At this point, I’m hard-pressed to tell you if my yard is a garden or a jungle. Although we’ve had very little rain over the past few weeks in southwest Missouri, the humidity has been HIGH. It is not only oppressive, but staying out there is miserable.
We’ve dealt with numerous issues ranging from blight, squash bugs, tomato hornworms, and blossom end rot (see 9 Common Garden Issues and How to Fix Them). There are days where I seriously contemplate ripping everything out and planting my fall garden early.
Ultimately, while overgrown, our garden does still look beautiful. This works to stay my hand (however temporarily) when I have the urge to rip up my pest-ridden vegetables.
Garden
One of my favorite things to do in the early morning hours is sit in the front yard garden. Watching the sun come up and listening to the cicadas provides so much peace.
Also, that is currently the only time of day I can actually bear to be outside with the heat index being 107 degrees by noon.
We chose to trellis our Rampicante Zucchini with a cattle panel arch after realizing that it was going to take over the entirety of our garden if left on the ground.
Although it takes up a large amount of space, it has been the only gourd that has survived the squash bugs and blight. It is something I am determined to always have in my garden.
Young Zucchini Rampicante.
Squash blossom.
If I’ve learned one thing this year, it’s that I’ve really undervalued the usefulness of flowers. Not only have they drawn in more pollinators, but they added so much beauty to what would have been a mostly green space. My absolute favorite to grow have been Zinnias. They are low maintenance and the bees love them.
Autumn Beauty Sunflower.
The pest pressure this year has been out of control. The Chinese Multicolor Spinach is growing, but has been struggling since late June.
Trellising by creating arches not only looks good, but, if you use plants that have heavy foliage, creates shade. This trellis is half Minnesota Midget Melon, half Beni Kodama Watermelon.
Beni Kodama Watermelon.
The blooms on our Chinese Red Noodle Beans where the surprise of the season. The purple is so pretty! It has also been one of our most prolific crops. We use them in stir fries and they are tasty when eaten fresh.
Mature Chinese Red Noodle Beans.
High Tunnel
If you have read my previous recaps, you know the high tunnel has been more high-maintenance then we anticipated. Between the issues we had building it, and our most recent fly infestation, it has caused a lot of troubleshooting and research.
July has been the most stress-free month. When the temperature started to consistently get in the mid 80’s, we threw a custom shade cloth on top. While this keeps the temperature down, it still easily gets into the 100’s by mid day.
Because of this, any gardening has to be done in the morning or at night, much like our front yard garden.
The Golden King of Siberia Tomato has been a great tomato to grow outside, but has really struggled in the high tunnel due to the humidity.
Our Raspberry Lyanna tomatoes have been, by far, the most prolific. They were the first to blush and their sweet taste has been a family favorite.
I trellised all of our tomatoes, but left the right side to go wild. This is how it looks with minimal pruning. While it is crowded, our yields on that side have increased.
Even though it is miserably hot, they have also still been dropping blossoms. All are indeterminate cherry tomatoes.
Peppers love the heat of the high tunnel!
Next spring, they are the only vegetables I will plant in there. The humidity doesn’t bother them and they are the only crop that has minimal pest damage. We chose to grow Shishito Peppers, Corbaci Peppers, Jimmy Nardello Peppers, and Habanada Peppers in this section.
Shishito, Habanada, and Corbaci.
More Raspberry Lyanna. Once we resolved the blossom end rot problem, they started taking off.
Looking back…
Growing food this summer has been a struggle, but it has also been so rewarding. We have been able to incorporate at least one thing we’ve grown with at least one of our daily meals.
We’ve also been selling any extra produce for cheap to friends and neighbors. We are nowhere near breaking even, but I feel called to provide the opportunity for other people to eat organically affordably.
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