Last updated on July 3rd, 2015
How’s your veggie patch coming along? Any troubles to report? My own Kitchen Garden is a little pokey this season, thanks to a hot, dry May, and a cool, wet June. Still, the plants are making a valiant effort to fill their beds:
Yesterday, in advance of a rain storm, I hastily mulched the 12 beds with chopped straw. The straw is specially heat-treated, and weed-free. Like all mulches, it shades the soil and locks in moisture.
Update: Lots of readers have asked about the straw I use. It’s “Lucerne Farms Premium Groundcover” — a combination of straw and hay that has been heated (to near-combustion!) to kill weed seeds. Apparently the producer only sells to independent garden centers in the Northeast. More details at Lucerne Farms’ website.
The rain did arrive, and in near-biblical proportions: about 2 inches overnight. This morning, just as the rain ended, I stood on a very unstable ladder, and snapped the above photograph.
Oh, the things I do for you.
Here’s a short walk through the garden:
The four narrow central beds are planted with tall zinnia ‘Purple Prince.’
Like all zinnias I’ve encountered, Purple Prince is attractive both in bud…
This bed contains dwarf snapdragons and leeks. Leeks are cool-season crops that always perform well in my region. I plant them the old-fashioned way.
Need a good recipe for leeks? You can’t go wrong with this rustic Bacon and Leek Tart.
In another bed, heirloom tomatoes are climbing their Joan Crawford-Approved trellis. The vines are secured to the wooden poles with green Velcro tape. The tape is soft, so it can’t damage vines. It’s also re-usable.
Even in cool weather (57°F as I write this!), the tomatoes are flowering and fruiting. I admire their can-do attitude.
To insure high-quality tomatoes, I routinely de-sucker the vines.
My fall-planted, hard-neck garlic has produced its curly scapes. I always remove these “flower” stalks in order to encourage further development of the bulbs below. The scapes are incredibly delicious — I turn them into a mean, green pesto.
Not sure when to harvest or how to cure and store your garlic? Maybe my Garlic Sowing & Growing Guide will help.
This pathetic-looking bed contains the onion seedlings I purchased in early May…and didn’t get around to planting until last week. Poor little things. They probably rue the day I brought them home.
More promising is the asparagus patch I planted last April. The ferny friends are currently enjoying the companionship of Salvia ‘Victoria Blue.’
To attract honey bees to the garden, I planted Bachelor Buttons in the bed that also contains my beloved lovage.
If you don’t have lovage in your garden, be sure to acquire it. The leaves taste like celery on steroids, and the hollow stems make terrific drinking straws for Bloody Marys. I use the leaves for salads…
And also for this Lemony Lovage Pesto. Here’s the recipe.
An entire bed is devoted to the bell peppers I use for Piperade. Piperade — a fast saute of green and red bell peppers, onions, and sometimes garlic — is one of the most versatile condiments in the world. I make it and freeze it this way.
Mercifully, the peppers aren’t bothered by cool weather. Just now they are happily making flowers…
The 12th bed contains an experiment: Sweet Potatoes. The vines seem happy, but since this Ipomoea batatas demands a hot, lengthy growing season, I might end up with a rather pitiful harvest. Time will tell.
Now, I had planned to tell you about the Ribes ‘Blanca’ that grows on the fence in the kitchen garden, and also about the hardy kiwi vine that engulfs the arbor. But let’s save them for another visit, okay?
What I really want to discuss is your own veggie patch. So far this season, has it been a delight — or a disappointment? Talk to me in the comments field below.
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More fun:
My Herb Garden, or How to Decorate Rich (Even When You’re Not)
Summer Squash Pizza
Fourth of July Fruit Pizza
Marilyn Elliott says
My own veggie patch is growing like weeds, thanks to all the rain we’ve had. But something happened to my garlic; I’ll wait to see if it appears again next year, as has garlic I’ve previously transplanted. And my tomatoes have fusarium wilt or something, though there are many green tomatoes and the plants are still blooming and producing. So far the ripe ones have been delicious. Super Fantastic seems to be a great tomato for this part of the country (north central Texas) and I don’t blame it for the wilt, or whatever it is; I blame all the rain we’ve had for that…..even while being grateful for it. Cucumbers are doing well, but has anyone ever noticed how difficult it is to find the cukes ready to harvest? They hide among the leaves!
Mary in Iowa says
So far my harvest has consisted of lots of broccoli, tart cherries and raspberries. Peppers are growing well, and my own pokiness this year means that before I planted any of the 30 tomato plants I started from seed indoors, roughly that many volunteers germinated and took off like they were in a secret tomato race. The 5 X12 compost pen built over last year’s potato patch sent potatoes, cukes, cantaloupe, tomatoes and butternut squash up from the bottom layers, and I’ve let them fight it out for supremacy. So far they’re all thriving, blooming and setting fruit. I will assume the All Blue potatoes are plumping up underground. Since I have been consumed with rehabbing other garden areas and digging up the parking strip for plantings, I gave the potted tomatoes to the refugee gardeners and am planning to see what all the volunteers produce, and live on the fat of the land. I know from the leaves that some of the volunteers are Brandywines.
Mary in Iowa says
Oh, and Kevin, your sweet potatoes look about right for this early in the season. Some years I’ve actually planted them toward the end of June, and have had abundant harvests in zone 5a. They don’t do much underground until the last few weeks before frost, so nurture the beautiful vines and trust that in September they’ll start storing up goodness in the tubers. If you’re lucky enough to have one decide to bloom, they have beautiful morning glory type lavender-purple blossoms, typical of the ipomoea family.
Louise Brouillette says
Great tour! Thanks so much, Kevin. For the past two years, my tomatoes succumbed to fusarium wilt (I think that’s what it is, anyway), so this year, i moved them to another raised bed. Unfortunately, they’re showing bad signs again already! My kale and Swiss chard have been producing for over a month, and I’m picking green beans. I tried your advice and waited until the solstice to plant my cukes and melons so that the squash beetles won’t destroy them–I’ll let you know if that worked. All my annual and perennial herbs are growing like gang-busters, and my lovage is over 7 feet tall! Strangely, my Malabar spinach is just crawling, instead of shooting up like it usually does this time of year. Wish me luck on my tomatoes!
Carol Durusau says
Things are going well. Our only disaster was the tomatoes. I don’t know if it was too wet and cold for them or what happened, but they looked great, then when we dug them, they all roted within a couple of days. Other than that, we have had lots of green beans and cucumbers and are on the brink of great quantities of tomatillos, peppers, tomatoes, purple hull peas, okra and butterbeans, with watermelon, more purple hull peas, zucchini and pumpkins coming in later. We also have 3 baby chicks. This picture shows the entrance to our backyard. I posted a picture in the facebook comments. We had a slow start because our spring was chilly here in Georgia, but now everything is going strong.
Mary says
Hi Kevin, love your garden, it looks so tidy. My disasters this year are 1) flea beetles on my fingerling potato leaves; 2) sugar ann peas grew for about a month then within a week all died. I had my soil tested for the first time last fall and their recommendation was to fertilize all beds with 20-0-0. Yikes! Ammending soil this year and I’m sure that accounts for some of the crop failures. Gathering all Japanese beetles and feeding them to my 4 chickens. The grateful girls are giving us 4 eggs every morning.
Carol Durusau says
Not tomatoes, potatoes. And the rotted, not roted. I guess my garden is good but my typing is not.
Kattrinka says
Wonderfully! DS Carrots, beets, zucchini Great! Jug spinach + mesclun were fab (gone by) Jug romaine (still kicking), jug broccoli, jug brussels sprouts Excellent! Various peppers + tomatoes (started under lights) going strongly. 2 jug artichokes look Superb! Sweet potatoes, potatoes, keep going and going. Jug cosmos so so, jug milkweed looks good. Jug lovage perfect! did tomatoes in jugs but they looked small at planting time, gave them to a friend and they are taking off!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Mary in Iowa – Thanks for pointing out that my Sweet Potato vines are progressing normally. What a relief!
Nanette says
My garden in Lone Jack, MO is fine…when you consider it has rained here just about everyday for the last 45 days. My onions are doing great. Tomato’s just want some sun so they can go from green to red!! Peppers, herbs, mint all seem to be doing OK !!
Beverly Phillips, zone 6, eastern PA says
The height and vigor of everything is magnified with the excess rainfall of June. Tomatoes are at the tops of the cages, garlic is almost ready for harvest, two kinds of peas are finished, third round of lettuces just went in as seedlings, carrots greens are robust, basil is happy, sage is positively mountainous, gourds and cucumbers are climbing strongly and blooming, pole beans and bush beans look healthy, seed-grown onions look great. We’re just past the mid-point of the black raspberry harvest and the rhubarb ribs made two big batches of sauce for the freezer (for crepes). Rabbits, groundhogs and (one) deer are gazing longingly through the chain link fence at my bounty as my blue-eyed dog Jasmine, excellent ratter that she is, growls in defense of her master’s territory. This is a good year in the garden! Knock on wood.
myrtle miller says
Do you ever collect rain for your plants? They say rainwater collected after a storm has nitrogen and nitrogen is good for plants.
Josie says
My veggie patch makes my heart swell with pride! Last year my husband built me a raised bed so I could start my first garden. It was so pathetic and depressing. The only thing that did well was my spaghetti squash and I don’t think that plant would have died no matter what I did. I wasn’t even going to bother this year. I came across your blog was inspired to try winter sowing in early March (Central Jersey). I cannot believe how big and beautiful everything looks! So far I have harvested green beans, broccoli, Swiss chard, kale, and a surprise rutabaga that was supposed to be a Brussels sprout seedling. My first spaghetti squash is almost ready and 2 others are growing, a few tomatoes are plumping up nicely, and I’ve got a few husks on my tomatillo plants waiting to fill in. My pumpkin plant also has fruit coming in.My sugar baby watermelon has been growing soooo slow. Cauliflower might be a bust since I have no heads yet and we are getting into the hottest days of Summer. I love being able to show my 2 1/2 year old how our food grows. A note to anyone looking to draw in pollinators- plant tomatillos! I have never seen so many honey bees and bumble bees on a single plant. Each plant has tons of yellow flowers. I’d say at least a hundred flowers on my biggest plant. Be warned though, they can grow quite wide.
badger gardener says
Rather than garden this year I have opened a rabbit diner featuring chard, filet beans, lettuce, poppies, sweet peas, morning glories, and the occasional side of kale and cosmos. I replanted the veggies that were wiped out so everything is behind schedule. With the flowers I simply admitted defeat. I tried nylon fencing and even buried it, but they managed to dig out one side. However, I have stumbled upon a solution that has been working for the past two weeks. I have stuck plastic forks all over the garden. I found the idea while perusing a site called May Dream Gardens. It is a bit odd looking, but I used the clear type, and behind the nylon fences in the veggie gardens you hardly see them. In the ower gardens they are not so bad with the tall annuals like cosmos and zinnia. Before I have a backyard party, I’ll take them out, but then they are going right back in. It really seems to do the trick.
Everything the rabbits haven’t bothered is coming along well. Tomatoes and eggplants are a little slow with our cool weather, but I have been enjoying the mid-70 temps during the kickoff of festival season, so can’t complain about that.
Karen Knight says
Kevin
Your garden looks great – and so weed free! The abundance of rain in VA has meant an abundance of weeds that I need to keep up with. Could you please supply a close up of your tomato support system and where to find green velcro tape? Thanks as always – love your can-do attitude – you make things so fun! Karen
jean says
Hi Kevin,
Your garden is beautiful and my garden is growing like crazy with all the rain. The tomato plants are taller than I am for the first time, BUT…with all the rain, they are beginning to show signs of blight which worries me. The plants are full of all kinds of tomatoes, 41 plants this year and I am concerned as blight took out most of them last year. I even planted them further apart like the extension office told me to do. I am cutting off the lower leaves that show the blight and hoping that they will recover. Have been picking swiss chard, lettuce, lots of kale and cucumbers. Everything else looks like it is on steroids as they are huge this year with all the rain. We are blessed not to have the flooding some states have had although 30% of the farmers in Indiana have lost their crops to flooding this year. I feel bad for them as they work so hard and that is their livelihood. Thanks for your updates as I so much love your blog and recipes.
Mercy says
My tomatoes are full of fruit, still green though here in zone 5a. We’ve had so much rain almost every day! My zucchini, of all things, is producing tons of flowers but the fruits aren’t getting pollination with it being so rainy & the bees don’t want to come visit. I think my tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, & all my gourds are gonna explode when the rain finally dies down & we get some hot weather!
Love your site, Kevin, & I’ve made several of your recipes, all of which turned out very well!
Mermaid Deb says
We have had over 20 inches of rain since May 1st. My garden and flower beds are getting overgrown with weeds. I can’t get into them without sinking in the mud But my flowers sure are bountiful and gorgeous this year.
Janice says
My potatoes, tomatoes, onions, kohlrabi, & broccoli love the 9+ inches of rain we got last month (a new record), the cucumbers and melons not so much. Just glad I have raised beds that are 12″ high because more than 4 times they have been sitting in over 5″ of water. Wish we could post pictures too.
Becky says
I tried raised rows this year and am so happy with the results. I can get out in the garden, even after a heavy rain and not swim in mud. The walkways are all mulched with straw and are relatively weed free (25 min and the 20×25 bed was clear). I grew tomatoes from seed and planted the hardiest. Then 10 days later after a hot spell, all the ‘less hardy’ ones went nuts. So another row was created just for these guys. 18 tomato plants for a family of 4. All free, so I figure I’ll be blessing lots of people when its time to harvest!
The glory of the raised rows is the relative ease of caring for the garden. An excellent choice for folks like me with a bad back. After winter sowing petunias from your instructions, I have tons of one of my favorite flowers!! Thanks Kevin!
Shelli says
I started a lot of tomato and pepper seedlings in our grow light in February with the hopes of planting in our garden by April, but the record-breaking rain would not let up. Needless to say, we couldn’t even till our garden. So I resorted to investing in a couple of raised fabric beds and several grow bags, planted cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers in them. They’re doing as well as can be expected (I planted very late.) The sweet potato plants are happy and they’re in the ground. The gold potatoes are in a grow bag. We finally were able to put up our new greenhouse, so the good news is, even though the vegetables have gotten a late start, we can move them into the greenhouse in the fall if necessary. (The grow bags have handles.) Anyway, fingers crossed!
Maureen says
So far so good, no invasions other than squirrels gnawing down the beans, have had to cage things to keep them safe.
Slow but sure tho, here in Massachusetts its been cool and wet for June, need some heat to get things moving.
Helga G says
This year my garden got a late start due to the crazy weather. So far my Veggies are very “slow moving”. Just waiting for more Sunshine. Sooner or later all that rain has to pay off.
Joy Brinduse says
Kevin, your garden looks so great. It makes me want to cry over my own. I was out of town for 2 days & came home to a garden that had been invaded by a critter or critters that love the leaves of bean plants, okra plants even the corn stalks! My tomatoes, peppers and zucchini look great, but I’m not sure I’ll even have any of the others. Any suggestions for groundhogs? I’m fairly certain that’s what is eating my leaves because I’ve seen two of them around the wooded perimeter of our 4 acres. 🙁
dori says
It is amazing to read the kinds of problems y’all are having. Here in PNW it is Arizona weather, August in June, instead of our usual Junuary chilly drizzle. We will have eggplants. I wish I had planted watermelon.
Loretta says
Your raised veggie beds look wonderfully lush. Sharing the views of all your readers here. Six raised veggie beds that were coming along beautifully, but now I am so disheartened since either groundhogs or deer or both are invading the beds. I see one of the readers have suggested plastic forks, I wonder if it really works? Would love to read a post with your suggestions of how to keep critters at bay.
Jackie Russell says
Hi Kevin, Tomatoes are fine, as are Carrots but the Peppers are really suffering from Slug and Snail attacks, any tips?
Karen says
We have the same issues here in VA…very hot May, followed by a very wet June…my tomato plants are starting to yellow at the bottom due to too much water 🙁
On the upside, the major Japanese beetle issue seems to have abated – guess they don’t like all of the rain!
Sheryl says
Kevin, you will have sweet potatoes, I promise: I have planted them in early/mid-June for the past 3 years and I get a great harvest here in northern Vermont. I don’t know if it’s worth the garden space, but it’s exciting…and the vines are beautiful!
My garden got started late: I am just harvesting peas, my tomatoes are just starting to climb their new supports (no wire!), garlic snakes (scapes, but we call them snakes) have been harvested and have been showing up in my morning eggs and many other meals, some mustard greens are ready, while other greens and lettuce are coming, but small. (I can’t vigorously dig in the dirt, so I have had to rely on the “kindness of neighbors”…and once the garden is turned up, I am able to gently plunk stuff in…)
Finally, I am trying this year to do a good job mulching…but I have chickens. Adventurous chickens, who prefer to range outside the fence sometimes (they were actually jumping and flapping their wings to try to harvest some of my sour cherries out of a small tree!) and LOVE to scratch in anything like straw, pine needles, grass clippings…so, it’s a challenge. But I plant enough so that we can all have some (including the little rabbit that roams my yard).
Diane says
I agree with your poky report. My peppers and going slow, but I actually have my first tomato ripening on the vine; in Michigan, no less. My cucumbers, kale and chard are doing well and the beets and eggplant look like they are finally shooting up. The herbs are going great! The scapes have been harvested (along with some new garlic) and were roasted crispy – the kids eat them like popcorn when done this way.
Lynne says
I am already enjoying zukes, and there are green tomatoes on a couple of plants, lots of rainbow chard and beet greens. I have to figure out what to do with all the cilantro, besides eat it from the garden. I need to lay down another tape of radish seeds. But no luck this year with sugar snap peas 🙁
Tawni says
Kevin…
Where are you buying the chopped. .weed..and seed free hay?…The last batch I bought had seeds and I had a ton of weeds…kinda leary about hay this year…:c
Paula says
Hi Kevin, I just got my tomato and pepper plants into my raised beds and was trying to decide what to use as a mulch. I like your use of the chopped hay–did you get that locally here in Columbia county?
Laura Swieton says
Also in Valatie. Already enjoyed the asparagus and strawberries. Been enjoying the sugar ann and snow peas, and bush cherries. Tomatoes growing well, with green ones on the largest plants. The bell peppers I ordered as plants from a catalog are doing great; the ones I bought from Hewitt’s are pathetic — not sure why. String beans and yellow squash nearly ready for first picking. Blueberries are sad this year, but I started some new ones. Blackberries are teasing me; probably won’t be ready for another couple weeks. Bush cucumbers, mini cantaloupes and pumpkin vines all growing well. Spouse’s black current bush is covered in ripe berries that he can pick. Most of my new asparagus patch is healthy and growing well, so I should have plenty for steaming next spring. Carrots, radishes, lettuce all fine despite the cool, wet weather. Just hoping to head off the late blight that has hit my tomatoes for the past couple years — in a different bed, with cardboard under the mulch, trimming all the lowest branches.
Samantha says
Everything is slow on the north shore of Long Island – or at least in my neck of those woods. Had to replant beans which rotten in the ground, cool damp weather is making all seeds slow to germinate. i soaked my morning glory seeds a usual, and none came up after planting. No bachelor buttons, very few four o’clocks, no zennias… the peas simply turned pale and died. I suspect just not enough warmth and sunlight. Part of each day is cloudy. BUT…nasturtiums are growing gangbusters. Go figure.
Migs Murray says
I’m growing kohlrabi this year simply because I never see it in the supermarkets and was curious. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea when to tell it’s ready to eat and what to do with it once it is. Does anyone have any recipes for this vegetable please? I’d hate to waste it and I’m dying to try it. ^_^
Betty says
Most of my garden is doing well with one major exception. I have been gardening for 30 years, mainly the old standbys. But at your instigation I decided to try two new items – kohlrabi and French filet green beans. I couldn’t find those seeds ( filet) anywhere locally and had to order them. I tried 2 different plantings and not ONE seed germinated, although my regular bush green beans right next to them are thriving. I complained to the nursery and they told me the ground needs to be warm – we’re in the upper 80’s, I think it’s warm. Where do you get your filet bean seeds?
Marjie T. says
Your garden is beautiful and way ahead of mine. We have had a very cool June on the shores of Lake Michigan. My cool weather plants are glorious…amazing and profuse lettuce, potatoes going great guns and the broccoli and kale look great. Heat seeking plants are pretty small so far.
I mix lots of my plants together with monarda, anise hyssop and zinnias scattered in to attract pollinators. This gets to looking pretty messy, but I really have not had issues (knocking on wood as I write this) with insect pests. I think they may prefer to find their favorites all in one place..shopping for their favorites in my garden is like shopping at a poorly organized rummage sale.
K. Natali says
Your garden always looks so good Kevin. Mine was looking great. We had a wonderful wet spring and then the heat hit. We are breaking heat records here near the Idaho border. My plants are literally burning up. I wish I had access to that chopped straw you used.
Diane C says
My orange cherry tomatoes are doing better than the red ones, for some reason. Zucchini is growing well as are the cucumbers. We have had so much rain that my delphiniums appear to be rotting.
We have also had lots of problems with a bunny eating our plants. We are working on various solutions.
Katie Zack says
I envy you all your rain, here in Southern California we are really suffering. I am hand watering my tomatoes individually and have been eating cherry tomatoes in the garden. My green beans got destroyed by snails and/or slugs. My yard long beans are taking off and the herbs are just fine. Mulched heavily with straw again the year which really helps to Save water and my back since we have few weeds! That’s all folks.
Ann Honer says
Here in N. Illinois, we have had the wettest May and June on record. Salad greens , Swiss chard, kale, peas, beans and potatoes love it, but the tomatoe plant leaves are turning brown and dying off.
If Marilyn Elliott reads this, she might want to try using a ‘cucumber frame’ for her cukes.
The plants grow over the frame and the cucumbers hang down through the holes – – easy to find.
Belinda says
This is the first garden I’ve planted at our cabin in the Adirondacks. I’m strangely encouraged by the fact that so many readers have faced the same yucky weather we’ve had. We built our raised beds using your guidance and I drove my jugs of seedlings here with me from my home in Iowa. There are no bugs to report and I’ve got summer squash and a few bell peppers blooming. I’m starting a notebook of ideas to try next year and most will be mined from your posts and readers’s comments, both of which I look forward to reading each week.
Faye says
Triple digit heatwave is delaying the tomatoes from setting fruit but the cucumbers and zucchini are thriving as are the squash bugs. I am growing a new vegetable called Kalettes this year and this is definitely going to become a staple in my garden. The Kale-brussel sprout flavors are outstanding in salads or sauteed.
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Tawni and Paula – I’ve added an update (below the second photo of this post) that describes the weed-free straw I use. Locally, the material is available at Callander’s Nursery in Chatham, NY.
Karen Thomas says
Here in Kingman, we are having a very hot and windy summer. I, along with many others, lost my whole garden to the hot wind. Even with watering every evening, it simply dried up. Some seeds didn’t even bother to sprout! Like, the zucchini, of all things. They’re like weeds usually! I think I can dig up the garlic and try again in the fall. I saved one cherry tomato in a very large pot by bringing it up to my front patio and putting it in the shade. It’s finally getting blossoms!
Barb says
I have four tomato plants and one squash planted in my raised bed and just picked the first red tomato yesterday. However, the rest of the little guys don’t seem to be doing too well.
We had a very hot May and most of June and not it’s been wet and humid. I guess they just need more time. My berries are doing great! I’ve picked quite a few of red raspberries and a couple of blackberries. Blackberries are bending over the stalks but are still red.
lynn scarry says
In the UK…..Black fly galore……goodness, first time ever planted runner beans and they have been attacked like there was no tomorrow!
Sprayed them with soapy water, let’s wait and see what happens.
Trying to follow in my Dad’s footsteps for his “rubber beans” they were actually lovely, it was my daughters special version for Grandad’s produce.
Janet says
Hey Kevin, I live in the Watertown, NY area and have grown sweet potatoes for the last several years. While I could probably do better at the local farm stand that brings them in from somewhere else….. I love growing them and eating them. There is just my husband and I and we get enough for the 2 of us. I process them and freeze in 1/2 cup portions, ready to go when we are.
Troy says
Your sweet potatoes should be fine! Did you plant “Beauregard”? It’s a fast maturing variety, In spite of all out war with a ground hog last year I had enough for the winter. I only have a 8×8 patch. Though I also use black plastic for them with a soaker hose underneath. It keeps the soil really warm! Another good practice is to get at your beds with a “Broad Fork” it is an awesome garden tool. Loosens the soil gently (no shredded worms!) and way deeper than a tiller. It’s quite a work out use!
Amy says
Hi Kevin, I tried your method of putting down newspaper and then mulch to kill the weeds in my garden. A week later I have things sprouting in the mulch. Anything to be done?
Frantique says
I’m enjoying kale, swiss chard, spinach, kohl rabi and yes, TOMATOES! I can taste the sunshine in them 🙂 There are cherry tomatoes and yellow pear as well.
I planted a baby watermelon and am hopeful – love watermelon but they take a lot of space – so, I planted one that is staked and blooming – we’ll see how that experiment turns out. Basil, thyme, rosemary, lavender are doing well along with the red sweet peppers and several hot ones.
We were finally blessed with a wonderful rainfall through last night. We have been lacking moisture all year. Now, if it just doesn’t get hot and windy.
Am very busy re-arranging my perennials because of changes in shade and sun resulting from loss of trees and shrubs in our neighborhood – lots of work but looking good with this rain.