I Can't Decide: My June Garden

My monthly walk through post is late! I did take the photos in time I just didn't get it put together until today. I do plan to be on time next month! Hey, and since I'm late you will have a shorter wait until my July walk through.

This is the view of the garden next to our house as you walk around the corner from the front. I have done most of my work back here since we moved in three years ago. I am finally working on getting the front cleaned up and ready for plantings this year.

I have the tomatoes and peppers planted behind the house. This works out well as tomatoes will stop producing in extreme heat. They have a few hours of shade in the morning which keeps them going all summer.

Baby tomatoes getting ready to grow up and feed us.

This teeny tiny pepper is potent! My husband and two of my sons shared one tiny pepper and it made all of them cry. Why do guys think it's fun to eat really spicy things?

Here is the potato bed. There are lots of weeds back there. I used the weed eater for the first time a few days before I took this photo. I don't like power tools but I can use a sewing machine. No, it doesn't make sense to me either.

See, a potato plant!

I've added a few things this year to the flower bed around the play area. I started this bed last year.

The flower border between the lawn and the veggie garden is looking nice. The blue flowers have been blooming since April or early May.

This pink rose sits in the corner of the flower border. It is on its second period of blooming.

And now the strawberry bed. I bought 25 bare root strawberries but only about 7 survived. I've been buying potted berries every few weeks and adding them in. I will have at least one full bed by fall. Green beans are growing along the edges and should be adding lots of green by next month.

This is the veggie garden from the back right corner. It has been taken over by sunflowers. I didn't want to pull any up. There are some veggies lurking in there and I took photos of them to prove it!

Now I'm standing at the middle of one end of the veggie garden. The strawberry beds are right behind me.

Here are some bush beans. I also have them planted along the sidewalk to grow up the trellis. I still have peas growing over there also.

Now I'm looking into the garden with the flower border behind me. Can you see the lettuce over there on the left? The bush beans are down at the bottom left. Excuse those pushy sunflowers.

See, lettuce. I got a late start on the lettuce this year. It didn't want to come up early. I need to figure out a lettuce growing method for our climate. It gets hot early. We almost skip spring. The white flowers are carrots which have gone to seed. I planted them last summer or fall and they never got pulled up. They are pretty in flower beds also.

Grapes! We have lots of grapes this year.

Do you need a break now? Have a seat in the shade of the grape arbor. I planted some impatiens behind the bunk bed fence and next to each chair. In the two beds leading into the arbor I have beets, bush beans, lettuce, onions, and sunflowers. I don't know how I ended up with so many sunnies. Many of them self seeded from last years plants.

The children's gardens. Elijah is into growing food, Sarah likes perennials, Isaac and David like watering, and Hannah wants lots of flowers. The new raised bed garden is on the right of their gardens. I'm hoping my husband will be able to build the last two boxes and then I will show you the garden next week. Even if we don't have it finished this weekend I will still give you a tour next week.

Here is the sunflower forest. This section is about 6 feet wide and 20 feet long. I have a bunch of snow peas growing with the sunflowers. I will be planting cabbage later in the season. I can't wait 'till all of the sunnies are blooming!

And now I'm standing between the raised bed garden and the old garden looking toward the back of our property. I need to measure how long the garden is. I'll try to do that for next week's raised bed tour.

Now we can look at flowers! This is echinacea which is in the herb bed.

Here is some Italian dandelion(blue flowers, it's not a true dandelion) which is growing on the edge of the sunflower forest.

Hollyhock

Pinks or dianthus

Cosmos

An acorn squash, whoops, not a flower.

The last of the apricots which we need to harvest.

Now don't laugh at me, k? This is my front flower border. I did add 2 Asiatic lilies this year. I also mulched with compost after I took this photo. I'm having a hard time getting anything to grow in this soil. My next step will be to get rid of the Bermuda grass. Wish me luck!