• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Free Range

  • About
    • Disclosure
  • Popular Categories
    • Food & Drink
      • Recipes
    • Kitchen Gardening
    • Alternative Living Spaces
    • Livestock
    • No Waste
  • Subscribe

The Summertime Garden Update

August 2, 2014 by Pamela Parker Caird Leave a Comment

It’s been a bit of a crazy time around the homestead, where we’re just living from day to day and trying to get through our existing commitments, rather than taking on new and exciting things.

I’ve been taking care of the garden as best I can (despite predation incidents); I’m still baking bread weekly or even more often; the chicks are growing steadily (we’re about 6 weeks from potential egg-laying); and the boys are enjoying day camp, where they’re seeing movies, doing lots of swimming, and taking field trips to fun locales. So there haven’t been a lot of stories to tell.

But, today, I pulled out the camera and documented some of the sights hereabouts, so I could share the everyday.

Purple Sage Blossoms

Purple Sage Blossoms

Texas Sage in Bloom

Texas Sage in Bloom

Yellow Straight-Neck Squash

Yellow Straight-Neck Squash

The only watermelon spared by the deer/raccoon/other scavengers

The only watermelon spared by the deer/raccoon/other scavengers

The start of more watermelons...

The start of more watermelons…

Sun Gold Cherries: Our Best Tomatoes This Season

Sun Gold Cherries: Our best tomatoes this season

More tomatoes hopefully on the way

More tomatoes hopefully on the way

Tomatoes hiding from predators.

Tomatoes hiding from predators.

Some other kind of tomato, coming along.

Some other kind of tomato, coming along.

It’s been the coolest, rainiest summer we’ve experienced since moving here, which has been great for tomatoes, as they need below-or-around-70-degree nights to set fruit. (I’m almost afraid to mention this, fearing that 100-degree temperatures will arise to punish me for my optimism.)

The Sun Golds, as promised in so many online reviews, are really fantastic — cherries seem to handle the heat better than other varieties of tomatoes. The basil is going to seed, but I can in no way keep up with its prolific leafing, anyway, so I don’t hold it against them. Time for another picking, processing and freezing session!

Wildlife of some sort robbed us of lots of tomato productivity, as well as numerous watermelons, a few weeks ago, but I’m trying to put the past behind me and not be too bitter about it. This year’s garden has still performed better than last year’s, though the weather — and not my expertise — deserves the lion’s share of the credit.

Hope your garden, your family and your livestock are flourishing this summer!

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Kitchen Gardening, Livestock Tagged With: gardening, kitchen garden, summer, texas sage, texas sage in bloom, watermelons, yellow squash

Previous Post: « The Egg Update: Backyard Chickens at 10 Weeks
Next Post: First Look Review: New Age Living Commercial Blender BL1500 »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Content Categories

Archives

Recent Posts

  • The Peach Tree, Over Time
  • I made a video about landscaping with native plants
  • Quarantine Hobbies: Birdwatching
  • Quarantine Hobbies: Sewing/Quilting

Tag Cloud

alternative living austin hay baby chicks baby cucumbers baby watermelon backyard chickens blender bluebonnets chickens chicks chihuahua cucumber fruit dog eggs fruiting cucumber fruiting watermelon gardening great pyrenees kid-friendly kid-friendly recipe kitchen gardening lettuce livestock guardian livestock guardian dog mexican food picadillo potatoes puppy pureed vegetables rain barrels rain collection rain water collection recipe renovated school bus saute sweet potato greens school bus seed starting solar powered watering spring sweet potato greens sweet potato leaves tiny house tomatoes water collection watermelon fruit

Copyright © 2025 Free Range on the Foodie Pro Theme