The Garden in Late June 2013, Part Two

Let's get back to the garden tour. This bed is a bit of a mix. Front and center are the two varieties of broccoli that I'm growing for the spring (now summer). Purple Peacock is in the foreground and Di Ciccio behind it. Purple Peacock is doing just ok. I got a very modest sized "main" head from each plant and now they are producing side shoots. Not enough to overwhelm, just enough to give the two of us a modest serving now and then. The Di Ciccio produced larger main heads, one of the plants produced a huge one, and fewer but larger side shoots than the Purple Peacock. Actually, the plants are producing just enough to keep us happy, I really don't want to be inundated with broccoli, I don't freeze it unless there is just far too much to eat fresh.

Beyond the broccolis are the Greek Gigante beans that I planted in the spring of 2012. They were wonderful last year, grew like crazy and provided me with over 7 pounds of dried beans. I was hoping the roots would survive the winter and produce new shoots this year. Indeed they did, I only lost one plant over the winter and one plant died last fall. There are already lots of blossoms now and a number of beans have set already. I hope the early warm weather doesn't slow it down too much. Runner beans tend resent hot weather, but last year we didn't get hot weather until October when the plants were pretty much finished blooming so I don't really know how these beans will react.

The tunnel is providing protection for 45 pepper plants. They aren't the prettiest specimens. But last year I thought my pepper plants were a disaster to begin with and they pulled through to produce a fantastic crop. I've got my fingers crossed for this year. This year I'm experimenting with a bunch of different chiles from the southwest. And of course there are Pimento de Padrons, I've not had a year without those in I don't know how long - 10 plants this year! And a few of my favorite sweet peppers from my sweet pepper experiments last year are back.

The view back from the other end of the tunnel. I keep both ends of the tunnel open at all times to keep it from overheating.

This funny looking arrangement is protecting some Spanish Black carrots while they are in bloom.

It may or may not help to keep them from crossing with any wild carrots (Queen Anne's Lace) that might happen to be blooming within a half mile.

But it will be fun to experiment with these and see what, if anything, I get.

Over here in the fourth bed is where I had favas, lettuce, spinach and other spring crops.

These are the last of the fennel which are starting to bolt. I harvested them immediately after the photo shoot. Now there's nothing left of the spring garden in this bed.

More peppers! I think the count is up to 61 and I might have a couple more to plant. I will be doing a post one of these days about all the pepper varieties I'm growing this year.

Eggplant down at this end. There are three varieties here this year, all Italian. Salangana in front produces an elongated dark purple fruit. I grew this variety last year and found it to be prolific and delicious. The plants with the purple in the leaves are Sicilian. I don't know if they are a named variety. My seeds were obtained in a seed swap. Two of the plants are from the original seeds that I got in the swap and two are from seeds that I saved from the one and only plant that I was able to start last year. It produced a beautiful large classic shaped white and violet fruit. And beyond the Sicilians are a new variety in my garden - Bonica.

Salangana

Sicilian

Bonica

When I cleared out the fava side of this bed I found a number of volunteer fraises de bois plants. I dug a few up and am trying to get them established at one end of this bed. The cleared out fava patch is awaiting the Black Futsu winter squash, Halona and Alvaro melons, and Garden Oasis and Tasty Green cucumbers that I'm starting in 4-inch pots. I would have set them out today but it's just too warm out there this afternoon (86ºF the last time I looked). I'll plant them late this afternoon so that they have the cooler night to recover from the trauma.

Thanks for joining me on the tour of my June garden, I hope you enjoyed it!