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| Beginning of June |
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| End of June |
The garden seems to be growing fairly well, with a couple of small setbacks. I am walking the full garden everyday now, which takes about an hour to do because of checking all the squash and pumpkin plants (of which there are many) for squash bug eggs. So far we've been able to stay on top of them, squashing the eggs before they hatch. This morning I found an adult female laying her eggs on the underside of a squash leaf. Both she and her eggs met their end! We're also fighting off potato bugs by killing any of the bright red larvae that we see each day.
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| First squash plant growing, rising corn in the background |
Over the course of this month we added grass clippings around the plants along the tops of each raised row. This helps add nitrogen and also works wonders for keeping the weeds down and holding moisture in the soil. Granted it's been a wet summer so far, but I've only watered the garden two or three times!
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| Spreading sweet potato vine |
The sweet potatoes went in as tiny little slips at the beginning of June. I was especially worried about them since the last time I tried to grow them a few years ago the bunnies ate them before they could get started. I haven't seen as many bunnies around the yard this year, and the vines are growing beautifully. The last couple of weeks have been on the cooler side, so they would probably be growing even more if it were warmer.
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| First green tomato, one of Robert's oxhearts |
We installed our own homemade (and hopefully sturdier) tomato cages, which seem to be working quite nicely. I've sprayed the tomato plants with a fungicide a couple of times. It's one Charles bought for the peach tree but that is also OK for tomatoes. I'm hoping we can avoid getting blight this year so that we can have a longer growing season for tomatoes and not lose our plants early. The plants are getting large enough that I soon need to prune them. Hopefully we'll get some red ones before too long, but again, the cooler weather isn't really helping that cause.
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| Sad little pepper plant |
The cool weather is also hindering my pepper plants, which just aren't getting very big very fast. I don't have a single one blooming yet, though I do think the slug problem has lessened. When the plants were smaller, they were pockmarked with holes from slug damage, but a slug killer I spread last week seems to be helping with that. Hopefully the plants will begin blooming soon.
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| First yellow squash |
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| Baby cucumber on the vine |
In the last few days I've harvested quite a few summer squash and cucumbers. Some of the green beans are beginning to come in too. The beans I planted in succession in the lettuce and asparagus bed. I still have some lettuce that will need to be pulled out and replaced with a final planting of beans.
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| Ripening raspberries |
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| Blueberries not yet ready for picking |
In the last years we haven't harvested many berried because the birds tend to get to them before we do. So this year I spread a net over the raspberries and blueberries. It seems to be working well for the raspberries, which are done growing for now. The blueberries will be ripe soon, and they seem to be safe under the net. Unfortunately, one little birdie got caught up in the net and died. I found his little body one afternoon and felt a little bad about his misfortune.
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| Beginnings of an acorn squash |
I planted a number of winter squash varieties this year, including delicata and acorn, which are two of my favorites. Recently we lost one of the sugar pumpkin plants to bacterial wilt, and the second one seems destined to go the way of the first. The acorn squash is planted next to the pumpkins, so I hope it won't suffer the same fate.
The corn is also nearby, but I don't think it is affected by wilt. Or at least I hope it isn't. Of the three varieties we planted, two are doing really well. The early sunglow, which was old seed, did not germinate well and isn't growing well either. Most of it is under three feet tall but it's flowering anyway. I don't think we'll be getting much from those two rows. On the other hand, the heirloom variety that mom brought us from the John Kline homestead is growing beautifully, as is the popcorn.
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| Flowering cilantro |
The cilantro is doing so well that there's no way I can prevent it from going to seed. I've started some more seed in a pot that I'm hoping to grow inside so that I can use it in salsa with the tomatoes when they are ready. The basil in pots is also doing very well. I've made a number of batches of pesto for the freezer already. The herbs and greens I tried to plant in the mulched beds surrounding the patio are not doing so well though. The plants don't seem to like that environment so much.
The melons are faring well so far. We have three varieties of watermelon and one muskmelon planted. They are starting the really spread and flower. In that region I also planted the large carving pumpkin, and other than a little powdery milder it is also doing well. I've sprayed it with a fungicide and ordered an organic option that is supposed to actually eliminate the mildew rather than just controlling it.
So that's the update on all things garden related. Will return with more later in the summer!
