It has been raining off and on throughout the last few days. When the rain subsided yesterday afternoon I went out with my daughter to prune and tie the tomatoes. The tomatoes are growing well and some of the first flowers are opening. The pepper are also starting to bloom which prompted me to remove the covers so that the wind and the bees can pollinate the flowers. I noticed that the swiss chard, carrots and beets will need to be thinned this week which means we’ll be enjoying baby beet and goat cheese pizza for dinner – yum! We’ve also been harvesting peas, basil, spinach and lettuce from the gardens. My peas have been much more successful this year, last year I planted them too late in the season. However, I’ve noticed that my gardens are getting too hot to grow spinach. Some of the new seeds I planted a few weeks ago barely grew any leaves before bolting and the same goes with the cilantro. I suppose I will have to wait until the fall to plant spinach again.
A couple weeks ago I was having troubles with figuring out what was eating at my cucumber and bean plants. I still haven’t figured out what or who the culprit is but I covered the small cucumber plants with mason jars for a week until they had a couple sets of leaves. At least now the plants are big enough to handle a bit of nibbling here and there, I have also been keeping watch on the leafminers. The row covers seem to be slowing them down, I think. At least, I’m finding fewer affected leaves so either the covers are helping or the leafminers are at a different stage of their life cycle.
The small raised beds at the front my house are bursting with volunteer borage from last summer. My children enjoy picking the flowers and freezing them in ice cubes for lemonade. Our clematis is in full bloom which is so beautiful. The onions that I planted in these beds seem to be growing well, either the mass of borage is keeping the deer away or they aren’t desperate enough to eat onions right now.
How are your gardens doing?
A couple weeks ago: Garden Journal (yr 2: vol 5)
This time last year: Garden Journal (vol 6)