Our garden is steadily growing and flourishing, so I thought I'd share some photos of the new raised beds and their contents. While these photos were taken about 3 weeks ago, and the plants have increased in size a good bit since, they will still give you a glimpse of how things are progressing.
You may remember that last year we built a new fence around this larger of our two veggie garden plots. Dad also began building raised beds to replace the 12-year-old ones and to add new ones to this garden. This spring he completed 15 more raised beds to finish the job. I'm thankful for his hard work which will benefit us for many more years.
Let's take a tour! Below are the 4 8'x4' strawberry beds along the east side of the garden. We've enjoyed a small crop of berries from these ever-bearing plants.
This year I've planted approximately 50 tomato plants of various types, including Brandywine, Beefsteak, Goliath, Roma, Black Cherry, and more.
In the next row of beds (actually columns, running north to south) are the permanent blueberry beds, and in the photos you can see that the bushes Mom ordered last fall are mostly still just sticks. We hope at least some of the 36 plants survived and they'll produce some leaves, blooms, and fruit next year...we'll see.
Here is another row of younger tomatoes. Some of these I started from seed and others are unknown varieties rescued from the compost bin.
Pumpkins and other varieties of winter squash are planted next.
In the distance you can see the 4 established blueberry bushes against the fence.
This year we put in a couple of rhubarb plants which Sarah intends to use for her delicious pies. Next to the rhubarb are purple-hull field peas. Blackberry and raspberry canes are ripening in the background.
Here is another view of the yet unsprouted hills of winter squash and the blueberry bushes.
The blueberries have been producing well this season. I usually get about 2 pints each picking.
So big and juicy!
The berries that didn't make it into our mouths, muffins, or over cereal and ice cream got stored away in the freezer for later.
Another angle of the tomato beds....these are now in need of tying up to the stakes; they have grown so much since I captured these photos! You can glimpse the spent asparagus and poppies in the background.
There is still more work to be done, keeping up with the weeds and finishing laying down the black plastic for pathways.
Thanks for taking my garden tour. If you come for a visit to the Mountain Musings homestead, we'll feed you its harvest. :)
~Hannah
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