The one sign of damage that I have seen is on my pepper plants.  The leaves are all turning yellow and dying.  I know that it is because we have had so much rain, and not so much in the way of hot sunny weather.  It is still early though, and I hope they are able to bounce back.

This week looks like it will be warmer, mid-70’s during the day and mid-50’s at night.  This is a big change from the past couple of weeks where the temps at night have hovered in the low 40’s.  I know that my plants are not huge fans of those temps.  Well, the lettuce and kale are totally fine with that, but all of my other plants are not happy.  I have also heard the rumblings of humidity, while not my favorite type of weather, I know the garden loves it…so I will go with it.  And honestly, with winter seemingly lasting 8 to 9 months this past year, a little heat and humidity is welcome!

I remember a couple years ago that it rained all but two days in June, followed by half of July also in rain, and then no rain for about a month.  What a strange summer that was!  But, I am learning that I can’t really expect the same thing every year.  It is incredibly interesting to see the differences and challenges each growing season.  I sometimes wonder if I will ever get ahead of this crazy gardening learning curve.

I recently heard something fascinating about gardening and farmers.  Say you want to grow potatoes, and you grow potatoes for 30 years.  That is only 30 chances to get it right.  If you are trying to learn a piano piece, you practice it hundreds of times to get it right.  I thought it was an interesting comparison, and not something I had thought of before.  It also made me feel a lot better about sometimes losing a lot of what I plant.

How are things growing in your garden?  Are you harvesting already?  Have you been gardening a long time?  If yes, do you feel like you have it all together?


Linking up at Clever Chicks and the Homestead Hop

I have written so many bad posts about my garden this year, I figured it was time for a positive post.  I am actually quite happy with parts of my garden.  I know that I have talked a bit about how well my peppers are doing, but I don’t think I have ever had a better year with peppers than I have had this year.

My sweet peppers are getting huge this year.  I guess I typically pick them before they get the size of normal peppers, but this year, I can’t pick them fast enough.  I have been mainly using them in salads or stir fries…or eating them raw from the plant as a snack.  The fact that I have so many this year, it is actually quite amazing to me.  It isn’t something that I have ever spent time trying to grow, even though I like to have them for my salsa.  Which brings me to the next plant that is doing really well.

My jalapenos are doing amazingly well this year.  And I have to say I am so excited about that.  I use about 8-10 jalapenos in each batch of salsa that I make, and I have plenty of jalapenos in the freezer to make enough salsa for the entire year.  And they are still growing!  It is actually a good thing, because I have learned that my chickens really enjoy eating my jalapenos.  Who would have thought that chickens would like a spicy pepper…clearly these chickens were meant to be mine 🙂

My roma tomatoes are also doing quite well.  I have two plants that I planted in an earth box, and they are producing enough for several batches of salsa, and that is about all I can ask for at this point!  I realize that I need to make a lot of changes in order to produce the amount of vegetables that I would like for preservation, but I am learning…even if it is an extremely slow process.  I had a couple of brandywine tomato plants in pots that were doing quite well…until my chickens realized that tomatoes make an amazing snack.

Speaking of the chickens, they have decided that the best place to beat the heat is under the chicken coop.  There was about 3 inches of space between the bottom of the hen house and the ground, now there seems to be a bit more.  I had no idea that they would dig holes and burrow under the house, but there it is!  It has been extremely hot the past few days.

Most of my ladies are keeping their wings away from their bodies, and hoping to cool off.  I wish that I could just spray them down like my kids, but apparently they don’t work that way 😉  Instead, I have been refilling their water with ice cold water several times each day, and hoping for the best.  They seem to be doing fine, even though I do feel bad they can’t cool down.  However, it can’t be any worse than how we feel with no air conditioning, we are all suffering together in this 90 degree weather with 100% humidity!

Last, but certainly not least, today is my precious babe’s 2nd birthday.  Jack, Mama loves you very much, and you make every day brighter!  I love you!  Happy Birthday!

I am linking to the Barn Hop!  Looking forward to seeing what is going on everywhere else!