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.


15 comments:

  1. Gran, your meyer lemon tree is looking fantastic! Mine lost all of it's leaves last during the spring for a reason I have yet to determine. I cut it back severely and it finally put on new growth. It's tiny compared to what it was before. :(

    But I did go out and get a second tree. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes, and they look (at this point) like the only kind of tomato I may get. COLD COLD nights are keeping anything in the tomato dept. from growing.
    It all looks so neat. Except the carrots. Thin, woman, thin!!!!
    :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. Looks like your having a daily harvest :o)..What's with the purple cabbages? Mine isn't eaten as much as the green either!...I'm glad i planted a lot of the green , maybe I'll get enough to make some Kraut. My tomato plants are okay...I'm praying they got the rain in time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thomas, I cut mine back by about 1/3 and repotted it, because it wasn't looking so good when we got back from AZ. It really took off once the weather warmed and it could go outside.

    ********
    No, no, no, Sue! Those carrots are on 2" spacings in all directions! I always make seed mats for planting carrots. They just look like that 'cause they were just watered, so everything's a bit floppy.

    ********
    Ginny, the bugs (and birds) don't bother my red lettuces as much, either. I guess they don't like red (or purple).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your beans are looking great. I planted polebeans at least 3 times this year. The groundhogs are eating them as soon as they germinate and get a few leaves. I may have to forget about this crop this year. My squash are thriving. I have a few ready to harvest.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm not laughing at your zucchini.... it will probably outshine all my plants! My lime tree is dropping leaves like crazy, but the lemon (in the pot next to it) is fine, strange. Ah well, plants are silly tings. Great garden tour!

    ReplyDelete
  7. rmgales, I just planted another small bed of pole beans, but it's actually getting almost too late for them here. One year I planted mi-July, and they got tall, and they blossomed, then they froze before I got a single bean. Bush beans, on the other hand, I can plant all month.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nartaya, you're nicer than I am, even I am laughing at my poor zucchini! As well as all my summer squash plants that look just like it, maybe even worse or non-existent.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beautiful! Love all of the colors!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Everything looks beautiful and you have such a nice variety of plants.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks, Kelli, Ribbit and Sande! Hey, I ate that Sun Sugar tomato today. It wasn't quite ripe, but it tasted good. I'll let the next one ripen for more sweetness.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Sorry the Brandywines are giving you trouble, but everything else looks great!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Looks lush! Maybe next year for cabbage. I was have some blossom drop here too, but with some heat things seems to be improving.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Your garden looks great Granny. It may be a bit behind, but it will catch up and give you bountiful harvests! Boy, that zucchini is definitely a baby. I didn't get a single one last year due to the SVB's!!! That's not good when you are married to an Italian!

    ReplyDelete