Mid-summer garden

Happy Independence Day! I'm in a rush to leave for La Crosse to spend fourth of July with my dad. La Crosse has an amazing Riverfest celebration. I signed up for the event's 5K charity run, and we plan to spend most of the day in the park along the Mississippi River, where there are food vendors, bands and fireworks.

Before I leave, I wanted to share a few photos of my garden as of July 4. The frequent rains have made the vegetables in my little victory garden grow fast, although we could use some heat to really get things growing. The forecast calls for a high of 78 degrees this morning, which is mild for this time of year.

As you can see, I've got a pretty small garden. It's my first attempt this year at a vegetable garden.

I planted baby acorn squash, bush beans, picklebush cucumbers and marigolds for a little color.

The bush beans are really growing fast and are starting to take over the small space:

The cucumbers, which I'm growing for pickles, are struggling. But a few plants grew quite a bit in the last week:

I'm really excited about the baby acorn squash. It's a new variety; I think it's called honey bear, or something like that. But I know squash and pumpkins can be hard to grow, and I'm a little worried about the yellow spots I see on the squash and the cucumbers:

I'm trying to grow a tomato plant in a hanging container this year. It's funny how the plant is curling itself upright:

One of the cool things about our 100-year-plus-old house is that we have several old-fashioned, cottage-garden flower varieties in our yard. We've been told that this climbing rose is at least 40 years old:

Finally, I wanted to give an update on my latest canning adventure. I stayed up past midnight last night trying to make peach jam for the first time. The peaches were terrible to work with; they weren't ripe, and they were hard to slice and pit. In my frustration, I forgot to measure out the peaches for the recipe. As a result, the peach jam turned out runny. But it still looks good in the jar:

Have a great holiday weekend, everyone!