June and July are peak months in the garden. Crops are going strong.
The lettuce, chard, peas, spinach, bok choy and broccoli are all finished and have been pulled out to make room for the spreading summer crops. I was pleased with how they did. The broccoli was acceptable, but it did not do as well as last year.
None of the eggplant ever germinated.
The zucchini is very enthusiastic. I harvest several each day of both the green and gray. I found all sorts of recipes to use these in, although I am having trouble keeping up. I am expecting squash vine borer to strike any day now.
The strawberries are mostly done although I do have a few that continue to produce. These are the everbearing type. I lost many strawberries to the chipmunks. I started to catch the critters, but there are too many!
The blueberries and raspberries are quite tasty. I have them encased in chicken wire to reduce theft by the birds. The little birds still manage to get in, but they don’t eat as many.
Cantaloupe and honeydew are growing in both containers and the ground. They are about the size of baseballs at this point.
I have baby Brussels sprouts beginning. This is my first year growing sprouts so I’m not completely sure what to expect.
The tomatoes are growing like crazy and oh so tasty. I have several of those in containers as well. The Brandywine haven’t ripened yet, but we have been able to enjoy the tye dye, blueberry, yellow pear, black cherry, and Paul Robson tomatoes. I think I planted too many.
Several types of potatoes are growing in both containers and the ground. One of the containers clogged the drainage holes so they rotted. I was only able to get 4 potatoes out of that container. So disappointing. Hopefully, I’ll do better with the others.
The butternut squash appear to be doing well. They don’t usually give me too much trouble.
I planted a longs of Naples squash this year. It is enormous. I expected it to be large, but this is huge. I hope it tastes good. It is supposed to taste like butternut squash with a pumpkin texture…I think.
This week I am away on vacation and I fear everything will be dead when I come home because it is in the 90’s near 100 all week and not expected to rain. Oh, well… One of the risks of farming. It’s in God’s hands. We have one sprinkler, but we’re only able to cover part of the garden.
A few days later….
We’re back from vacation. The plants near the sprinkler survived. However, the other plants struggled from the heat, but that’s how gardening is in the summer, right?
I lost some tomatoes and cantaloupe.
Part of the raspberries died back and the blueberries shriveled up a bit. I did manage to pull a few off that still looked good. The raspberries have some blooms growing in preparation for the fall harvest.
The good news is the zucchini and Long of Naples squash is growing like crazy, spreading through the garden.
Seems the summer heat is sticking with us…
Grow something…anything…
Peppers and Planks 