Here are some notes about the garden for next year.

The planter beds are too shallow for plants that grow tall. They are better for spring greens and root vegetables like radishes and beets. I planted shishitos in one of the beds and they are producing very well, but the plants are falling over and the shallow soil won’t support stakes. I will likely replace the two planters on the south side with a large, raised bed. Four of the planters will be enough.

The Early Girl II tomatoes are very prolific, but small.

I planted several year old Slow-Bolting Cilantro and the germination rate was likely about 1%.

I will need larger tomato cages in the St. Anne’s bed. The Early Girl Tomatoes grow like weeds, and the red cages I bought at Countryside are too small.

I need to stay on top of getting the tomatoes and tomatillos to stay in their cages. I should probably do some pruning early on.

I need to do a better job of succession planting radishes and spring greens.

I planted the okra three plants across the bed. I think this is likely too dense. We’ll see what happens in the next couple of weeks.

This is probably the best garden that I have ever had. The raised beds and work that I put in this spring are paying big dividends in mid-summer. Other than the tops of one zucchini plant being trimmed and a couple bites out of tomatoes and zucchini; there has been little animal damage so far.

The cucumbers are producing well, even though they were the last vegetables to be planted. I’ve had the biggest green peppers that I’ve ever grown. I was able to give a few Tomatillos to Noah when he mowed this week. The okra was slow starting, but I should have enough to pick in the next day or so. Blackberry production has been amazing despite the rabbits stripping the bork off of many of the canes over the winter. I made pancakes for myself this morning and topped them with a pile of fresh blackberries. Benedicamus Domino!

I’ve had a hard time keeping up with watering, but better than i the past. Having the spigot in the garden and a light hose has made a big difference. I need to do some trimming and tieing up in the next few days. I was busy with St. Anne programs, then we had Toby for a week and then Kevin and the St. Louis gang was in for the weekend. Then cousin’s week and our trip to St. louis last weekend. I am slowly gettin back on track.

Weeds are not a problem with the raised beds and I pull out a godd portion of the weeds while I am watering. The only thing coming through the mulch is sedge, I am getting rid of most of it, but it takes several courses of Roundup to kill it.

I picked the House of Hope bed today, plus the tomatoes from my two Early Girl II plants and took over about temn pounds of tomatoes over to St. Anne’s.