today something has changed. Anyway I love your pictures and I love your blog. You can visit me at

Unknown said...

Guess I hit the enter to soon https://donteatitsoap.com/

Mama Pea said...

Lovely, lovely, lovely! Each picture hit me with the knowledge that you in your climate are SOOOOO far ahead of us in our climate! But we both still manage to garden and grow the best possible foods for our families, human and animal alike, don't we? We just have had to learn how to work with our individual environments.

Leigh said...

Ruth, welcome! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. Yes, I've had problems with the embedded comment form; even I can't comment on my own blog sometimes. I've reported it to blogger but so far it's still a problem. The pop-up comment window seems to work best. Looking forward to making a return visit to your website!

Mama Pea, I just came from your blog and beautiful garden photos. You will notice that I have no broad views of the garden, because you wouldn't be able to tell the veggie plants from the weeds, LOL.

Cozy Thyme Cottage said...

Hi! I think your self-sufficient farm is doing wonderful this year and looking at the pictures it looks so peaceful. Raspberries look so yummy too. Not sure if I will get a few this year or not. Nancy

kymber said...

i am just super-impressed and super-proud! in the last day or 2 something just ate all of our carrots! we had 18 rows of carrots that were all coming up and now they are gone! dang slugs! your garden is beautiful and i know that you are loving it, weeds or no weeds. holy moly - the weeds here we don't even pay attention to in june. the grass is up to our knees and jambaloney just mowed!!!

i loved the pics of your garden and am sending much love your way, as always! your friend,
kymber

Living Alone in Your 60's said...

Lovely photos, it's great having fresh produce you can just help yourself to when it's ready. I have green and black beans too.

Rain said...

Wow Leigh, your garden is so amazing. I love the wheat! I can't wait to grow corn...my garden is coming along well despite the wacky cold weather! I love the marigolds, I planted some and they are just beginning to come up!

Michelle said...

It all looks so good!

Chris said...

Lovely summer colours in the garden, just makes all the work worthwhile. Looking good!

Goatldi said...

Nice job. Love all the photos especially your Echinacea beautiful! My goats have pasture envy. After almost a year of pasture this heat dried it up and we aren't set up to irrigate. Hopefully it will return in the fall and I have a barn full of my hay guys wonderful alfalfa to make amends.

Donna OShaughnessy said...

Well imagine that. My name on your blog! Almost as big a thrill as when I played volleyball with Bill Murray in 1978, which my kids still don't believe. But I regress, LOVE seeing all the photos of your place and am so jealous you have green beans already. Ours are only about 4 inches out of the ground. This gardener has been slow with the planting.

Leigh said...

Nancy, rain helps! And not too hot of temperatures. Hopefully our good weather will continue. :)

Kymber, thank you! So sorry to hear about your slugs - we've had a bad time with them too this year. I've actually tried diatamacious earth for the first time - so far so good!

Tania, thanks! That first mess of steamed green beans with butter and salt was marvelous! I didn't plant black beans this year after a huge harvest of them previously. I hope you have a good gardening year!

Rain, thanks! Do you get enough nice days for corn? It's a beautiful plant and Dan loves a large patch of it. So much easier to process than wheat!

Michelle, thanks!

Chris, so far so good! So much depends on the weather we get in July and August. At least we have our new huge raintank full! That's more than we had stored last year.

Goatldi, that's devastating news about your pasture! We had that problem last summer and I'm really struggling to get our pastures re-established this year. It's discouraging, isn't it? Glad to hear you have a good source of hay; that's something we don't have. :(

Donna, my turn to be impressed! You played volleyball with Bill Murray?! Actually I read quite a few of your blog posts and ran out of time to leave many comments. We're a bit ahead of you in terms of gardening weather, so here's hoping for prosperous gardens for us all!

Sandy Livesay said...

Leigh,

Gorgeous garden and flower pictures. Can I come over to your place and harvest some beans :-) We haven't planted any veggies or fruit this year because of the move and work being done. I'm praying next season will be a full garden plant.

Are those wild raspberries? Now that's some golden wheat, can't wait to hear more about it.

Hugs,
Sandy

Ed said...

Bountiful!

Henny Penny said...

It all looks so pretty! Your corn looks green and healthy. We have had lots of rain this summer and the corn fields around here are pretty this year.

Leigh said...

Sandy, thanks! I know what you mean about missing planting a garden, but considering everything you and Bulldog Man have been doing I think it was a wise decision for this year. The raspberries are some I planted, although I do get a few wild blackberries.

Ed, I hope so!

Henny Penny, the rain has been wonderful and I'm very thankful for it! Hopefully the summer will continue to have just enough rain to keep things growing well.

Katy said...

What zone are you in ? I'm in SC and seem to be farther ahead, but I'm fast approaching the time when everything gets burned up permanently. Did you ever decide about not gardening in July/August rather than Jan/Feb? I was contemplating that.

Kev Alviti said...

Love it! looking great!

Leigh said...

Katy, good to hear from you! I'm in zone 7b, and yes, I've definitely thought about taking my gardening breaks in July/Aug, rather than Jan/Feb. It would mean getting a much earlier start than I usually do, and the thing that holds me back is not having a good place to start a lot of seeds. I start my tomatoes, watermelons, and some herbs indoors, but our winter building projects usually take precedence. Would love to have a greenhouse for that reason!

Kev, thanks!

Lucy @ Smallest Smallholding said...

Your cats look soooo cosy... I always thought my cats would adore a big pile of straw _ or even better - a whole hay barn to themselves :)

Katy said...

ahh- that is exactly what I was pondering -- the need for a greenhouse for serious winter gardening. Although here, I had success with tons of lettuce in January, go figure. I think I am 8a. We are a long way off from building anything so "fanciful" as a greenhouse though, we're shooting for functional bathrooms this year. lol

Leigh said...

My lettuce does well in winter too. Then when the tomatoes are ready for BLTs, the lettuce has all bolted from the heat!

And good luck with your bathroom. It looks really nice so far. Just pace yourself!