It has been a classic hot New England summer so far. The thunder showers are a welcome break to the 90 plus degree days. Typically, we only get an average of 2 to 4 days per summer of 90 degrees or more, but this year, the National Weather Service has reported that we've broken an all time record of days above 90 - since records were kept back in the 18th century!
This is a photo of a sun shower looking west up at the orchard. These big fat rain drops were photographed on June 24th.
This year I've had to focus on fence, fence and more fence. The ground hogs are relentless, but stupid. All I have to do is set up short plastic netting to keep them at bay. I also used some cord wood to run all along the base of each fence so they won't nose underneath to get in.
Peppermint is abundant this year, as is the orange mint and spearmint. I am making my own homemade organic peppermint schnapps this year as well as with the other mints. This process is also photographed and will be posted in a future posting.
And don't forget the oregano! This variety is called Greek Mountain Oregano and it is doing fantastic this year! It is very strong (which I like) and it even burns a little if you eat a sprig of fresh leaves all at once! Yummmmmmmm!
Back to the groundhog/woodchuck/whistle pig/furry bastard... This is what happens to an unprotected garden, in this case my beloved zucchini plants. See how they chomp-off the the leaves? This happened back on June 24th, but since the garden was fenced-in, the plants managed to recover and are yielding great zucchinis.
Here's a photo of F.B. outside of my porch door. I've noted that they like to come out and graze just before a thunder storm. And if it's raining all night, forget it. They will dine on tomato plants all night long.
Here's a closer look at the pig. The photos are click-able with your mouse for a larger view if you'd like.
This is the garden that I have out front where the zucchini is. On June 26th, I dug holes and put in posts for a chicken wire fence which has worked very well.
This is how exposed the front garden was before the fence - yikes! I can't believe that I didn't fence it in sooner!
Here's what the front garden looked like about a month later on July 15th. The tomatoes are over 4 feet tall and I'm getting ready to add the 2nd set of cages to make them taller.
Here's a close up of my first zucchini harvested on July 17th at 9 inches long - perfect for steaming.
This is another look at the plastic fencing in the big garden with the cord wood for a base.
But I don't just use plastic fencing in the big garden, I also use electric fence too!
On June 26th, I decided to run 3 electric fence lines the entire length of the big garden (100 ft x 30 ft) just to add extra security because I also have raccoons that roam through as well.
After June 26th, the big garden was electrified and I could finally get back to transplanting the tomatoes and peppers.
Much more to come!
:)
It may not look like a lot of garlic but there're 46 bulbs along the row which have been freshly dug out of the earth.
I set the garlic bulbs on the garden work table to be lightly washed with the hose before hanging to dry.
I tie 3 bulbs together with garden suet string and let them hang to dry until it is time to re-plant in October.
If you go back to my October, 2008 blog entry, you'll see how I began with only 5 bulbs from Seed Savers. Then in July 2009, I harvested 10 garlic bulbs which yielded 47 cloves. 
