Vegetable Garden Update-July 2016

Good morning! Summer is in high gear and we are under a heat advisory this week. The above rudbeckia and butterflyweed don't mind the heat but for the most part you'll find me in the air conditioning. Stay cool you all!

The vegetable garden has exceeded my dreams. It is doing SO well this year. Mr. Fix-it and I harvested hundreds of new potatoes and onions. Yum! The onions did so well! It was almost like a miracle to me as I've never had luck getting onions to bulb up. The garlic was over done and we did not get any of that. Now we are picking tons of tomatoes and cucumbers. I have to spend time indoors every other day putting up tomatoes. That is a good thing. Above is a long shot of the garden looking west. Let's look at each bed now.

The southeast bed is loaded down with mainly cherry tomatoes, vining crops, and pepper plants.

The northeast bed has some early corn in the mid part of this picture and later corn in the foreground. I also stuck in some vining crops where I could. The other end of this bed has some newly planted bush beans. I don't care for beans but Mr. Fix-it does so I planted some for him.

The strawberry bed doesn't change much.

The herb garden is really doing well. The rosemary, thyme, and sage attract all sorts of pollinators. I also seeded some borage and am hoping it comes up soon.

The southwest bed is full of predominately cucumbers. The early cukes have been producing prolifically. The newly planted cukes in the foreground will pick up once the older cukes have gone by. I also seeded vining crops around this bed too. So far they are small plants. I was late seeding them but I think the lateness will be a benefit in that there won't be as many pests around (I hope!)

The northwest bed is full of tomatoes. They are doing really well!

Some of the tomatoes have split. This is okay and is due to too much water at one time. We had about ten inches of rain in one week. I love it! You'll never hear me complain about split tomatoes. Lots of rain means green gardens and no watering for me.

Some of the cucumber leaves are spotting and turning yellow. This is most likely a fungal problem but I have not had time to investigate the cause. Since I am mostly organic the problem is not really a problem as long as the cucumbers are still producing. I'll keep an eye on the situation and take action if need be.

Around the outer edge of the garden where irises are planted I have cleaned up the irises and allowed self seeded zinnias to come back from last year's plants. They are slowly growing and blooming but I do wish they'd grow faster.

The iris/zinnia beds are hard to keep weeded since you should not mulch irises.

Lastly, all vegetable gardens (really all gardens) deserve a special cat. This is Smoke. He is on pest patrol and does a great job....

in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden