Like this:

It’s definitely starting to feel more like summer around here.

Today I pulled out the pea vines, as they had started to turn brown from the heat.  In spite of all the peas we’d picked in the past couple of weeks, there were still lots and lots left, so we snacked on them throughout the day, had some with dinner, and will finish them off tomorrow evening.  I still have a little lettuce left, so we’ll eat that in the next day or two.

The strawberries I planted earlier this spring are still producing, which is one of the advantages of planting everbearers — not a lot at any time, but we’ll have some throughout the summer.

The blueberry bushes that weren’t crushed by last winter’s snows are loaded with unripe berries.  I’ve covered them with nets, as I’m not keen to share my bounty with the birds or squirrels.  I expect that we’ll have berries in about two or three weeks.

The tomatoes are growing well.  Interestingly enough, the plants that I put in black plastic pots are easily four times the size of all the other tomato plants and have more yellow blooms than the others.  The basil in those pots is larger than the other basil plants too.  I’m assuming that it’s because the black plastic warmed up the dirt within.  If those plants continue to thrive and outproduce the others, I will take that as a sign and next year will build raised beds in the garden for tomatoes. I had them at our old house and they were sturdy enough to warrant the investment.

Both the Yukon Gold potatoes (in the ground) and the Russian Banana Fingerling potatoes (in a potato grow bag) are growing like crazy.

The asparagus has gotten so tall that I’ve had to put supports around the edge of the asparagus bed to keep the plants from flopping over and blocking the path.

The edamame has grown fast, fast, fast and I think we’ll have beans within a month, which will be early for us.

It’s not all just veggies, fruits, and herbs around here.  We also have loads and loads of flowers — all of the roses are going crazy and the summer flowers are starting to bloom.  It’s all looking so much better than last year when so many plants were young.  I think I’ll be able to have vases of flowers most of the summer.

Even though the squirrel ate all the wee apples off the apple trees and the crows are doing I-don’t-know-what out there (mostly just sitting on the fence and looking around), I haven’t seen any deer action in a while.  I probably just jinxed it by saying that, but I have to speak the truth.  Still, it’s probably a sign of how cracked the deer have made me that whenever I see any, even if they’re nowhere near my yard, my heart stops for a moment, then revs up to about 200 b.p.m., as I contemplate the damage those white-tailed beasts could do.

Advertisement