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Hi

I hope you're keeping cool! Looking at the weather map of the US, the entire thing is orange and red except for Alaska, so I think we're all having similar summer weather. 😀 (Not complaining, though - I do enjoy summer!)

So, after gushing last week about how nicely the sunken garden has grown (and in a more detailed blog post - see below), I thought I'd keep it a little real by sharing my not-so-successful garden issues (spoiler: they ALL have to do with critters).

Almost everyday I go out to find another area eaten or destroyed by an animal. My rock walls in the sunken garden are being pushed out by moles and they've pushed up the roots of a number of flowers.

But it's the food that's the most discouraging for me:

This is the new area we made this year at the back out our house (southern exposure) to grow more berries (my favorite fruit). However, they are all super small because any time they get some decent growth, the deer clear all the leaves off, as you can see in the second photo. The string/tassels are obviously not keeping them out. ☹️

I originally planted rhubarb and asparagus outside the fenced garden because I read that they are "deer resistant." They ate so many of the rhubarb leaves last year, it barely came back this year! I babied it and sprayed it with smelly deterrent stuff and it started growing - only to be attacked again. So now it has the chicken wire teepee. They are also eating the tops off the asparagus ferns, which are needed to feed the plants for next year, so same thing.

The ground squirrels have eaten half of the leaves on my cucumber row and the birds have gotten ALL the strawberries from my later-ripening summer berries.

(Funny story - I haven't had a big problem with birds on these beds in the past, so I kept thinking the new variety I planted just wasn't ripening since all I saw were green berries. Until I noticed all the empty stems sticking out. 😂)

At the same time we have spent $ and time putting up a deer fence along a lot of our property's perimeter and they just keep finding ways in!

So deer, ground squirrels, birds, and moles - all at once. It's about now that I feel like it's a losing battle - but then I harvest zucchini, tomatoes, and green beans and I realized we still get to enjoy some delicious, home grown food so it will all be okay. 💜

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Some Favorite Summer Meals

​Summer Pasta Salad with Green Beans & Tomatoes​ A great salad that highlights the best summer produce! To make it a one dish meal I'll add cooked chicken, or just grill chicken to have on the side. ​

​Thai Grilled Beef Salad​ Super flavorful and easy one dish dinner. Grilled sourdough is nice with this, too.

​Kale Cranberry Salad with Feta​ I am able to harvest kale all season long from my spring planting, even after the lettuce has given up the ghost. This is great with grilled soy-sriracha chicken thighs.

​Tuscan White Bean Salad​ So delicious! I like to serve it with grilled sausages and a veggie platter. ​

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Head's Up

The harvest is starting to come in, whether from the garden or farmer's markets and stands and freezing is my favorite way to preserve fresh veggies and fruits on their own. It's just SO easy and we like the texture much better than pressure canned veggies.

I've put all my easy tips (no, you don't have to blanch everything) into this cookbook about Freezing Produce The Easy Way!

If you're interested, you have two choices:

1. ​The Digital Version: an immediate download to use on your phone, tablet, or computer.
2. ​Coil-Bound, Printed Version: this will be printed on demand and shipped to your home in a few weeks.

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If you've purchased this, I'd love to hear what you think and how you've used it. My hope is that it will be a super helpful resource for you to refer to year after year!

From The Blog

​Herb & Flower Garden Update + DIY Watering System​ The 4-year update of my sunken garden including how we're watering this area easily! ​ SEE IT HERE! ​

​Quick Pickled Jalapeños - Refrigerated or Canned​ The jalapeños are starting to produce and besides salsa, these are what we use them the most for (love that they take just minutes, too!) ​ GET THE RECIPE HERE! ​

A Few More Things

The newest book Brian and I are listening to is the Michael Crichton/James Patterson book, Eruption. Brian was pretty excited about this as a big Crichton fan. Sadly, it's just not very good. The characters are shallow and widely drawn (sometimes to the point of caricature), the dialog is terrible, and the plot not very believable. The worst is the narrator of the audiobook (who I previously had heard was good...) - he literally makes everything people say WAY overdramatized. Like everyone is either about to cry or blow their top. Sigh...

I just got the cutest set of jadeite nesting bowls this week and I love them. They coordinate with a few of my other jadeite things, and most importantly replace a bowl that got broken that I used SO much for salads and side dishes. It was a bit of a splurge for me, but you'd pay this much or more for just one vintage jadeite bowl, so I went for it. 😀

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Here's to another great summer week!

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