June 4, 2010: Garden Photos

I got a bit camera happy again this week, so here are (a lot) more photos of the early June garden.

Contender bush beans and the indeterminate tomatoes are really growing well and looking healthy. The raised beds are providing them with good drainage in all this rain. Before long, all those ugly green buckets should be completely hidden by the beans.

The lettuces are the stars of the garden right now. These are Summercrisp (top) and Red Sails.

Cracoviensis (bottom) and Bronze Arrow. I have so many more varieties planted....Yugoslavian Red, Australian Yellow, Drunken Woman.....I've gotten the varieties all mixed up by now, as I replant with available seedlings as I harvest entire plants.


One trip to the garden fills the laundry basket now, and this is from just one of the three lettuce beds. There is certainly enough being harvested to meet our needs, as well as to (over) feed the pet rabbit. My refrigerator runneth over with bags of greens.


Look at the size of this beauty! It dwarfs the toaster behind it.


Each leaf must be individually washed and inspected. I don't want any earwigs or slugs in my salads.


After trimming, washing and spinning it all dry, this harvest came in at 45 ounces.

The Kennebec potatoes are up to my shoulders, and beginning to blossom. They are a later variety than the Red Norlands, on the other side of this bed, but the Norlands aren't showing any signs of blooming yet. Last year, only one of my Norlands blossomed, and none of the Yukon Golds did, so maybe the red ones won't bloom again this year. Last year's harvest was a good one, blooms or no blooms.

The sweet peppers are chugging right along, and showing no adverse effect from all the rain. They are all showing signs of blossoms to come really soon.


I love the looks of these dwarf tomato plants. They are so sturdy and dark green, they could be easily used as a border in a flower bed. I have several varieties this year, all growing in containers. I hope they continue to grow well, and that the tomatoes taste as good as the plants look.


Gonzales cabbages are beginning to form tiny heads. Granny needs to get out the paintbrush and work on those boards around the raised beds!

Corn is growing quite well. The soil in these barrels is very loose, and every time we get a windstorm I have to go out and straighten the stalks and push the soil down hard around them. I might have to put a ring of fencing around them just to keep them in their container.

The carrots are putting some size on their roots. The seed mats did their job well, I didn't have to thin out a single carrot and they are perfectly spaced. There were no gaps in one variety, just a few in another variety, and rather poor germination in the third, so I'm blaming the seed, not the method of planting. I still swear by my seed mats!


Butternut squash and 5 plants of corn thinnings.


Slugs don't seem to bother the red cabbages, but they sure chew up the green cabbages and broccoli. I've been procrastinating on getting to the store for Sluggo, and I'll probably pay the price. Many of the green cabbages (and a lot of my flowers) are getting ravaged by slugs.


This bed of broccoli and cabbages doesn't seem to get the slug damage that the other bed, right next to it, does. I wonder why?


I didn't pull out all of my sickly beets last week, just a couple of rows to make room for more carrots. The beets that remain look like they might yet make it, so I'll give them one more chance. At least there's not so much leaf miner damage now. What I have noticed, when checking under the boards I lay over the carrot seeds, are a lot of wire worms collecting on the surface. I'm sure they are not contributing to the health of the root crops. I've even found a bit of wire worm damage on a few of my onions. I hope they stay out of the potatoes. Several years ago, they practically ruined my potato crop. I didn't grow potatoes for quite a few years because of these pests, but last year I had no damage to the potatoes at all. They sure did chew up the radishes this spring.


The raspberry canes are absolutely loaded with berries. So far, there have been just a few ripe ones, perfect for a snack while out in the garden. I'm still waiting for bowls full of them.


The Black Beauty zucchini is looking healthy, and growing well. The Grey zucchini, right next to it, not so much. I have planted new seeds of Grey, and they are just now poking through the soil.

There are a lot more photos that were taken yesterday, but I'm sure I've bored you all silly by now so I'll stop. Just take my word for it that the rest of the tomatoes are growing nicely and blossoming now. I am down 2 tomato plants since my neighbor and her pup killed one, and I gave another potted tomato to my daughter Amy (she'll kill it, I know...she can't grow plants unless they are made of plastic). That drops my tomato plant total to only 40.