I picked the first Early Girl II Tomato from the Container garden today, which is always a cause for celebration. It was about 5 days earlier than last year. Of course, I had tomato toast for breakfast.

I picked my first zucchini yesterday, and we should have the first cucumbers in a couple of days.

The rabbits are extremely destructive this year. They destroyed all of my Romaine lettuce and they have topped almost all of the pepper plants including the ones that are fenced in.

It’s time to bring in the enforcer! Toby is going to be staying with us for a couple of weeks, we’ll see if that makes a difference. He finally figured out that there are rabbits to chase, but it’s unlikely that he will catch any.

I went out first thing and picked currants for the Crostini that I was making to take to Jared’s for Father’s Day. A squirrel had climbed up in the plant a couple of days previous, but he didn’t do much damage.. They were likely a little too tart for his liking.

Annabelle and I went out later and picked a colander full. I overplanted because the seeds were a couple of years old and then thinned them out, so we had a good yield. I made a vegetable dip to serve the peas with.

I saw the first fireflies of the season in the backyard as we were relaxing on the deck after dinner. There were quite a lot of them. But as usual, early in the season, they were almost all gone by the time it got completely dark. This is the earliest that they have appeared in the six years that I have been keeping track.

I took part of the morning to get caught up on garden photography since it was clear and sunny. I decided to use the drone for all of the shots because I think the higher perspective shows the planting better.

I planted the 4 summer dance cucumbers below the trellis in the mint garden. Then I planted 3 mustard plants behind the eggplants. I topped off the four remaining pots in the container garden with compost and planted one with genovese basil seeds, and another with slow bolting cilantro. I’ll plant the other two in a month or so, I’m not quite sure of the timing yet.

I have a couple of 1 1/2 inch Early Girl II tomatoes in the container garden which means ripe tomatoes in early June. I have a Melrose pepper that is about 1 1/2 inches long, so we will be having early peppers as well.

The only major task left is to rototill and put the trellises in for the new cucumber garden and plant the seeds. I hope to get that wrapped up this week. Then, weeding, watering, picking, and cooking.

This is probably the earliest I’ve ever had a finished garden!

I’ve been dragging a little getting the last of the plants in, but I’m where I wanted to be. On Saturday, I planted and staked 15 LaRoma plants from Goebbert’s in the second half of the bed next to the firepit. Sunday, I planted and staked 6 King Arthur green peppers and 12 Lady Bell peppers in the first half of the bed nearest the blackberries. I then put my new bottomless pots around them as rabbit protection.

Next, I repaired the fence and put a 1X6 across the front of the fenced area to keep the rabbits from going under the fence. Then I planted 6 poblano peppers, 3 Valencia peppers, 6 poblano peppers, and 3 Hot Hungarian peppers. I need to go to Home Depot and get some stakes.

I did some weeding and cleanup today, but ran out of time. I did get the pot of Malabar spinach dug into the ground about 8 inches. This should protect it from blowing over in the wind as it did last year.We got about 3/4 inches of rain this evening. I am almost done except for cucumbers and those should get in over the next couple of days.

One of my goals has been to make better use of what’s growing in the garden. So I came up with this sheet that I will post on the refrigerator each week or so to remind me of what is currently available in the garden.

It is the middle of May and here’s what is already ready to pick. I used the first of the Bok Choy and some of the green onions in fried rice this week.

I am hoping that this lets us make better use of our fresh produce.

I bought 70 geraniums from Jewel this year at $1.99 each. I needed 60 and that covered the front and back pots. I planted the remaining 10 in the mint garden. I put pansies in several of the large pots on the deck which explains why I only needed 60.

After I got the tomatoes in, I planted the 12 okra plants. They are in the reddish pots in the third bed. Rabbits love okra and they need the protection of the pots.