Mid Summer Garden Update & Other Backyard Adventures

Now that it's nearing the middle of July, I thought a summer garden update was in order! Here is our little green outdoor teepee I made for the wee one to play in.  It's growing along, although my sweet peas never came up and what's really taking over are the weeds! We have a lot of vines in the Brandywine area, they choke out trees in the woods and they can grow very thick in diameter... it's a real bummer to see how quickly they grow and how invasive they are.  But, le sigh, I'm letting them take over on the teepee. Here is the toddler in her teepee after I soaked her with the hose, so modest! ; ) The sunflower (to the left of the tee pee) that my nephew started from seed is HUGE, much bigger than in the picture. I can barely see it's budding flower when I'm on my tiptoes at 5'8! What a satisfying flower to plant!

We have already harvested A LOT of beets this year. It helps that we are planting more seeds in recently vacated soil. Here is the biggest beet yet.

With the longest root I have ever pulled from our garden!

I know I've said this before in some fashion, but I love how our daughter is learning about where food comes from. She loves beets and when we see them in her vegetable book, she always talks about the garden. Here is her lunch from a recent harvest- a beet salad with goat cheese and a light dressing, with Nigel Slater's Potato Salad, and a side of avocado. 

Much time has been spent on the "ham-ick" this summer staring at the sky, pointing at robins, watching planes fly overhead, and looking at the moon.

And our little Boston is apparently a bit of a hunter. She stalked and killed this baby rabbit in the herb garden and also caught and half mangled a bird, it's location is unknown (until she rolls in it I'm sure!). Other than that, we are still waiting on our tomatoes, and our lettuce and spinach have run its course so I think I'll plant our pumpkin seeds in its place. So not a very big garden this year in terms of variety, but so far very fruitful in terms of harvest. And boy oh boy, watch our for when those tomatoes ripen and the 10 or so basil plants get HUGE- yum, yum! We'll be eating good.