June Harvest

I harvested a nice bunch of overwintered leeks, a big head of lettuce and some volunteer hard-neck garlic that grew in the wrong spot. The strawberries are from a plot neighbor.

I spent three hours in the garden this morning weeding and pulling the mint that had taken over the better part of the back of my plot. I tied the asparagus and planted more Chiogga beets and a few dahlias, marigolds and cosmos. I also had meant to sow pole beans, carrots and more lettuce (in between the tomatoes so it can grow in the shade) but forgot, ha!

The garlic will be ready in a few weeks and I will need to harvest all the lettuce very soon. I also need to take out all those volunteer onions. The squash and cucumbers have settled in nicely, the chard and beets are looking good as are the new leeks. The kale is being eaten by something, but seems to manage to survive. Quite a few nasturtiums are coming up as well. The tomatoes have some flowers but not very many. I am worried that I overfertilized again, despite only using seaweed emulsion (once!) and sparingly so. Fingers crossed.

Early June

Early morning shadows after watering

I had a very late start gardening this season. We only got water in the community garden a couple of weeks ago and I delayed planting fearing COVID-19 might prevent us from gardening this year altogether. I have most things planted now, however. But because the seedlings spent their time in pots on my porch until now, they are still very small. Plus, I grew all of them from seed, minus the leeks and some herbs. Today, I put in more squash and more eggplants. I also fertilized my plants with seaweed emulsion (and repaired the water hose).

Bronze Beauty lettuce
Butternut squash

Early Summer Plantings

Front porch

I did some more planting yesterday. In the plot, I planted chard seedlings, two types of squash (butternut and delicata), a hot pepper, a zucchini and three cucumber plants. All of them were grown from seed. I also harvested some lettuce from the back porch and replanted that container with chard seedlings.

Front porch kale and lettuce
Back porch greens and baby chard
Back porch herbs

Planting

Front yard columbine

Finally! Two days ago, the water was finally turned on in our community garden. Yesterday, the kids and I spent two hours in the garden weeding, planting and watering. We needed to pull a large amount of onions to make space. They are currently curing on the front porch much to the chagrin of my daughter who has to live with the smell as her bedroom opens to the porch. I planted most of my seedlings: 6 tomato plants, 3 basil plants plus kale, chard, different lettuces and leeks. I also sowed nasturtiums.

We harvested some of the radishes. The peas never came up, not a single one but I know that some of the seeds germinated. I suspect the birds, which have been very active in the garden. The carrots sadly also never came up.

Not much to look at yet but lots of things in the ground.

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

Still no water in the garden. So, currently I have radishes, carrots, lettuce, beets and parsley growing in the plot. The seedlings are strong and ready to go in the ground, but I will wait a few more days hoping that we will get water soon.

Butter lettuce on back porch

I replanted two tomatoes, one hot pepper, eggplant, parsley and basil plant each on the back porch. There are also two lettuces in medium-size pots and a variety of herbs. The front porch has dwarf peas, lettuce and kale as well as mint, chives and cilantro grown from seed.

Waiting …
Dwarf bush peas
Front porch: flowers, peas, lettuces, kale, mint, chives, cilantro

Seedlings

Water drop on butternut squash leaf

We still do not have water in the garden. It is supposed to be turned on this season but not until the governor lifts the stay-at-home order, which is currently scheduled to expire a week from today. So, not much is going on in the plot. The radishes are coming up and I transplanted some Chiogga beets (a gift from another gardener) and some head lettuce today. I also resowed peas today, which miraculously have been disappearing over the last few weeks. I suspect the birds. This is my third (and last) attempt.

Different shades of green among my seedlings
My seedlings hardening off