Mid-Summer Thoughts

So we are now in the middle of July, and I have daily tomatoes and cucumbers, and the zucchini exploded from nothing earlier this week. What’s working and what isn’t. The rabbits damaged a few peppers, so I think I need to add a round of 2X6s on my second two beds. I think that might be enough to keep them out.

The celery root failed again. The first batch succumbed to the drought, and the second got eaten, likely by little bunnies. That bed is fenced, and I stapled the fence to the bed frame. But they likely got in under the south end. I’ll likely need to mound up dirt over the fence.

I was too late for Roma tomatoes from Goebberts and need to buy those by the beginning of June.

I didn’t get tomatillos in, and I need to prepare the ground for those in the fall.

The Early Girl II tomatoes have been producing since mid-June, and the Champion II plants are producing as well. These are both winners for early tomatoes.

The okra is not growing well, and that needs to get in earlier.

The basil in pots is doing well, and I probably need at least 3 pots and should seed every three weeks.

There is no reason to plant mustard greens.

8 romaine plants are enough. It bolts too fast to plant anymore. Parsley should be seeded early, like before May 1.

It looks like the Malabar spinach is doing very well in the pot. I’ll definitely do it that way next year.

Finally, Some Rain!

Rain has been threatening all week, but we never got more than a trace. Finally, overnight and into Sunday, we got over 1-1/2 inches of rain that fell steadily overnight, and throughout the day, so there were no washouts.

Fortunately, I got out yesterday and weeded almost all of the garden and tied up the Roma and Bush tomatoes, the Poblano peppers, and the two German Johnson plants in the Heirloom Garden that decided to creep across the ground. Perfect timing for once.

The Harvest Begins

I picked my first tomato today, along with four cherry tomatoes, and of course, I had tomato toast for breakfast.

We are really short on rain. We got almost 3/4 of an inch over the weekend, and that helped, but I will need to continue to water. I Fertilized everything about a week ago.

I picked peas over the weekend. They were good, but way fewer than last year. Germination was poor this year, and I had lots of gaps along the trellis, likely because of the lack of rain and my not getting enough water on them early on.

We’ve picked a bunch of lettuce, and I’ve given three or four heads away. It is starting to bolt, so we are probably near the end. I might replace it with arugula.

Blackberry Cleanup

Jared came yesterday and spent about three hours cleaning out the blackberry patch removing buckthorn, maples, grapevines, and nightshade. He pulled out an amazing amount of stuff. I cut up about 1/3 of it and got it into the garden waste bin, and stacked the rest over the firepit so that RT could mow, I am hoping this greatly increases the harvest. It should make it easier for Annabelle to pick some berries.

Last of the plantings

Yesterday, t I went to Goebbert’s and got a couple of BOGO flats of flowers that I’ll plant around the mint garden to get some color in the yard. I bought their last 8 Roma tomato plants and bought 7 bush tomatoes to fill out that space. I bought more curly parsley, 3 Gypsy peppers to replace the ones the rabbits chomped on and some Thai Basil.

I went out around 10:00 and planted parsley, 6 replacement peppers, 15 tomato plants, 2 hills of Cocozelle Zucchini seeds, and a hill of patty pan squash seeds. I stood out in the rain and watered my new plantings, lacking the faith that we would get a useful amount of rain. Three of the supposed Roma tomatoes turned out to be Early Girls, which I wasn’t happy about.

Fireflies!

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Tonight, June 10, 2023, at 8:35 PM the Fireflies made their first appearance of the year. They are just a couple of days later than last year and a week or so earlier than the previous couple of years, which is not surprising because of the warm dry weather we have been having. To me, it always signals the beginning of summer and brings back lots of childhood memories. I’ve seen them flitting around in the late afternoon, so I figured that they would be arriving soon.

Here is a short and weird audio bit that I put together about some fireflies a couple of years ago.

Good Dry Weather

We haven’t had any rain in a couple of weeks and not much before that. The seven-day forecast shows no chance of rain and temperatures in the high 80s every day. I planted the beets today next to the romaine lettuce, and they will be able to spread when the Romaine is done. I watered heavily today, and the plants were showing signs of a lack of water. The celery root was totally wilted; I hope it comes back. It looks like I’ll be watering every day this week.

The only plants I have left to put in are the three Tomatillos. Hope I can get that done tomorrow. I need to get the Malabar spinach in. I need trellises for it, and I need to figure out where to put it.

I need to plant more zucchini and squash from seed, but no hurry. I need to get my Roma tomato plants from Goebbert’s. Hope they have some left.

I had to kill a bumblebee who was building a nest under the porch and entering by the water shutoff. I sprayed the area with Spectracide as a deterrent a couple of days ago, but she persisted and had to be dispatched.

I also killed two queen yellow jackets this week. I smashed one in the kitchen skylight and sprayed another on the back porch. There has been one flying around the compost bin. I need to spend an afternoon in the yard with a spray can and nail any more that are trying to nest.

Peppers and Zucchini

I am making slow but steady progress. I raked the beds and planted the peppers this morning. I spaced them out more than in the past couple of years as they have not been doing well in the new beds. These beds are smaller in width and length than the other two, but I have been packing them with the same number of peppers per bed. I am hoping that the larger spacing between plants makes for better yields.

12 Shishito Plants and 3 Sweet Banana Peppers

3 Melrose, 3 Gypsy, 6 Lady Bell, and 3 hot Hungarian peppers.

I also got the three Zucchini plants in.

Fixing the Fence and More

I decided to tie down the fence in the bed next to the blackberry patch. I went out with my Ryobi Stapler and stapled the bottom of the fence to the frame of the garden bed. Only half the bed is fenced. This fence has been a problem as it didn’t lay well against the frame and weeds grew in the large gap. It is good now.

I planted nine celery root plants, six poblano peppers, and six okra plants. My okra and celery roots were totally destroyed by rabbits last year. This should protect them.