June 1st Garden Update

June 1st and the garden is rolling.  Zucchini in the foreground and butternut squash on the other side.  This bed didn't do well last year, and as a result, I didn't get much squash.  I'm hoping that my winter clean-out and a pile of fresh new veggie mix soil has fixed the problem!

I'm growing half the pole beans I've grown in the past.  It's not that I can't find a home for them all, it's that they are very time consuming to pick.  With plans to do craft shows this summer, I don't have time to spend hours picking pole beans every three days.  So I'm hoping this 4' long trellis of beans will spark the right balance between having yummy beans without devoting my life to the cause.

I'm also growing fewer tomatoes.  Only 6 plants this year.  I usually grow twice that, though I have to preface that comment.  Every year for one reason or another, I've lost about 4 of my plants.  So gambling that all 6 will do well this year (and early signs are positive), I will only be a couple plants short of what I've grown in the past.  Again, trying to free up some of the time I spend harvesting in the summer.

I was smart this year and put netting over my pepper plants the minute they went in the ground.  Last year, birds demolished most of them.  I just took the netting off, as they are mature enough that the birds should leave them alone.  I've already got a couple of them flowering.  I'm growing the standard bells, and Lipstick, a small-sized sweet pepper.

Had good broccoli and cabbage this year.  Though the main crowns have been harvested, I've got a few plants that are still producing side shoots.  I'll leave them growing until the bugs take them over and the heat ruins them.  I'm thinking I should have another 4 weeks with these.  Then I'll have to find something to plant in this bed mid-summer.  Still pondering that one!  I might put a snow pea teepee here and go for late summer peas.

The shallots I planted in November are about 4 weeks from harvest.

Man, I have never had a clematis grow this big. It must be in a happy place.

This plant is from one nasturtium seed. Last year, I planted an entire packet in this spot. It was like a bad 50's horror movie, "Attack of the 50ft Nasturtium!" Shows how deceiving those tiny little seeds can be. I am smarter now. I let one orange and one yellow grow this year. Even these will probably consume my path before the summer is over.

I did not have tomatoes this early last year. I think it's going to be another good tomato season! We deserve it after all those cold summers.

These wine barrels have been three years of trial and failure.  Tomatoes did not do well here.  Neither did herbs.  I think I've hit the jackpot with sunflowers.