In my mind, the official start of summer is the emergence of lightning bugs. I’ve been watching for several days but nothing, likely because the temperatures at dusk had fallen into the 60s. But we were in the 80s today and shortly after dusk the air was filled with a myriad of the little flashing creatures welcoming the beginning of summer. That’s five days earlier than last year when they arrived on June 22.

Unfortunately, the mosquitoes also marked the arrival of summer, but it has been relatively dry for the past week, so it’s likely that they will taper off soon. Also, with our new drainage system, there should be a lot less standing water available for them to breed in.

I took my Ryobi hedge trimmer to the Blackberry Patch and removed as much overgrowth as I could and restored the paths through the patch. It will need a lot of hand work with the pruning shears and saw to finish, but it is a start.

Then I worked on the pile of dirt on the north side of the garden path and broke it up with the rototiller and raked it even with the wood walkway. Then I planter the Black-eyed Susans in that area and plant a Coral Bells plant at the head of the walk. Some of the Black-eyed Susans had little soil on the roots and were dried out, but I’m guessing most of them will survive as they get rooted in the new soil. I’ll fill in the area with some Hosta and Sedum transplants when I have time.

I added some compost and peat moss and topsoil to the herb garden and got all of the herbs planted today. Here’s what is in the garden: Mexican Tarragon, Basil, Thai Basil, Tri-Color Sage, Purple-Veined Sorrel, Lemon Thyme. Greek Oregano, Spicy Oregano and Chocolate Mint.

I planted two Sunsweet yellow cherry tomatoes in a pot and that finished up the container garden. Also, in the herb garden by the deck, I replaced the dead sage plant with Garden Sage and the tasteless oregano plant with Greek Oregano.

I’ve been working on the herb garden since Friday and made a big push to get it done today before the rains came. We were getting hit with the tail-end of tropical storm Cristobal this afternoon, but we missed the worst of it and got about 1/2 inch of rain which we really needed. But I got the stonework done and the dirt leveled for the herb garden ahead of the rain. I’ll add some compost and sand to the soil over the weekend because the soil is mostly clay, and then I’ll get the plants in and add some decorative rocks.

We went to Countryside on Sunday afternoon and bought 3 varieties of Roma Tomatoes. Four Roma, six Roma II, and five Roma III. I planted those today and fenced them in, just in case the groundhog is still waiting in the wings.

I also planted two Peter Pan squash plants in the first bed with the rest of the zucchini, and then I removed the spinach, Pak Choi and arugula that bolted and planted 10 Okra plants in their place.

Goebbert’s is almost sold out of Vegetable plants. There were few tomatoes left and no Romas. The tomato and pepper shed was almost empty. I got some replacement peppers for the ones the bunnies ate, a lot of basil, and a few Kale plants.

I replaced the Jalapeno and Hot Banana pepper plants that got eaten and put pots around all of the hot peppers and staked them. I planted five or six generic cucumber plants in the empty space in the cucumber bed. I thinned out the lemon cucumbers which are doing well and weeded the whole bed. The cucamelons have not popped up yet.

We are having salads every day and the plants are doing well. The Arugula and Pak Choi bolted immediately from seed and the spinach bolted after a couple of early pickings. I planted a row of Kale to replace the first row of lettuce which we ate.

I had a filming at St. Anne’s this afternoon, and I thought that my morning gardening would be it for the day since severe thunderstorms were predicted, but they bypassed us completely so I had a few hours after my filming and decided to get in the heirloom tomatoes. I hauled ten concrete stepping stones to the garden and constructed two paths through the four rows of tomatoes, I’ll do a third path later this week, but the two paths allowed me to plat all 16 tomato plants. I bought two large champion plants, and one large Early Girl II. The rest were 4-inch pots. Here is what got planted.

I completed the two paths and planted all of the tomatoes just as it started to sprinkle. We spent about 15 minutes cooking dinner and as we sat down on the back porch, the floodgates of heaven were opened and it rained harder than I remember seeing in years. The new drainage system was handling the water well and the intersection of Grove and Princeton was totally under water. At least I didn’t need to water tonight.

I leveled the path so that it is ready to install the remaining pavers and I should be able to do that maybe tomorrow.

This planting is 3 1/2 weeks earlier than last year’s tomato planting. I hope it means bigger and earlier yields.

I have to film at St. Anne’s at 1:00 today which left me about an hour and a half to get some planting done. The soil is prepared, so I was hoping to get a lot done as there are severe Thunderstorms predicted from mid-afternoon into the evening.

In the bed with the Shishitos I planted six Sweet Cherry peppers from Goebbert’s along with three Gypsy peppers. In the next be I planted six Melrose peppers and six Lady Bell all from Goebbert’s.

The Fava beans in that bed were slow to germinate, but more Bluebells had popped up and were about 8 inches tall. I pulled one up that was where I wanted to plant my last row of Lady Bell peppers and discovered it was a Fava Bean plant. They look very similar to Bluebells. Lesson learned. The Fava beans next to the side of the bed are eight inches or so, while the ones inside the bed are just popping out. Strange.

At the front of the westernmost old beds, I planted three hot banana plants and six jalapenos, again, all from Goebbert’s. I then planted four eggplants from Countryside, A purple Hansel, a white Gretel, a long purple Italian and a White Star. I fenced them immediately based on past experience with the local little woodland creatures. I’ll fill out that bed with 15 Roma tomatoes later in the week. The eggplant is a couple of weeks earlier than last year.

In the easternmost bed I set two hills of three plants of Zucchini, I think from Home Depot, and planted some Cocozelle seeds from Terroir Seeds in the third hill. This filled up half of that bed, which leaves me with the other half for any odds and ends. The planting is almost a month earlier than last year.

In the cucumber bed I planted three Summer Dance plants from Countryside on the eastern trellis. I skipped the next trellis and will plant there later, and then Planted True Lemon Cucumber seeds from Terroir on the two western trellises. Then I planted Cucamelon seeds from Terroir below the wood trellis. That rounds out the cucumber bed and the planting is almost a month earlier than last year.

I didn’t get to the tomato bed, so that will have to be done next week.

So, the first of the peppers are going in about two weeks earlier than last year. Checking online, Countryside and Goebbert’s weren’t growing Shishitos, so I was stuck trying to find them at home depot. Izabella found eight plants for me in the city, and I found the last four at the Home Depot in Crystal Lake. I picked those up from Jared yesterday and gave him the two Carolina Reapers I got for him at Countryside. On the way back from the city, I stopped at Goebbert’s to pick up the rest of my peppers and found that they had both Shishitos and Carolina Reapers, even though they didn’t have them listed on the website! Oh, well!?!

So, I planted the 12 Shishitos this afternoon in the easternmost of the three new beds. I also planted three Bounty heirloom sweet banana peppers from Countryside. I planted some of the container plants, also, but I’ll lump all of those together in another post since there are quite a few this year.

I picked enough spinach and lettuce last night to make a dinner salad or Natalie and I. I also picked some green onions to spice it up a bit. I have cherry tomatoes to plant but ran out of time and rain is coming for the next couple of days. I’m a few days behind in planting, but the weather should clear up by Tuesday and they are predicting sunny and warm into the weekend. Unfortunately, there are three inches of rain forecast for this afternoon. That’s after 4 inches of rain last Thursday.

The fava beans haven’t come up. Possibly the frost did them in. I haven’t had any luck finding Shishito peppers yet. Jared and Izabella have been checking at Home Depot, also, but nothing. Bonnie Plants also sells to Jewel and Walmart, so I guess I’ll check there, too. Today might be a good day to do that with the rain — it will minimize my exposure to Covid-19.