Summer Update #1

Continues to be a wet season. Weather folks saying we're approaching being one of the wettest years in the last centruy!

Broc-Caul: Lots of leaves on the brocolli, but few heads, all small. The cauliflower is going nuts, and I'm hoping for good things there, but disappointed that only one head per plant.

Beans/Peas:Twined up the antenna pole, and the green beans are at work, about 2' up now. The yellow bush beans in the middle bed are leafing well, but true to form have already been nlown down once already. Sugar snap peas about 3' up in the container; still no flowers but very healthy.

Tomatoes: Going nuts! Interplanted again with Borage to draw bees. I'm being aggressive this year in trimmung back the borage so it doesn't compete for space with tomatoes in the cages. Have flowers already on most of the tomatoes. Haven't tied the cages to the fence yet... must do that before the plants get too much bigger.

Sunflowers: Six Mammoth, planted between the tomato cages. About 2'. Have a volunteer Black Oil Sunflower on the e side of the smallest finger bed, and planted pickeling cukes there. Hoping the sunflower can be a good support for the vines.

Ribes: The gooseberries are still doing great. Will probably do a mid-season trim to encourage slightly more vertical habit. The red currants in containers also doing great, but a branch or two broke on each several weeks ago during exceptionally high winds. Seemed to recover. Black currant progress is going slow: one of the two planted in the west bed simply did not come out of dormancy. The other is sending up baby shoots from ground level. For the other two co-planted later in the same container... looks like the same story... one is sending up shoots from soil level, the other is looking kaput.

Squash: Already harvested a small zuc. The delicata and butternut are spreading according to plan, but I do believe the growth is a little less full than if they were in full sun. Results is what counts though, so we'll keep watching.

Jerusalem Artichoke: Came back from the Energy Fair with a pound of korms from the Jungs in Stevens Point. Will give a couple to Doug, and plant the rest singly in 5-gallon buckets. Learning experiment.

Berry patch: Looking great. The mix of raspberry types will be especially appreciated.Melanie already picked a couple of early growers a fre days ago. Expect the main batch to come in over the next few weeks.

Onions/Garlic: Onions looking super happy. Garlic leaves yellowing, indiciating some kind of deficiency. Will read up on that and try to address tomorrow. The garlic plants are also smaller than last season. If there's anything I've not paid attention to this year its the garlic.

Planted an eggplant and another bell pepper in the smallest finger bed, next to the sunflower/cuke experiment.

Greens: Pulled all the endives when they started to bolt. Stopped harvesting from the window box and switch to the greens in the middle finger bed. WONDERFUL stuff! Have also started snipping from the Swiss Chard. Have to look at what to plant in the place of lettuce for the worst of summer.

Blueberries: Doing well, all setting fruit. Looks like 2-3 weeks to pick.