July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2011 - The Garden at the End of June (part 2 of 2)

The strawberry plants, in the bed and barrels, are looking healthy and loaded with blossoms. I picked four large berries yesterday, but every one of them was full of bug holes. Usually July and August are the big months for this day neutral variety, but this year it might be August and September!

The indeterminate tomato plants are about half the size they usually are by the end of June. I may not have needed that big tomato "fortress" for support this year! They are almost dwarfed by the bean plants in the front of the bed. Only one of these Brandywines has set any fruit, now all three are suffering from blossom drop.

The Royal Burgundy beans, from seeds I saved in 2009, are strong, healthy and blossoming.

Two of the remaining broccoli in this bed are giving me a few side shoots, but I'm tempted to pull them all out to make room for something else. Eventually this, along with the attached 4'x4' bed, will be the hoop bed for beets, chard and spinach. They will forever be grown under cover, for protection from leaf miners. I'm hoping to get this bed cleared out soon enough for a fall planting, but that will mean removing the spring planted garlic before it has fully matured.

This, the other half of the hoop bed, will soon be harvested. I almost hate to pull those beautiful cabbages! For some reason, the red cabbages never suffer insect and slug damage to the extent the green cabbages do. I have removed quite a few of the larger bottom leaves from the plants, trying to get rid of hiding places for the slugs that have plagued my garden this spring.

OK, you can all laugh at me now. This, my friends, is my zucchini. My only zucchini. You don't want to know how many times I've had to replant this year.

The Iceberg lettuce never did head up for me. It is huge! I suppose it's getting bitter by now, but I'm only harvesting the big leaves for the rabbit, and he doesn't seem to mind.

The main lettuce bed has been replanted with seedlings. I hope they grow quickly, as I only have a few mature plants, behind the Brandywine tomatoes, left for us to eat. The small carrot bed in front seems to be growing well now, even though the lobelia are trying hard to crowd them out.

The winter squash are probably 2-3 weeks behind schedule. They should be blossoming by now. I've planted the bush variety this year, as much of the squash space has been used for flowers.

The "shed garden" is packed full now. The Bloody Butcher tomatoes, which gave us our first ripe fruit of the season, might be my star performers this year. They are the only ones loaded with fruit and not suffering from blossom drop.

The Dwarf Meyer Lemon loves her spot in the shed garden, and is rewarding me with lush new growth.

The tiny Sungold tomato, the only viable seed in the 12 I planted, and the plant that was a mere 2-3" high after two months of babying, has decided to grow and blossom! It looks as though I may yet get to taste a Sungold......finally! She's up to 22" tall now.

Everything is growing well in the west garden. Of course, the rhubarb is a bit smaller since I took this photo, as I pulled the large stalks right after the picture was taken. The Cherokee Purple tomatoes should give me a crop this year, as they are fruiting and don't seem to be dropping blossoms as badly as the other plants.

The tallest tomato, at 58", and the fastest grower, has been the Matt's Wild Cherry, seeds from Robin. It is blossoming and fruiting.

The earliest cherry tomato will be Sun Sugar. I'm hoping to get my first taste of it today.



That's the garden at the end of June. Probably at least two weeks behind normal growth for this time of year, with more failures than usual. My fingers are crossed that warmer weather stays with us well into the fall.