“Gardening imparts an organic perspective on the passage of time.” -William Cowper

Time is flying by in the garden. The cucumbers are growing, my corn is two inches taller than knee high, the tomatoes and peppers are just starting to come on, and any day now the potatoes will be ready to harvest. With how much is going on in the garden, it’s no wonder why time is just passing by. 

All of the potato plants are in the process of dying back which has been actually a little concerning believe it or not. Usually when the potato plants start to die back, gardeners rejoice because that means the potatoes under the soil are maturing and almost ready for harvest. But in my case I’m a little worried because with the maturing of my potatoes there’s also a lot of isolated thunderstorms in the forecast. Rain and mature potatoes don’t mix. If the tubers get too wet they could start to rot, now you can understand my concern. However, with this knowledge I’ve ultimately decided to risk it. My plants still have a little life in them and I would rather have the chance at more mature potatoes so they will be better for storage. Hopefully the rain won’t be as bad as they are predicting and I could harvest the potatoes next week when it’s supposed to be a bit more dry. I just have to cross my fingers and not worry about it so much, easier said than done when you’re at the mercy of mother nature. I just want my potato harvest to be successful and I’m so close to the finish line, it would be a shame if I trip at the finish line due to rain. 

However, the rain isn’t all bad. The rest of the garden could really use some fresh rainwater. It was extraordinarily hot this week for early July, so hot in fact that I did a lot of early morning and evening gardening. It was the best way to get around the intense sun and heat. It was still a bit brutal and I felt positively dehydrated the entire week. I can only imagine how the poor little plants felt. I had to harvest most of my peas this week so they wouldn’t succumb to the heat. I left a few on the stalks to try to let the peas in the pod mature a bit more but I have a feeling they will be pretty much done after this weekend. I am hoping to use these little peas for pasta this weekend and I’m absolutely excited! 

The rest of the plants and I survived this week, hopefully we can all survive the rest of the summer. I can’t imagine it getting any better because we’re so early into the summer season. I honestly can not wait until the cool crisp season of Fall. I know we’ve barely started the season and I’m already looking forward to the fall. I’ll just keep my cold thoughts to myself and just enjoy the pending harvests of the summer season. 

Having these fleeting thoughts of Autumn isn’t all because of the summer heat wave, I also have some fall crops growing in as well. Most of my Fall garden consists of winter squash but I have four different varieties growing. It will be exciting when I have plump little pumpkins to pick for Halloween or even for Thanksgiving. I know you might be thinking it’s a bit early to be thinking about pumpkins but honestly summer is the prime time because this is when they are typically sowed. The warm soil and heat is just what pumpkin seeds need to germinate and for pumpkin plants to thrive. By the time the leaves start to change you will have plenty of pumpkins to choose from. 

Well unfortunately, that’s all I got for this week. It was a week of extremes; extreme heat, extreme growth and even a little extreme anxiety. Hopefully next week will be a little less extreme but still fruitful.

You can check out the gallery below to see the rest of the garden in all its glory. Until next week, Happy Gardening!