Been a busy summer in the garden

I'm sorry I haven't been posting much. I have been really busy this summer. Between the garden and gearing up for a new homeschool year, I don't have the energy to do much more.

The weeds in the garden are out of control. It's a jungle out there! Never seen them this bad, but then again I also did not use straw to mulch like I did last year. I only did one little area with straw and there have been hardly any weeds there. I had Matt help me deal with what we had out there today. My hands has been cramping up a lot this week whenever I try to pull weeds. Last thing I need is for my fingers to get stuck in the curled position again.

 I had Matt weed whack around the fenced in area and near the tomatoes I have in the buckets. Next year I am using some cardboard to help control the weeds and grass around the garden.

I pulled all the spinach, lettuce and garlic. This left me a rather big spot of nothingness. I am thinking of planting some more carrots for my fall plantings. I need to have my fall garden plans ready to go and the seeds in the ground by the end of the month/beginning of August in order to have a harvest before the frost.

I also have some Japanese Beetles munching on my pole beans. Last year they went after my corn, which was in the spot that the pole beans are in this year. I made a trip to the nursery in the next town to get a few traps for them. These traps worked great last year and didn't cost too much. I hate to use any kind of pesticides and honestly never have. I am an all organic grower. Even the fertilizer I use is organic. Of course now they are mating like nuts. The traps don't seem to be working this year, at least near the pole beans. The corn area is bug free.

I had some more sugar snap peas to take off the vine, then I am pulling the plants. Hurricane Arthur really did a number on them. Most fell over, some broke and some got pushed and stuck to the side, but still produced a ton of peas, I am not sure if I will plant more for my fall garden. I ended up with 5 gallon bags full of snap peas this year. Some I ate raw, most I steamed for dinner. The hubby told me yesterday that he was getting sick of them and they are one of his favorite veggies! I did see a recipe somewhere for pickled snap peas. I may have to try some. I have 2 gallon bags left that I haven't blanched and froze. Not to mention what I picked today.


I just have a little bit more weeding left to do, then I can focus on finishing up my lesson plans for next year. I just have geography and writing left to plan.