Late July brought the first few ripe tomatoes from the garden. I’m harvesting a handful of cherry tomatoes each day and the larger tomatoes are starting to ripen as well. I’m growing Early Girl, San Marzano, Roma, Cherokee Purple, Jersey Breeze, Honeydrop, Bumble Bee Cherry, and Ruby Crush.

I’ve been cutting a bunch of dahlias each week to put in a vase on the kitchen table. I planted out a bunch of spare plants in the bed where the garlic had been, after extensively weeding and clearing out the grass that had taken over. I had about a dozen tomato plants, a handful of coleus and basil, and a couple of snapdragons. Trying to use all the gardening space I can, and get the last of the mature plants in the ground.

My new rose bush has produced several flowers, and has put on a good amount of new growth. Very happy with this purchase, it seems to be settling in to its spot in the corner near the fence.

I harvested my potatoes in 2 different batches in July. I had 5 total grow bags, of two different varieties. Keuka gold and Dark Red Norland. I harvested about 4 pounds of each variety, and we have been enjoying them, mostly steamed with butter and sour cream.

I actually managed to grow a few full-sized ones this year, which was a vast improvement over my only previous attempt a few years back.

Once the potatoes were harvested, I potted up the last few of my pepper plants into the now empty grow bags and moved them out of the greenhouse. These are a mix of bell and snacking peppers. The fig trees behind them are all coming along quite well and many of them are growing figs. As of right now, I have harvested 4 figs this season. Hoping for a bunch more in August and September as the fruit ripens.

The first ripe Chicago fig

The small corn patch is doing quite well, and I have spotted a good number of ears of corn forming. I harvested the first one last week. It had good pollination, even though it was small in size, and tasted quite good when steamed. This square was native soil (sand), and we only added a bit of compost to each planting hole back in May. Next year I will try to do better at fertilizing and adding nutrients to the soil, to hopefully get larger ears of corn. Overall, I’m happy with how this experiment worked out.

Unfortunately, the attempt at growing winter squash amongst the corn does not seem to have worked nearly as well as I had hoped. As of right now I’ve only spotted one small decorative Jack-be-little pumpkin.

The compost mystery squash (bottom) and purposefully planted pumpkins (top) are sprawling like crazy and putting out tons of leafy growth. There are also lots of freebie tomatoes growing out of the other side of the compost bin. I have seen lots of male squash flowers, but it is hard to see under the leaves to see if any actual squash is growing. The one female flower I spotted at the end of a vine did not appear to be pollinated. Guess it’s just not my year for squash!

A handful of small dahlia and zinnia flowers heading for the kitchen island.

The Kevin Floodlight dahlias have been the most productive of my varieties. They are also the largest, a dinnerplate variety. This vase also contains 2 Ivanetti (purple globe variety). I’m very happy I made a dedicated flower bed this year. The dahlias are growing alongside cosmos, nasturtiums, marigolds, and snapdragons.

I started some seeds for succession crops for the fall. I direct sowed some beet and carrot seeds in a few gaps around tomato plants in the raised beds. Indoors I have started broccoli, cabbage, and lettuce seeds. I plan to start spinach, arugula, and pea seeds this weekend.

I have been harvesting and dehydrating lots of herbs including basil, lemon balm, oregano, and sage. I planted out my small indigo seedlings in late June and they have been slowly growing. I am hopeful that I will be able to do a couple of leaf printing projects before the growing season ends.