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.

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.

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.

I spent part of the morning rototilling the tomato bed and the remaining four raised beds. I came out after lunch, and Annabelle and I planted the tomatoes.

Three of the garden beds are infested with Canadian Thistle. After a bit of research, I decided to bite the bullet and hit them with RoundUp. The rhizomes need to be killed, or the plant will never be eradicated. I sprayed the thistle in the three beds and some other random plants around the garden. I also sprayed a bunch in the blackberry patch. I waited three days and then hit the plants in the bed with the weedwhacker. I am hoping it minimizes the spread.

The deck area is looking good. I’ve been harvesting chives for about a month and started cutting some green onions this week. I planted more bunching onions to try and fill out that bed. I could probably use a few more containers.

Chives and onions are starting to flower. I bought a new watering can. I think the old one cracked.

It has been tough getting to the gardening work. Earlier in the week, we had three days of threats of heavy rain and thunderstorms, but netted less than .1 inches. Wednesday, I picked up Jared and Izabella at the airport as they returned from their 10th-anniversary vacation in the Maldives. Friday, Natalie had surgery on her hand. Today I finally went out and got some work done.

I finished up the container garden. Here’s what I planted. A pot with 2 Serrano peppers, two pots with a large Early Girl II tomato in each, a pot with a Sunsugar and a Sun Gold tomato, another pot with two Grape Tomatoes, a pot with a Black Cherry tomato and a Chocolate Sprinkles Tomato, a potted Jalapeno from Goebbert’s, and a pot that I seeded with Genovese Basil and another pot that will be seeded with basil in early July.

I weeded the peas and broccoli that were infested with Canadian Thistle. I sprayed the thistle behind the trellis with Roundup. I’ll need to keep up with the rest over the summer.

I planted 6 large Summer Dance cucumbers a few days ago. I planted some Burpless cukes from Goebbert’s today. There is no room for any seeds, so if I am going to plant Lemon Cucumbers, I’ll need to find another place.

The Greens are growing well, but we probably need a couple more weeks before we can start harvesting.

I went to Goebbert’s after lunch, just after they had finished paving our street. I got a large jalapeno pepper plant for $34.95. I got a three-pack of Serrano peppers as they didn’t have any large ones. I bought three three-packs of Celeriac and a couple of larger grape tomato plants. I also bought a large pot of basil for $12. Not bad. Goebbert’s likely has the most reasonable pricing.

I came home and got most of the container garden planted. I put the basil in the large pot off the deck, and I’ll plant the seeds in the container garden.

I went to the Jewel in Lake Zurich by Bacchus Nibbles and they were asking $4.95 for geraniums. I wasn’t about to pay that much!. So I went to the other Jewel on Ela. (Why there are two Jewels in Lake Zurich less than 1/4-mile from each other remains a mystery.) They had seed geraniums for $1.99 that looked very nice, but only in red. I bought 50 plants. They only had 52.

I stopped at the Barrington Jewel, just in case they had gotten more in, but all they had was empty shelves. I figured I would give the Jewel on Palatine Rd. by Holy Family a shot and drove over there. They had two tents erected in the parking lot and basically a complete nursery. They had the $1.99 geraniums in red and white, so I bought 20 white ones along with curly parsley and some tomatoes and zucchini plants that were reasonably priced.

I unloaded about half of the geraniums and got all of the pots on the front porch and walk planted. Then I moved on to the back and planted the rest of the geraniums, the parsley, and the rosemary that I had gotten the week before. I planted the two large cherry tomatoes that I had purchased at Countryside in the pots by the patio, I blew off the deck and cleaned up around the deck and took the garbage to the front.