The Summer Garden Emerges

 Today was the first official day of my summer vacation.  I got started late, due to sleeping in a little, but I am behind on some things in the veggie garden...so I had to get out there and get stuff done while my son was at his grandma's house. Unfortunately, the high today was supposed to be almost 96 degrees plus humidity.  There was no helping that though, so I coated myself in sunblock and stepped out into the sauna. 

It's been a while since I did an update on my veggie garden.  Things are going much better this year, due to the fact that I'm not doing any garden monopolizing pumpkins this year.  This is the first section of my garden I worked on this year...I have broccoli that should be ready soon, chard, peas on trellises, onions, a few cabbages, and you can see the rhubarb off to the side there.  There is also kohlrabi and there were radishes hiding behind the broccoli. 

This is a pulled back view of the same end of the garden.  That monster thing you see in the middle is one of my horseradish plants, sunk in a pot in the ground.  They love the sun and get huge.  You can also see that my son has been out in the garden with his tonka trucks.  He loves all the dirt piles I make.  From this view you can see trellises I've set up for beans, and my egyptian walking onions. 

Besides more of my son's tonka toys, this picture shows the biggest tomato I have so far...one of only two tomatoes I have so far.  It is on the white beauty tomato plant. 

Here is the asparagus forest.  Yes, I do have a folding chair out in my garden.  When it is not blistering hot, I find it very soothing to go out there and sit and look at everything growing.  Of course in another month, there might not be room for my chair, but I am enjoying it for the time being.  I can't wait for my asparagus to be ready.  I am only on year two with mine...so I will be able to take a little bit next year, but not really a lot until the year after that. 

This is a view in the same direction, but even further out.  This is a good shot of my newly mulched tomato plants.  I don't have the cages and trellises set up yet though.  Mulching the plants with straw was one of the things I got done today.  I mulched them with grass clippings last year, but the grass clippings decomposed when the tomatoes were big, but then I couldn't get under them by then.  It is supposed to rain a lot later this week, I figure that will be a good time to put the tomato supports in.  The ground is much too dry and hard right now.  I tried to put a few in today, and I was having a hard time.  It will be much easier after a good rain.

This shot is from the same spot I was standing in the last picture, except I turned to the right.  These are some of my onion beds...with neat little paths around them.  You can also see my garlic standing tall along the fence line in the back.  Today I planted marigolds and alyssum around the garden to help draw in more beneficial insects.  I also used my shuffle hoe and cleared the weeds from the pathways. 

This is a close up of one of my bean trellises.  I love these things.  I bought them for like six bucks at Menards.  The poles are already attached to each other with little flexpin things.  It folds up and spreads out in a snap.  Very convenient to store, and I don't have to do all the tying.  They don't blow over, either.  I think this trellis is planted with black-eyed peas. 

I spun around and faced the other direction, and this is the potato end of the garden.  Today, I took a hoe and filled in the trenches around the potato plants, and mounded the dirt around them a little.  I will wait a few more weeks, and mound the dirt up higher one more time. 

On this side, facing back towards the garage, you can see my pepper plants about halfway back.  There are also leeks, some doing well, and some doing pathetic.  Lol.  My radishes are ready to start pulling here, mixed in with a long line of carrots.  You can see the garlic in this shot as well, and more bean and melon trellises.  I planted the melons under the trellises close to the tree.  I figure if they go all crazy they can just use the tree as a trellis and climb up it.  I'm okay with that. 

Going farther in the same direction, back towards the garage, this is where my corn is going to be.  A few baby corn plants have sprouted.  I imagine the rest will catch up after the good rain we get this week.  You can also see my lettuce, bok choi, tomatillas, and spinach in the cage in the back of this shot. 

So far, I am really pleased at how everything is set up this year.  It is much more organized than last year, and I think it will be easier to keep ahead of the weeds.  If that's possible.  I'm still trying to decide where to put my cucumbers...that is the next thing on my list, but I will work on that later.  How are things going in your summer veggie garden?