My No-Mow Garden

By the end of July, I've usually given up on the garden. I either attack it with the mower, or just bushwhack my way through the weeds to the tomatoes and harvest what I can.

This year, though, my garden is almost weed-free.

The amount of time spent at home may correlate with the amount of weeds in the garden. The pandemic meant the cancellation of most of my sheepdog trials. So, I've stayed home and fallen into a routine of training a dog, then, when she is cooling off, weeding the garden.

The garden and the dogs seem to be benefitting from it.

While slow to get started, the pepper plants are now thriving and producing enough peppers for every meal, and then some.

The tomatoes are starting to ripen. I'm growing these Black Icicles for the first time, and have declared them a keeper. While I'm enjoying them fresh now, I see canning in my future.

 As always, I planted too much zucchini. As always, my chickens are eating the extras, for now.

What would a garden be without volunteers? Every year, I have dozens and dozens of dill plants pop up in the garden. This melon plant appeared next to a tomato plant. Since I didn't have any melon planted, I let it grow. It's taking over the garden.

I never used to plant flowers, but for the first time this year, I planted zinnias. Very easy and very worth it. The bees and butterflies seem to like them too.

Cheyenne Spirit Coneflowers--one of my favorites.

The Big Red Dahlia that a friend gave me is just starting to bloom.

Meanwhile on the farm: It's been a hot July, so I've been doing some dog training, but few other outdoor projects. Thanks to decent rainfall, though, the pastures are doing well. I see mowing in my future.

During one of the hot spells, we loaded straw and hay into the barn (because that always seems to be a job for the hottest days). But, it's one of those jobs that I'm always glad to have done. Last year at this time, we were facing a hay shortage.