June 2016
June 2016
Every year, for the past 6 years I have shared semi-regular garden updates. It has always been fun for me to look back over the growing season and watch the progress in the pictures. Between those updates and my Homestead & Garden Binder, it has been incredibly beneficial to me as part of a journaling process to document what I have learned. It allows me to see how the Lord has blessed us with the abundance of our land. One of the most beneficial things it has shown me is that whatever He blesses us with one year, won’t necessarily be provided in the next. There’s a limit to how much I can depend on my skill as a gardener. But do you know what I always realize in the end? Where there is a dearth in one area of production, it is always made up for in an abundance in another area that didn’t necessarily do so well before. God always provides!
I’m mixing it up a little bit this year and doing a video tour of our gardens so far this June. If you enjoy the more informal, conversational format perhaps I’ll do it again for the rest of the year.
But this garden update is extra special! Because I get to introduce you to 11 other homestead gardens! I always love seeing what other people are growing, and how they are growing food, herbs and flowers. Plus, on this tour you will visit gardens in USDA gardening zones 3 through 9a. That means that some of the gardens are just beginning their season, while others (zone 9a!) are wrapping up their harvests. Join the virtual tour by clicking through to the other sites on the list below. Have fun!
Cucumber Beetle damage on our hoop house cucumbers?
Homestead Garden Tour
Joybilee Farm (British Columbia, Zone 3)
Homespun Seasonal Living (Montana, Zone 4b)
Homestead Honey (NE Missouri, Zone 5b)
Family Food Garden (British Columbia, Zone 5b)
Learning and Yearning (Pennsylvania, Zone 5b)
Homestead Lady (SW Missouri, Zone 6)
Timber Creek Farm (Maryland, Zone 7b)
Grow Forage Cook Ferment (Oregon, Zone 8a)
A Farm Girl in the Making (Washington, Zone 8a)
Preparedness Mama (Texas, Zone 8b)
Schneiderpeeps (Texas, Zone 9a)
Normally we’re just planting tomatoes in June, but look at all these flowers in the hoop house tomatoes!
Hay mulching & pulling thistle. The hay mulch retains water, reducing irrigation and making it easier to pull a long tap root on the thistle so it won’t grow back as quickly.
How is your garden growing? Join the fun and share some of your photos with us in the comments!
So wonderful to see your market farming as I’m venturing into it next season. Loved seeing your garden in video format. Best of luck with this season!
I can’t believe you would feel discouraged with such a spread as this! You have exponentially added to your efforts/end product from last year (and the year before that) and everything looks so wonderful! With every experiment, failed or otherwise, you learn something valuable. And besides- once we know all there is to know about gardening…it will be boring! Way more fun to keep chugging along and learning new things.
It’s funny- my children came down and began watching your video with me this morning and they said “I pity their children with those huge gardens!” Can you tell I have little weeders in my family?! ha!
Your greenhouse is amazing. A.Maz.Ing. My brother works for a garden center and has said he may be able to get me old plastic and hoop frames when they discard some. I am hoping that is not just talk but may actually happen for real- because, yeah. Love your greenhouse.
Everything looks wonderful Quinn! Well done, Missus! I hope you post more about your market farming. I would love to see how that pans out in the future- whether it is worthwhile and what it looks like for your family.
I have a sudden urge to want to go make a video tour of my garden…thanks a lot.
Quinn, do you have a post on your site about the greenhouse? Where did you get it from? Did you install it yourself?
I don’t. It came with the place when we moved here and we just covered it last fall for the first time. We have a local Amish produce supply store that carries them so we were able to save on a lot of shipping that way. I do have one tip… When you go to cover it with plastic get a crew of family and friends on hand. We did it ourselves (3 adults, and about 3 kids that could help) and pretty much Bill and Jared ended up climbing into the scaffolding, pulling it bit by bit. It was awful.