#WeekendCoffeeShare – The July 2023 Garden

Published on by Yinglan

Greetings! Welcome to #WeekendCoffeeShare, thank you for meeting me on this Saturday morning. I am inside this Saturday, so if you will join me at my kitchen counter.

I saw this view while I was watering my front garden the other night and knew I must get a picture. It was a good thing my phone was in my pocket at the time. I’ll admit it’s not as good as my big camera but it conveys what I want to say.

The garden is not as lush and green as June because not many things look good when the summer heat sets in. The first 100-degree day is right around the corner. It’s been a cool year so far because we would usually have the first 100-degree day in June or near the end of June after Summer Solstice but it’s been a cooler than usual summer so far.

I don’t know whether I should feel happy about it or nonchalance about it. For a cooler than usual year, my skin has been flaring more than usual. There have been nights when I want to just pop one of the pills my doctor prescribed me last summer so I can sleep through the night without either suddenly bolting up in the middle of the night from a nightmare I can’t recollect or have an itch come on and I’d need to scratch until my skin is raw but I hate pills. Maybe the reason being I am on permanent medication for the rest of my life because of my defective genetics?

It was a shortened workweek this week with the 4th of July being on a Tuesday. I wonder how it will work next year with the 4th being on a Thursday. Perhaps, it’ll be another 4-day weekend.

Just like the past 3 years, we – mom and I – went to see the annual parade the city holds each year. The weather during the parade was most likely the coolest this year with the temperature only in the mid-80’s.

15 minutes prior to the start of the official parade was the kid’s bike parade. I had a blast photographing that part of the parade as adults and children zoomed down the road on decorated bicycles, scooters, and even tricycles. There’s always something to see there as people come up with new flag-themed decoration each year.

I had quite a carrot harvest this week. I don’t know why but the nantes carrots are longer and more normal looking than the Chantenay carrots. When the seed package said the longest it can get is 6-inches, I didn’t think it would be the maximum length. It’s okay, though. I immediately peeled and sliced a couple of the carrot to dump them in a pot along with recently harvested potatoes and fresh-picked kale from the garden. What resulted was a very sweet tasting veggie stock.

It’s also the start of tomato season in my garden. My tomato plantings this year are more diverse than the previous years. The tastes of these tomatoes are also diverse.

I have a yellow cherry tomato that has little to none of normal tomato flavor. Instead, it’s like eating a piece of candy. Meanwhile, I have a red cherry tomato that tastes exactly like salty tomato soup. That one is not my favorite. So far, I only have 3 types of tomatoes ready for tasting – Sun sugar (my favorite), gold nuggets (second favorite), and cherry falls (the one taste like tomato soup).

I’m waiting on another red variety – Sun cherry – and a purple variety – indigo rose – that supposed to have as much anti-oxidant as blueberries. I also have another yellow variety – patio choice yellow – which I hope it’s better than cherry falls. I wonder why I didn’t taste the nasty tomato soup taste from the cherry falls last year. Could my taste buds be getting more sophisticated?

Of course I’m not just planting cherry tomatoes this year. I have a golden jubilee tomato plant that’s currently working to catch up after being stunted earlier in the year. There’s also a Cherokee purple, which I thought it was quite good last year. Last but not least, my gateway to dwarf tomatoes – a Little Sicily tomato – pumping out slicing tomatoes at less than 2 feet tall.

#weekendcoffeeshare is hosted by Natalie of Natalie the Explorer. I appreciate you stopping by. Until next we chat. 🙂

25 thoughts on “#WeekendCoffeeShare – The July 2023 Garden”

  1. I tried years ago to have a nice walkway like that but I left it alone maybe a week or so and then it was overrun with weeds and I gave up. Funny, though, I hired a landscaper, this was years ago when my house was on the market, and he planted grass in between all the stones!

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    1. There originally was grass in between the stone pavements until we got rid of the weeds and put in rocks 2 years ago. You made a smart move hiring a landscaper, it was seriously hard work.

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      1. When we had first bought the house I pulled up all the pavers and moved away as much rock as possible to weed. I then redid all the stone, adding a lot, I think it was something like 20 bags of white marble chunks, and then the pavers. By the end of the summer it was all weeds….

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      2. Did you put down a layer of commercial landscape fabric before putting in the stones? That’s probably why it was full of weeds. I still have a stray weed coming up between the rocks now and then but it’s nothing I can’t handle.

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      3. Well, I didn’t because the people before us had put it down but what had happened was the weeds started growing through that and then they were almost “glued” there. You can’t rip them out like you can out of soil. It was just a big mess. Now, I just weed as often as I can and have no walkway!

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  3. I’m so impressed with your harvest. Our garden is paved. Liberal with the”our” bit as I only rent a room in the house. We have winter now and it’s been cold for us spoiled wimps so I have not been worrying about the garden, but we have all sorts of blooms suddenly when I did venture out. I’m more worried about my hedge in my house I rent out. The tenants are worse gardeners than I am. The hedge has gone moggy. I’ve given up reminding and pleading. It will just have to go mad until the weather changes. We are dealing with a cold front. Wimps we are but to us this is terribly cold.
    So well done with your harvest!

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  5. It’s wonderful that you get to harvest from your garden already! That is awesome! I would guess that I’m about three weeks aways from tasting tomatoes, and 2-3 weeks aways from the start of my berry harvest (that will last pretty much the whole fall.) I love seeing your garden updates. Please keep sharing 🙂

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    1. Yes, it’s surprising how early my harvest began this year – it started at the end of May. It seems like I’m constantly adding more plants to the garden but the harvest hasn’t increased. Maybe I reached the peak already or maybe the garden is currently struggling under pest pressure. I began harvesting raspberries yesterday, it’ll be the first of two seasons for my everbearing berries. I’m glad I didn’t have to wait too long to have berries after the end of strawberry season. I’m glad you like my garden updates. They help me, too, as they help me keep track of progress.

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  6. Hi YingLan,
    I’ve driven through SLC many times and it always seems to be way too hot for my taste. We’ve never stopped there to spend time enough to get to know our way around.
    Your garden sounds wonderful. I do miss fresh cherry tomatoes and several other home-grown goodies. We just are not very motivated gardeners so accidental gardens from the mulch pile is pretty much our limit.

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    1. Hi Gary, if you are driving through after summer solstice and before the end of September, the heat can be quite brutal, even for my taste. 😀 Actually, it’s the UV rays that are brutal being at such high elevation of around 4500-5500 feet above sea level (depends on where you go).
      I think I got into gardening for the harvest and it’s been a wonderful blessing this year getting consistent harvest day after day unlike previous years. Motivated or not, the harvest is what makes gardening addictive.

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  8. Your tomatoes look gorgeous. I just had my first tomato for lunch today. It was the perfect real tomato taste. MMM You have a very nice variety. I love the ones that taste like candy!

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