summer garden

Started thinking about the garden in the days before coming back from our trip to WI. Couldn't wait to see it. Come home to find it in pretty good shape.

Chard is harvestable and being harvested. The one remaining deer tongue lettuce has not bolted! I can't imagine it's very good at this point. I want it to bolt so I can save the seed. The spinach is all gone, the mizuna, and the new lettuces are coming in nicely but still have 2-4 weeks till maturity, I'd guess. The dill and cilantro are doing great. Mike's been pinching the flower stalks off the cilantro and says its still good. The mesclun patch could really be torn out and re-seeded. Ah, for time!

The tomato plants are big and healthy and desperately in need of caging. Wojtek bought the 6" wire mesh so now we really have to get on it. The peppers are little but look good. My squash seeds have sprouted and the one transplant at the garden is doing really well. The beans that languished in their mudballs for weeks/months on the deck and at the garden have really gotten twiny! They are searching for a trellis and wanting to grow!

DISAPPOINTMENTS: All the luffa plants look terrible. None have grown and most have yellowed and died. Even the one in the big pot here has not grown, nor has the squash next to it, though the squash seeds have come up in the other pot. I wonder if this is because of having their roots disturbed? Supposedly they don't like it, but I did fuss with most of the roots a bit because they were potbound. The basil plants looked great at first glance when I got back. Twenty-five or so had survived and most were big. On closer glance, they were absolutely covered in thrips and aphids, which they must have contracted from my un-dealt with diseased houseplants. I tossed all the basil plants into the yard waste bin, and several pest-ridden houseplants with them. With the other pest-ridden houseplants, I went on a cut and cure binge, pruning them down and spritzing them thoroughly with neem oil. Fingers crossed.

The broccoli looks amazing. All the main crowns were harvested while I was away, but there are side shoots galore. The peas, too, are really putting out. The tall ones need to fatten still, but the shorter ones are snow peas. I am going to stir-fry with broccoli, snow peas, and the one remaining bok choy for the house meal on Thursday.

NOTE: Before I left for the trip, on June 10 I believe, I planted the beans in the back of the East bed, and hilled up a part of the bed for squash, transplanting the healthiest of my starts and seeding the rest. I also planted the big pots at home in the backyard, up against the chicken run and the South side of the house, with luffa and squash. I don't remember which squahs seeds I planted where, but I've got Oregon Sweet Meat and something Buttersomething.