Garden bounty

Hello everyone!  Sorry I've been sporadic with the blogging lately.  We've been having trouble with our Internet connection.  I haven't been able to follow my favorite blogs, and I'm definitely going through blog-world withdrawal.  Hopefully, our Internet company will get its bugs fixed soon.

Anywho, the weather has been crazy here in central Iowa.  It's been rainy, rainy, rainy.  But it's also been hot, humid and sticky.  It's a strange combination -- almost like we're living in the Amazon instead of in the corn fields of Iowa.

The cucumbers I planted from seed back in early June are growing like mad.  I've never grown cucumbers before, and now I'm hooked on them.  It's so much fun to watch the vine crawl up the trelis.  And I can't believe how many cucumbers I've gotten from just four seeds. 

These are "Mrs. Pickler" cucumbers from Earl May, an Iowa garden center. (If this picutre looks hazy, it's not your imagination.  It's so humid outside, my camera lens fogs up.)

Here's a really odd shaped pickle I found.  It's huge because I didn't find it early amid all the vines.

I also found a little space in my garden to plant a fall crop of lettuce in mid-July.  My hubby really likes the Buttercrisp lettuce, so I stopped by the local Earl May to buy a packet of seeds.  I also found another quick-growing variety to plant.  Earl May in Clive (or is it West Des Moines?) had a really good selection of fall vegetable seeds, including radishes, turnips, carrots and beets, if you're still looking to grow a few veggies yet this growing season.

I've been picking my container-grown peppers and tomatoes before they are ripe, before the bugs and the wet weather do them in.

The Iowa-grown sweet corn is also at its peak.  I'm trying to stop by the local sweet corn stand at least once a week to freeze as much sweet corn as I can for the winter.  I especially love sweet corn at Thanksgiving time.

And one last funny note:  My neighbor's cat has been camping out underneath one of pine trees every night, waiting for big, juicy locust to drop from the branches.  The neighbor says locusts are like dessert for cats.  Strange, yes.  But still adorable.  I love that our yard is a welcoming place for all cats and bugs alike.

Basil curtains

My mini-herb garden is growing like crazy thanks to all our rainy, hot weather this summer.  Since the herbs are growing faster than we can cook with them, my husband told me I should tie a few herbs up in bunches and then hang them to dry from our kitchen window.

So now I have basil "curtains" framing my kitchen window.  My father-in-law recently stopped for a visit and immediately wanted to know what we had hanging in the window.  Quite a conversation starter!

I love the idea of having a ready supply of dry sage when Thanksgiving time rolls around.  Turkey and stuffing, anyone?

Urban farming inspiration

I've visited many field days where Iowa farmers show off their bountiful corn and soybean crops.  But last week, I went to my first urban farming field day, and it was so inspiring!

The event, sponsored by Practical Farmers of Iowa, invited guests to see how a few local residents in Ames have turned their backyards (and sometimes their front yards) into small-scale vegetable gardens.

Imagine my surprise when I visited the first stop on the tour and discovered goats in the backyard.  That's
right.  Goats.  Miniature goats. 

The homeowner, who also raises chickens and ducks in her backyard, said she liked the idea of raising her own livestock for meat, milk and eggs. She discovered that the City of Ames allows homeowners to keep up to four goats on their property.

These goats, which are about the size of a dog, are still young, but they won't get much bigger than they are now. Eventually, the homeowner plans to milk the goats so she can make her own goat cheese at home.  How cool would that be!

The homeowner also had a backyard beehive, and she said the bees go about their daily business of making honey and don't bother the neighbors, the animals or herself.

And the chickens and goats lived together in harmony in her little backyard.

The next stop was just as amazing.  A local couple decided to tear up their backyard, including their concrete driveway, so they would have room to plant whatever fruit or vegetable they like.

They built a greenhouse onto their garage for seed starting in the winter.

They used the same plastic greenhouse material to create a "privacy fence" around their garden.  The homeowner said they preferred the clear plastic fencing to a wood fence, because "fences aren't very friendly."

I was super excited to see all the apple trees they have been training to grow flat against their fence.  I've been wanting to try this myself in my backyard.

And look!  A grape arbor!  And there are a few clumps of purple grapes ripening in the sun.

Seriously, I couldn't stop taking pictures of all the amazing garden features in their backyard.  They have raised beds, a herb garden, tropical plants, cacti -- even a couple cabbage and broccoli plants tucked in along the sidewalk on the street side of their fence.  A-mazing!

After all this inspiration, my hubby and I are making plans to tear up our backyard and turn it into one big garden.  I would love to have more room to grow vegetables and flowers (I love growing flowers!), and we both HATE to mow our lawn.  (We both have grass allergies, but we don't want to spend the money to hire someone to mow our lawn, especially when we are both pretty fit people.)

It was so great to see what's possible when people have the courage to turn their backyards into something unique, beautiful and productive.