How has your garden grown?

Can't believe it is August already!  Where did the time go?

Just curious about where everyone stands with their harvest.....I'd love to hear from you about your garden's progress and what plans you have for next year (I know it is still a bit early but it never hurts to start jotting down ideas).

It seems like we were all just preparing the garden soil and selecting seeds to plant,  and so soon the first harvest has come and gone and we are waiting on the second round of crops to ripen.

All in all my own garden didn't fare too badly.  Lost all my buttercup squash and cucumber vines to vine borers.  The broccoli isn't producing more than a single small head on each plant, which wouldn't be half bad if all the plants were producing at the same time.  At least we would get enough broccoli for one meal.  The chickens are enjoying the leaves however.  I feed them one large leaf per day as a treat.  They absolutely love it.

The tomatoes are doing  much like the broccoli, in a way.  Lots  of tomatoes but they are not ripening together, only a few at a time.  There are about 80+ tomatoes ripening at 4 or 5 at a time, and not near enough in time to harvest for canning as I had hoped.

My first crop of sweet corn is doing better than expected.  I never tried planting it before.  My little corn patch now has more than 2 dozen ears developing.  The patch measures approx. 7' x 7'.

The beets, lettuce and swiss chard have come and gone.  There was enough spinach for 1 meal, but I didn't expect even that amount since the birds also enjoyed the spinach.

Of all the hard work I put into this years garden, the thing I am most pleased with is the three compartment compost bin I built with scrap lumber the church next door.  They were replacing the old wooden ramp with concrete and let me have all the scrap wood.  They also provided me with loads of wood chips from the removal of two huge trees.  I have been adding it weekly to the compost bin and also using some as mulch.  The chickens have been helping create compost too.  I cover the ground inside their run with a good layer of hay.  They in turn love eating the seeds and the bugs they find in it, in turn they recycle the hay back into the run with their dropping.  It takes about 3 weeks for the hay to break down at which time I add another layer.  I am letting it accumulate as long as it doesn't "offend" then it will be scooped up and added to the compost bin.  So far so good, we got through that horrible heat wave with no bad odors coming the girls play-yard or hen-house.

This season's garden was mostly trial and error for me.  I learned what I don't want to plant again, and what I will plant more of.  Next spring I plan to enlarge the garden once again, but probably not with raised beds (not the wooden ones anyway).   At the end of this season I plan to rent a roto-tiller and turn over additional planting space for next year, hopefully doubling the garden's current size of 350sf. 

I am currently researching organic methods of improving the compost and the garden soil for next year.  As soon as I have finished compiling the information I will post it here on the blog.

Happy Gardening...