We’ve been having rain every couple of days, and the mosquitoes are unbelievable. It is impossible to go into the garden without a heavy slathering of DEET.  I did manage to get the peppers and tomatoes weeded today, but any other work was impossible between the heat and bugs.

I picked the first two grape tomatoes and we had a salad for lunch of arugula, radishes, Lolla Rosa lettuce, kale, mustard greens, and green onions; supplemented with purchased avocado, red pepper, shrimp and croutons.

I pulled up the radishes — extremely poor yield and the spinach which had bolted. The bottom branches on the early girl tomatoes are starting to die. Too much rain, and not enough sun.

The Lovage survived the winter and has vigorous new growth.

The cold winter killed all of last year’s blackberry canes. Since blackberries set fruit only on the year old canes, we won’t have any berries this summer. Fortunately, vigorous new canes are springing up, so the roots weren’t damaged.

The Lovage that took almost all summer to finally spring up from seed wasn’t damaged by the cold. It appears to be doing very well. Now, I just need to figure out what to use it in.

The lightning bugs seem a little early this year, I saw the first ones tonight. I guess summer is here

Despite the mosquitoes, I tilled a couple more areas of the garden and planted collards plants, kale plants, broccoli plants and cucumber plants on the back of the compost bin. I have pretty much filled the available space and there is no room left for beans.

I need to get the lemon cucumbers planted along the back fence, get some more arugula and lettuce in and sunflowers behind the barn. I have 4 red kale plants left that I’ll plant over by the herbs.

Spinach is bolting so I need to pick what is left in the next couple of days. Some of the radishes are ready and the arugula is yielding well. The Lolla Rosa lettuce is up but I didn’t plant a lot. What’s there should be ready by next weekend. Lacinato Kale is ready and the mustard greens should be ready in about a week. The Pak Choi is taking off and probably needs a week or two. We’ve been eating spinach, arugula nad kale for a week or so.

The mosquitoes have been ferocious. Even in broad daylight in the sun, I can’t even stay out long enough to pick a few greens without slathering myself in DEET. This is the end result of all the rain.

However the plants are lovin it. the Grape, cherry and Early Girls tomatoes have set fruit already. The early planting of large plants has paid off.

Today, I braved the mosquitoes long enought to prepare and plant two hills of Spineless wonder Zucchini plants and I hill seeded with Lebanese zucchini. I’ll plant more seeds in a few weeks as succession planting for zucchini seems to be the way to go.

On Sunday I planted 15 Roma Tomato plants using the same spacing as last year which seemed to work well. I mixed compost, lime pellets and fertilizer together and added a few trowels of it to each of the plants.

On Monday, Memorial Day, I rototilled the bed for the peppers, after scattering lime pellets and fertilizer on the surface. I had previously spread a bag of peat moss on the surface.

I planted the following:

• 8 Yellow Banana Peppers
• 8 Lady Bell Peppers
• 4 King Arthur Peppers
• 4 Valencia Peppers
• 4 Melrose Peppers
• 8 Gypsy Peppers

I planted a Marion Heirloom Tomato which finishes the Tomato planting. Also I planted some long-season Basil seeds in the herb garden by the deck and 9 Basil plants in the herb garden along the fence.

I had to work on Saturday, and the week had been so wet that I was only able to get a few Tomato plants in on Sunday. I planted 2 Heirloom Tomatillo Plants and a Park’s Whopper Hybrid and a Celebrity Hybrid.

Tomato Bed.

Home Depot was having a sale on their large vegetable plants, 5 for $10. which is about 50% off. It appears that the grower was overstocked because of the cold, wet spring.

So, I decided to do all large tomato plants this year, except for the Roma tomatoes, since I dry most of those and early harvest isn’t important.

Here’s what got planted:

• 2 Early Girl Hybrids
• 1 Big Boy Hybrid
• 1 Big Beef Hybrid
• 1 Heinz Super Roma Hybrid
• 1 Red Beefsteak Hybrid
• 2 German Queen Heirloom
• 1 Mr. Stripey Heirloom
• 1 Cherokee Purple Heirloom
• 1 Black Prince Heirloom
• 2 Lemon Boy Hybrids

Hot Pepper Bed

In the pepper bed by the back fence, I worked in manure and mushroom compost and planted:

• 4 Hot Hungarian Banana Peppers
• 4 Jalapeno Peppers

Leafy Greens after a couple weeks of growth.

I took Tuesday off to work in the garden, since the weather was nice and I am a couple of weeks behind in planting.

I cleaned up the leafy greens bed and spread 4 bags of manure and 4 bags of mushroom compost and some pelletized lime on the surface and then manually turned over the soil. I then rototilled the bed.

Here’s what got planted:

• 2 rows of spinach plants
• 3 rows of kale plants
• Arugula from seed
• D’Avignon long radishes from seed
• Easter Egg radishes from seed
• Lettuce Lolla Rosa from seed
• Pak Choi from seed
• Mustard greens from seed

Herb Garden off the deck.

I planted the Herb gardens this weekend, except for Basil, which from past experience shouldn’t go in until the end of May or beginning of June.

I worked a couple of bags of manure and mushroom compost and some lime pellets into the soil, since the b eds by the deck have been in use for a number of years.

By the deck I planted:

• Dill
• Thai Basil
• Oregano
• Rosemary
• Summer Savory
• Marjoram
• Parsley
• Curly Parsley
• Chocolate Mint

The Chives and Garlic Chives survived quite well, but my big Sage plant and the Oregano in the top planter didn’t survive, so I won’t plant either of those in this garden again. I’ll plant those in the new herb garden by the fence where they will have a better chance of survival.

I also planted two Cherry Tomato plants and two Grape Tomato plants in the pots by the deck.

In the herb garden by the fence, the Tarragon survived as well as a couple Sage plants. The two lovage plants that I planted from seed last year that took forever to germinate, are coming up strong and a few Dill plants are popping out.

I planted in that garden:

• 6 Oregano plants
• 6 Thyme plants
• 2 Sage plants
• 8 Swiss chard plants