What A Difference A Month Makes - The Garden In June

July has taken me by surprise, it's here already! Looking back at the June garden I can see how things grew like gangbusters. It's amazing what long days and mild weather can do. Here's a few selected shots of the garden showing the garden on June 3 and July 2 for the most part.

Romanesco Zucchini, June 3 and July 2

I'm afraid the Rampant Romanesco may engulf the garden paths before the end of July. I harvested the first zucchini on June 4 and by the end of the month I had harvested over 13 pounds. That's just one plant.

San Pasquale zucchini and corn and beans, June 3 and July 2

The San Pasquale zucchini at the other end of the bed is a much more modest plant. It didn't start producing until June 12 and only put out 12 ounces of zucchini by the end of the month. I harvest more Romanesco zucchinis in one day than what San Pasquale produces in 2 1/2 weeks. The Cascade Ruby Gold corn seen on the left is already tasseling and some ears are pushing out silk.

Peppers and tomatoes - June 3 and July 2

The peppers are growing quickly in spite of being infected by some sort of virus which happens every year when the aphids find them. The virus doesn't affect the quality of the peppers, but it frustrates me that it happens every year. Some day I would love to grow healthy looking peppers. The tomatoes are trying to bust out of their cages. It seems like they push shoots out of the cages every night and every day I have to push them back in.

Eggplant, June 3 and July 2

The eggplants are happy and blooming.

The Wheat Patches, June 3 and July 2

I tore out all of the Red Fife wheat and composted it and that area is now planted with seedlings of Honey Nut butter nut squash and Tromba D'Albegna squash. The butternut will be allowed to grow out of the bed and into the path and I'm going to try to train the Tromba squash up the trellis to show off the long squashes. I pulled half of the Sonora wheat and hope that the grains matured enough. It needs to dry more before I try to thresh it. That area is ready to be planted and I've got it shown covered with some Remay to conserve soil moisture until I had the time to plant my melon seedlings which got planted yesterday. The melons will be allowed to sprawl down the sides of the bed and into the paths where it will be nice and warm. It's too cool around here to train them up a trellis and expect them to ripen properly, the paths are much more warm and cozy.

Cauliflower and Broccoli and alliums, June 3 and July 2

The cauliflower and broccoli seedlings have grown like crazy, the shallots are still struggling along, and the Inchelium Red garlic has gone from healthy and green to infested with rust. Fortunately, the garlic developed some good heads before the rust settled in. I'm in the process of pulling it all and curing it.

Onions and Garlic on June 3, Beans on July 2

The onions and the rest of the garlic have been pulled and are curing even now. The area where the garlic was growing is now occupied by Petaluma Gold Rush beans. And the empty spot previously occupied by the onions is a handy temporary resting spot for some drying coriander seeds. I have to get that area and get the rest of the old stuff out of this bed and prepped and ready for more brassicas before the 11th, after that it's no bending, twisting, or heavy lifting for me for I don't know how many weeks. It's going to be torture to not be able to work in the garden.

Lettuce and Beets, June 11 and July 2

The lettuce and beets have grown quickly! I keep the lettuce shaded with some remay which seems to help it through the warm afternoons. I've got some spots in the tunnel all prepped and ready to be planted which I'm going to do next week in hopes of being able to harvest it in August.

Cutting Greens, June 11 and July 2

The cutting greens were just emerging on June 11 and since then I've been able to cut baby greens twice. I'll probably get to cut another bunch next week. After that I'll need some help harvesting them or I'll just get to watch them bolt.

Chard, June 11 and July 2

The chard doesn't seem to change, it's always in need of a big trim. But you can see that there's only one Peppermint Stick plant growing where there were two before and the Golden Chard is down to just the main stem. I'm going to have to train Dave to do some harvesting otherwise some of the garden is going to be an overgrown disaster before I can give it my full attention again. I hope I can at least get him to harvest the zucchini, I can't even imagine what that would look like if it doesn't get harvested for a few weeks....

That's the highlights of the June Garden, what a difference a month makes!