valerian

The garden is really doing well. Here are some updated pictures:

Here is the main garden. Everything is doing well. I’ve replaced a couple of things (picked all my rat tail radishes, added in a tomato plant, things like that).

I’m getting some garlic scapes now. I grew spring garlic (planted this spring after cold stratifying it in the fridge for a month or two). When I grow fall garlic, the scapes are usually here in June if I’m remembering correctly. This garlic is giving me scapes now, in early August. I’m figuring bulbs will be ready later as well since it was planted later.

I had a large harvest of rat tail radishes – they are seed pods from a radish variety that doesn’t actually produce a large root. Those are now out, and that will give my green beans some room to grow.

I’m starting to get small tomatoes forming on my plants. I’ve also taken cuttings – I took the suckers out of the plant and put them in water. The cuttings formed roots and I’ve put them into my beds as well, to see if we can get some later tomatoes. I figured it’s worth a try. I also am starting to get some delicata squash on my squash plants. I didn’t know how they’d do in the raised bed situation but it seems to be growing pretty well.

I’ve got some flowers blooming now, these are zinnias. My plan was for a bunch of different colors all over the garden – I put in some black and red petunias that I bought, and a fluffy red flower (I can’t remember the name). Of the seed-grown flowers, so far I’ve just gotten these yellow zinnias and some yellow calendula.

Outside the main garden, I have some areas of flowers – a mix of native stuff and some things I planted. I was looking around the yard the other day and found that my goldenrod/comfrey/mugwort bed area had a lot of bee activity. Some of them were sleeping on the flowers (it was pretty early yet).

Black currants. I just harvested a bunch of these y/esterday and made some syrup. It was good on pancakes. It was pretty tart, so I needed to add a bunch of sugar. I have only had these canned before, this was the first harvest of a usable amount I’ve gotten.

A view of our back yard, toward the cottage garden. I mostly have perennials in there now, it gets overrun with Valerian and nettles. The white topped flowers in the picture above are the Valerian. I pick the nettles to keep them somewhat contained but they like to spread a lot – I pick the small ones when I find them and put them in soup. The valerian is everywhere but it smells so nice that I don’t really mind. I put a peach tree in the cottage garden this spring and moved my elderberry trees into there a month ago (those were in the front and not very happy – bad rocky soil). I was growing some herbs and stuff in there but perennials work better for me in there – I can mostly just let them do their thing. I leave it a bit wild but it looks nice. The cats like to hang out in there and sunbathe.

The chickens are growing well. I set up a table and chairs next to their coop and like to hang out with them a bit. My cats sit around their coop as well – I do think they may be more interested in the tasty birds inside than being friendly. The chickens don’t seem to mind the cats, since they can’t get to them. I have come out and found a deer investigating them a few times. The chickens didn’t seem worried about the deer.

Summer is in full swing.

The garden is doing well. We’ve had a weird June. Some colder temps here and there. I’ve had to re-seed several things a few times, and some of those just didn’t take after all that. I had to re-seed gourds, zucchini, cucumbers, and broccoli. My beans have done horribly (I planted them too deep maybe? or soaked them too long when the package said to soak overnight). I have 8 bean plants out of 2 packets I planted. But most things are growing well. Here are some updated pics:

Here are some Valerian and Daisies that are growing at the front of our old chicken coop.

Some pics of our pathways in our Cottage Garden. My husband has been placing stones to outline all the pathways and it looks really nice. So far, we have not had a return of whatever animal was messing my stones up last year.

Here is a fairy door my husband put in, against the chicken coop/cottage building. The flower bed in front of it is supposed to be full of poppies. They are slowly appearing (I seeded it with tons but it’s not as full as it should have been).

Here are pics of Canterbury Bells that I planted LAST YEAR but never came up. (Or I didn’t realize they came up last year, they didn’t flower); along with some white Black-Eyed Susan vine (growing in our Moon garden).

Here are some Dead Man’s Fingers mushrooms. I found some of these last year in this same spot, and there are more growing in the garden nearby. They are weird looking but pretty cool. I read online that there must be wood fragments under the soil because their mycelium feed on wood.

Some yellow Bearded Iris that I put in last year, and my Mongolian Giant sunflowers. They are only 2 feet tall right now but should get 12-14 feet tall by end of the summer. I also have some little zinnia plants that I bought from the store and put in, because the Brussels’ Sprouts that I planted here originally never came up. ( I have more seeds starting in the house for those now – I planted them direct the first time).

As you can see, the garden is coming along well. I just wish I didn’t have to re-seed things.

My tiny u.p. farm

Attempting to live off the land in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Mid summer garden updates 2025

Garden updates late June 2021