Foiled Again

After two days of rain, the sun is out again.  I harvested some more beet greens for lunch (so tasty!) and then later went out to peruse.


 
Here are my radishes.  They have bolted.  Again. This is the third year I have tried to grow radishes, which are touted as among the easiest of vegetables to grow.  My results have not supported that claim!  They form leaves well, grow nice roots...and then bolt.  No "bulb" shaped radish.  Not being a huge radish fan, this does not exactly make me toss and turn at night.  I was hoping to see a big Watermelon radish for myself, though.

On a positive note, my calendula flowers are about to open.  I can't wait!  

The Creeping Thyme has flowered...

Tomatoes are doing well...















 

...and more marigolds have opened.

The broccoli are forming heads....


















 
Though small, some were already on the verge of going to flower, so we picked them.  There is lots of summer left, so we'll likely see smaller, secondary heads develop on the plants.

Sweet little Saj is starting to look and feel her age.  :(  Here she rests by the cauliflower and green onions after a brief confrontation with Butters. 

Morning Perusal

Karl relaxing in the melons.

Our Saj cautiously ventures out for a short while before retiring to her blanket for another snooze.

 

No sign of Butters this morning.  She must be locked in her house while her people are at work.

Yum!

The first beet greens of the season!  

It Could Have Been Worse

I just came inside from staking broccoli plants and picking dead branches - large and small - out of the raised beds along the driveway.  Last night around 9:30pm, after a day of very hot, still weather, powerful winds struck along with a thunder and lightning storm.  The potatoes and beans were being blown perpendicular to the grown, and I feared that the hail forecast in the storm advisory would destroy a large number of my plants.  While it did rain (the wind was blowing it so hard, it looked like mist), the hail did not manifest.  What a relief.

Our new neighbour's half-dead birch tree dropped deposits in our yard during the storm.  We didn't discover that until this morning.  The largest branch landed inches from the pea patch.  What a mess it would have been if it had landed in the middle of that!  The potatoes are still leaning a little north, but should bounce back today.  The corn, unfortunately, is looking worse for wear.  It took a beating in the wind.  I'm going to dig out the bamboo stakes and twine and stake them back up this afternoon.

Baby Brassicas

Cauliflower

Broccoli

...and pansies, just because!

Long Summer Days

These pictures were taken at 10:30pm, with no flash.  It gets dark (though not completely) for a few hours between midnight and 3am, but by 4:00am it is light out again.  Not broad daylight, but one could certainly go for a walk or work outside with no problem.

 

End of June 2013

Potato patch, tomatoes against the fence, Swiss Giant pansies in left corner.

South garden - beans, cabbage, cucumbers, green onions, cauliflower, broccoli.

Side of house - assorted tomatoes, marigolds, eggplant, and peppers.

Towards back of house - tomatoes, corn, melons, pumpkins, apple tree.

Pumpkins in foreground (middle one about to croak thanks to a furry creature uprooting it), corn in background.

Opalka paste tomato and marigolds.

Purple Vienna kohlrabi

The pink flowers on the Creeping Thyme are going to open soon!

Chocolate mint with Rainbow Swiss Chard along the back.

The patches of basil are finally starting to take off.  (Yep, Sleuth CallyMae, that is my shadow.)

Summer Savory

Indeterminate tomatoes (Cole & Yellow Cherry), opal basil, Genovese basil, marigolds, and a rogue nasturtium on the right.

Butternut (or Buttercup?) squash starting to take off.

One melon, nasturtiums, eggplants, peppers, marigold, and summer savory.

Tene's Beans (heirloom dry bush bean, apparently similar to marrowfat beans).

Detroit Red beets, second planting at the back.

Neighbour's house and our pea patch (Green Arrow bush peas).  Love the peas, but I detest weeding this.

Red Russian kale (note the loamy, rich soil it's in...*cough*)

Slow growing...one sunflower, two dahlias, marigolds, peppers, eggplants, and pac choi.

Healthy current bush.  Nothing like a good pruning!

Raised beds along the driveway.

Flower bed...calendula, scarlet flax, and gomphrena just now starting to grow well.  I hope they'll fill the back of the bed by August.

Red cabbage

Lush a week ago, this catnip has been thoroughly enjoyed (read: mangled) by Saj, Karl, and Butters (especially the latter two).

South garden - Beurre de Rocquencourt beans, sunflowers in containers.  Also a nasturtium, part of a cabbage, pink container of basil, and a variety of weeds.

Butters (neighbour's cat) at my feet.  She likes to "help" me weed.

Flakey container, flakey house (wabi-sabi, or just decrepit?) but the Button zinnias will be bright and cheerful when they bloom.

Yellow Hot Hungarian pepper - tomatoes and a container of marigolds behind it.

Another container with three pumpkins. 

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