June-July Update

Well, it’s near the end of June and I’m still struggling to get the rest of the garden planted. While there are a number of reasons, they all sound like excuses so I won’t go there. I am making progress though and for most plants, if not all, it’s probably not too late.

Tomato plants – I planted 16. They have already been reduced by half by a critter(s). That worries me because I have squash plants coming up. The fence is almost done so hopefully that helps. Update: Some of them seem to be recovering from their attack!

What’s slowing me down now is that beautiful green grass (and other lovely volunteers) have come in and I have to hoe each row and then rake it out before I can plant it. It did save me time to weed whack it. I didn’t whack right down to the ground though. I don’t know why. But at least I kept it from going to seed and made it much more manageable to hoe.

I’m getting there.

Welcome to July. While I was working on this post in draft mode, the calendar changed on me. Time waits for no one. So I changed the name from June Update…

Yesterday (July 1) I did a mega-big push and got a lot accomplished. If I do the same today I might have it just about all caught up, might need one more day to be done. Then I have to get crazy with mulch so it doesn’t get taken over by weeds again.

And I definitely have to finish that fence!! It’s almost done though. I hope it works. This is nuts!

So far I have planted:

• Jeruselum Artichokes (eaten down by critters but might come back)
• Tomatoes – 2 kinds of cherry, Homestead, Black Krim
• Swiss Chard
• Marigolds (from my 2013 seed harvest)
• Potatoes – 2 varieties, plus some left over from last year
• Spaghetti Squash
• Butternut Squash
• Acorn Squash
• Straight-neck Summer Squash
• Zucchini
• White and Yellow Scallop Squash
• A Pumpkin plant
• Beans – Burpee “Heavy Harvest” or something like that
• Beans – Kentucky Wonder Wax
• Beans – Italian Snap
• Nasturtium
• Elephant Garlic
• Pepper – Dragon(?) Cayenne (one plant)
• Onions

Still to plant:

• Dill
• Parsley
• Basil (seeds and transplants)
• Peppers (Hot) – Hot Lemon, Jalapeno, Serrano,
• Peppers (Sweet) –
• Beans – Kentucky Wonder
• Beans – I love beans –
• Sunflowers several varieties
• Broccoli (Going to start more seedlings for a fall crop)
• Bacon (sorry, lost my train of thought)
• Scallions
• Luffa Sponge Gourd (have some starts and more seeds…probably save the rest of the seeds for next year.
• Cucumber
• I’ll have to check if it’s too late (or for fall crops) but I had planned to grow carrots, parsnips and beets.
• Garlic (wait for fall)
• Spinach (for fall crop)

Several/many of my seedlings in the greenhouse died while I was away in VT. It wasn’t that they weren’t taken care of but I think they weren’t taken care of in a timely fashion…like watering early in the morning or early evening. I failed to specify in my instructions, too. Couple that with a heat wave (in the high 90º’sF and magnify that behind glass (even though it’s ventilated) – there were survivors but not all survived.

We had several meals with asparagus, yum, and I learned how to avoid the woody/stringy parts usually. It’s all ferned out now.

I made my annual Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam, which came out too soft, like usual. 🙁 It tastes good though and does thicken quite a bit in the fridge. I used my own rhubarb (still small but good) but bought strawberries like usual.

Well that about wraps up this update. Maybe I’ll update the update when I finally get caught up!

Happy Gardening!