Summer Garden Successes

Every year it seems, our gardening experiences have been, to put it lightly, a learning experience.  It seems we learn more of what not to do than what actually works. This year has been no different. Instead of drought, we have been dealing with more rain than we need, which brings about the bane of my existence this summer...weeds.

There have been some successes this year, however. If you look at the raised beds behind the farm house right now, you'll see this:

That is one massive bunch of tomato plants.

We are very lucky to have great soil to start with on the farm, but what makes all the difference is these guys:

Who knew these old "hay burners" actually had a use?

(Just kidding, we do love our horses.)

The compost we get from the animals is like black gold, and we have a ton of it, so the resulting plants that grow are humungous. The downside is that the weeds also grow to incredible sizes. (I wish I took a picture of the 7ft tall ones in the front flower bed before they were dug out.)

It's only mid-summer, these things have much more growing ahead of them.

Some of the garlic heads are the biggest I've ever seen!

Every year we are faced with new challenges, but the learning, growing, and successes we attain far outweigh the hardships!

Happy Summer!

Jeanna