End of June Update

   It is another cool, overcast, drizzly day, 15 degrees at 11:20AM.  The forecast shows more of the same for the coming week.  Since last summer, my mantra has been, "I hope we don't have another summer like that.".  At risk of sounding woo-woo or New Age-y, what has manifested has been a reminder that one should focus on what one does want rather than what one doesn't...! 

   There are weeds galore, especially chickweed.  Getting into the plots to weed has been tricky because the ground is so wet, so they are flourishing.  Thistles are coming up in the East garden and even in a few of the raised beds, thanks to an untended no-go-zone on our neighbour's property.

   This morning, I applied a diluted mixture of Effective Microorganisms to the garden and raised beds.  If any of the neighbours looked out their windows at that time, it must have struck them rather odd that I was watering the garden in the rain.  Ha!  Applying the EMs when the ground is already wet makes it easier for the mixture to reach the roots of the plants.  The bottle of EMs I purchased two years ago is almost gone (it's potency is likely questionable at this point, anyway), so I will have to stock up next Spring.  The first year I applied it, the garden ended up a jungle!  Also, there were almost no issues with soil-dwelling pests.

   The end-of-June update...

North garden  (peas)

North garden (garlic)

South garden - string beans, cauliflower, Principe Borghese tomato, Early Prolific summer squash, Cosmos, and a volunteer sunflower.  Everything except the tomato seems behind (small), compared to past years.

Cauliflower

   String beans - Red Swan and Calima.

Cosmos

   At the end of last summer, I made notes as a reminder of what to do, and what not to do, in this year's garden.  In all-caps, highlighted in red, I wrote, "Don't plant extra tomatoes in containers along the fence or in the driveway!  Too hard to deal with them by myself at the end of the season."  

   So what did I do?  (Another lesson from on high: How do you expect others to listen to you when you don't even listen to yourself?)

Lettuce and chard

Table King Acorn squash.  Look how small!

The carrot bed

   The cabbage bed - Early Golden Acre, Cour di Bue, Red Express, Brunswick

Corn, Beka Brown dry beans, and Galeux D'Eysines squash

Gaspe Flint corn - a short-season, heirloom variety

Galeux D'Eysines squash.  Something is up with this squash.  :(  One plant looks fine, the other three are small and pale. 

What's wrong?  Speak to me! 

   Hallelujah!  R weeded the very overgrown raspberry patch.  It's a lot of work.  After multiple bee stings in past years, it's a task I put on the "Not doin' it" list this summer.

   The East garden.  We call it, "the potato patch" whether it has potatoes in it or not.  This plot is looking pretty sad at the moment.  Tomatoes, broccoli, marigolds, two peppers (Anaheim), three very small zucchini plants, and a strip of Red Norland potatoes (along the right-hand side of the picture).  The dry pole beans and sunflower seeds I planted did not germinate.  Chickweed and thistles abound.

   Dry bush beans, curly kale, and tomatoes.  Most of the beans planted this year, dry and snap, had a large number of casualties.  Something undergound gnawed off the cotyledons so they had no leaves when they emerged from the ground.

One of my garden assistants, little Loulou.

Cucumbers.  Squint, you'll see them.

The Candy Sweet Icicle tomato plants are starting to put out flowers.

Agate pinto beans from Annapolis Seeds. The garbage cans are being used as rain barrels.

Lou spots a bug.

The south side of the house: tomatoes, a pepper, carrots, lettuce, beets, sage, and lemon balm.

Lolla Rosa lettuce

Tam jalapeno

Lemon Balm

Tomatoes (Hungarian Heart and Work Release Paste), a Tam jalapeno pepper, and Red Chantenay carrots.  Lemon Balm in the window box.

The Work Release Paste tomatoes are putting out a good number of yellow flowers.  It is the earliest oxheart-type I've grown.  Brad's Black Heart would be a close second.

Ye Olde Bathtubbe.  Greens, parsley, and a few pansies.  It is in a lot of shade this year from the large crabapple tree next door, so things have been slow to grow.

South side of the house: tomatoes, pansies, mint, Pineapple sage.

Lou assessing the tomatoes.

The Bellestar tomatoes are putting out flowers.  I am eager to see what these tomatoes are like at the end of the season.

Lacinato kale and assorted lettuce varieties.

Apples forming  :-)