How Does Your Garden Grow?

This summer has been my favorite in Utah. I love the warmer weather here, but the summers tend to be so dry which only makes the heat unbearable. This year we've had plenty of rain, which not only cools things off a bit but it also makes it pretty! Yesterday we got a great storm, and I loved that the girls wanted to run out and play in it. Chloe didn't want to be in my picture -- she said the umbrella kept poking her standing next to Sophie, so here's Sophie enjoying some rain:


I also wanted to get some pictures of our garden.


We've already harvested all our spinach for the year. We also tried two different kinds of lettuce this year, but unfortunately we don't remember what they were called! We liked one of them, but the other was a little bitter. We also have some garlic hanging in the garage to dry. They look really nice. Brandon accidentally pulled a green onion out yesterday, so we had him with dinner tonight along with a small onion he had pulled up and they were yummy. Chloe cannot wait for the corn to be ready, but in the meantime she is loving the stuff we get at the farmer's market. Our carrots are coming along great -- although the rain kind of gave them a part down the middle yesterday! We'll probably dig some up next week to see how they're doing. We have some bell peppers and (hopefully!) and eggplant that still haven't produced anything yet. Our broccoli just started popping a little broccoli out.


Sophie planted a watermelon seed this year. She's really excited about it. There's a couple really nice sized melons growing, and several smaller ones working on it.


We've already eaten a few cucumbers and zucchini. Chloe wants to make some pickles with the cucumbers, so we're going to try that soon. While I was out taking pictures last night I found this monster of a zucchini hiding in the garden. I had Chloe hold it up so you could see the size. We shredded it to freeze and got 7 cups out of him!


We've also had a good crop of blackberries. They've done by far better this year than last -- may have even paid themselves off (for the cost of the plants). Our boysenberries have been a lot slower, but one bush has a lot that might be ready to eat shortly. I forgot to take pictures of the berries. And the peach tree has a few little peaches. We always get way more grapes than we know what to do with, but Brandon bought a steamer last year that made the juice making process much easier. It's really just a matter of time that determines how much juice we can make. My neighbor is going to bring me a recipe for some grape syrup, so we'll see how that turns out.