Annual Memorial Day Check-In

Memorial Day and the summer garden is almost entirely planted out.  I've been staggering plantings for several months now with various varieties of squash in various stages of growth.  I love this time of year when the vision is emerging, I'm still daydreaming of a pest-free, disease-free, lush garden of ample produce.  Of course, reality never quite meets the dream and by August, I'm chasing late blight and powdery mildew, fighting back caterpillars, and hacking down the spaces where I grossly over-planted and created an unmanageable jungle.

But today I dream. :)

Pumpkins on their way, with green and yellow zucchini in the foreground just transplanted on Saturday.

Butternut Squash.  I have mixed success with Butternuts, but being one of my favorites, I keep trying.  Fingers crossed this year is a good one.

Cucumbers.  After spending a few years playing around with Japanese and Armenian varieties, I'm back to plain old basic cucumbers this year.

The spring romaine 6-pack I picked up at Harmony Farms a while back.

These are my oxheart tomatoes from Territorial Seed.  Being heirlooms, they're a little fussy and it's often a race to see how many tomatoes I can get from the plants before the fungus takes over.  But rather than resort to chemical measures, I just put in lots of plants.  Somehow, it always works out.

I'm growing two types of cantaloupe this year, one of my garden favorites as I don't grow much fruit.

Early giant pumpkins will spill over into the rock and begin trailing.  To the right is Big Beef+ from Johnnys, a garden staple tomato I grow every year.

The first of several plantings of pole beans that will go in the garden this year.  I've learned smaller batches and staggered plantings keep us in beans until nearly Thanksgiving.

Acorn Squash just transplanted into the garden.

I never know what kind of pepper year I'll have.  This year, the seedlings took off, aided by heat mats.  They came fast and early.  I think this is the earliest I've ever had actual peppers on the plants.

A new-to-me variety of Bell Pepper, "Frodo" from Johnny's.  They did well last year and will hopefully do the same this year.

Another view of the Oxhearts, I've got about 6 plants growing in this spot.

And lastly, our annual crop of garlic has been doing spectacular this year.  They have a ways to go before they're ready to pull.  It will probably be July I'm guessing.