Summer Solstice Overview

Given it is the first day of summer I thought it would be perfect timing to post some overview shots of the patch. The weather this June has been pretty decent and the crops have started to get growing. This will be a late year for the garden but I am hopeful it will catch up quickly now. I'll start with some pea flowers and then proceed from the bottom of the veggie patch:

Salmon Flowered Pea grown from seed shared by Matron. These are just coming into bloom now. I have them growing in a terracotta pot and hope to save some seed from them.

Purple Podded Pea. These are the best producing pea so far with lots of purple pods set already. They are suppose to be rather starchy. I'll shell some young peas soon and see how they taste. They sure look nice either way.

This is the lowest bed. It contains mostly herbs, some recently transplanted red romaine (pouting), broad beans & a black brandywine tomato. The soil in this bed is really bad. Next year I am planning on digging it all out and installing a raised bed with good soil.

Here is my Broccoli bed, they have really been growing lately. Can't wait for fresh broccoli! They are inter-planted with lettuce which will be harvested soon. To the left there are cucumbers starting to grow on the trellis.

This bed contains a mix of lettuce & asian greens, garlic & radishes. The trellis in this bed also has cucumbers growing under it.

These peppers are the only thing growing in this small bed. These are anaheim peppers.

I planted up my half barrel with purple potatoes this year. There also is a cherry tomato in the center, it better get grow or it will be swamped soon.

This bed contains a bunch of onions, 6 tomatoes & a row of garlic.

The rest of the potatoes all went into this bed. Some are growing faster then other but all have sprouted now.

The front of this bed contains dragon tongue beans, in behind pole beans are planted under a trellis. This bed also has two tomatoes & a wigwam of purple podded peas.

The last bed tonight is mostly snap peas. They are growing very well but they don't have a single flower yet. Melons are planted under the trellis behind them.

To wrap things up, here is a shot of a couple lemons growing on my meyer lemon tree. The tree is getting another big flush of flowers now so maybe I'll get a few more this year.

Warm Season Crop Catch-Up

Tonight I am doing a catch up post on all the warm season crops I have planted. Most veggies in this post went in during the first week of June. This is about 2 weeks later then normal but this was unavoidable with our cool start to spring. The good news is out temps are hovering around normal now so the warm season crops should be pleased.

Burgundy Okra, grown from seed shared by EG . I planted a couple of these in a big hanging basket for some added heat. They are kind of limping along at the moment. They should get growing once they root in and our warm summer weather arrives.

These are Blue Lake Pole Beans. They were direct sown under a A frame bamboo trellis. Can't wait for fresh green beans!

Here we have Dragon Tongue beans that were grown as starts in rootrainers. These are my favorite bush bean, so tasty! They produce a pretty good dry beans too.

This wee thing is a Numex Joe E Parker Pepper which is an Anaheim Pepper. I planted 9 in my smallest raised bed.

This pepper is a Sport Pepper, like the pickled ones on Chicago style hotdogs. If they grow well in this hanging basket I'll pickle them this fall.

I am growing two Parthenocarpic cucumbers this year. They only produce female flowers and are seedless. Because they don't need cross pollination they are suppose to be more productive. This particular plant is Rocky F1 (Persian/Greenhouse type) and the other variety I am trying is Adam Gherkin F1 (European Pickling). Both will be trained on a trellis.

These are Montreal Market Melons. A Canadian heirloom that was world renowned in its day. They will also be grown on a trellis.

Last but not least, one of the Tomatoes. I have Tomatoes all over the place including 3 parts of the garden, 2 hanging baskets & one in a half barrel filled with potatoes. If you would like to see a list of tomatoes I am growing this year check out this link .

More planting...

The past few days I have been planting all the warm season crops. The garden is about 80% planted now, quite late compared to last year but it should all work out in the end. I'll post about that once everything is planted. Today I am going to post about what I planted the last week of May.

Here are all the potatoes I planted on May 25th. I was not going to plant potatoes this year because I really don't have the space to grow them. But, Fresh ones taste so good I just couldn't resist. This year I am growing the following:

• German Butterball - yellow skin, yellow flesh
  
• Warba - yellow/red skin, white flesh
• French Fingerling - red skin, light yellow flesh
• Russian Blue - blue skin, blue flesh

French Fingerling

I planted 3 of the varieties in one raised bed. In place of hilling I planted the tubers 4-6 inches deep. I have found it is pretty difficult to hill potatoes that are block planted in a square raised bed. I have done this in the past and it works well. It does require a lot more dig though, particularly at harvest time.

Russian Blue

The fourth variety I planted in my half barrel. Potatoes do pretty well in large containers and this was the only place I had left to plant them.

The last week of May I also planted all the onions. These really should have been planted long ago. They would have taken the cool spring weather fine. This season I will be growing Bottle Onions & Ailsa Craig Onions. I am hoping they will amount to something even with the late planting date.

Clematis 'Nelly Moser'

I'll wrap up this post with a photo of my Clematis. I planted it three years ago and it is just starting to flower for the first time.