Garden Update- June week 1

 Just a quick garden update.  Mostly pictures, because i just don't have a whole lot to say these days. Just enjoying my time in the garden, and obsessing about the weather.

Swiss Chard, beets, garlic and onions in this photo. My onions bolted completely unexpectedly. They hadn't even started forming bulbs yet.  Not entirely sure why. i'm guessing they were stressed from the lack of rain and high temps.   i think this is the first year i've ever had onions bolt so early in the growing season.

Sugar snap peas and just starting to flower and produce. Should be able to start picking them in the next week.

This is the Speckles lettuce from Botanical Interests. i really like this variety and love the way it looks in the garden.  i also planted red and green oak leaf, red romaine, red salad bowl, mesclun mix and probably a few others. 

This is the black seeded Simpson,  Majesty lettuce and spinach. We harvested spinach for a few weeks, but it's bolted now and i had to pull it all a couple days ago.  i have other plantings in that we are still harvesting, but i do't have a cold crop (shaded) garden this year, so it's all going to start bolting soon. 

As much as it sucks to pull the bolted spinach it doesn't really go waste. The chickens strip all the leaves off, and absolutely love it.  My little silkies are getting so fuzzy, i'll post a chicken update soon.

i only put in 12 broccoli this spring, because last year the cabbage worms were terrible and the broccoli was so wormy i ended up throwing out much of what i had grown. So far this spring, i have not seen one cabbage moth or worm on any of the plants. They are just beginning to form flowerheads, and after our recent rain they literally doubled in size overnight.  

After having late blight wipe out my tomatoes two years in a row, i'm trying not to get too excited. i grew all my tomatoes from seed this year (except for a 4 pack of Mr. Stripy and Rutgers)  and i planted way too many. i counted something like 40 plants already in the ground, and at least 40+ still in pots. lol. This was my first year trying to do all my tomatoes by seed, and i didn't actually expect them all to survive or do as well as they are doing.  So this years tomato variety is Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Golden Jubilee, Ferris Wheel, Yoder's German Yellow,  Black Pineapple,  Pineapple tomato, Hillbilly, Pink Brandywine, Yellow pear, and Violet Jasper.   i also planted romas and Moneymakers, but they didn't come up. i replanted and they are just starting to grow so i'm not sure they'll have time to mature.  i also have a few cherry tomato volunteers coming up in the main garden. Fingers crossed for a good year. i truly missed having my homemade pasta sauce and canned tomatoes over the winter. 

First planting of summer squash is doing well in the tiered beds. i planted quite a few variety of squash again this year.  In this bed i have Black Beauty Zucchini, Golden Zucchini and Patty Pans.  i also have Gray Zucchini and Romanesco Zucchini in another bed. i stopped planting the yellow crooked neck, because i don't care for it much.  i also have several variety of winter squash coming up in the goat field garden. i'll post more about them once they are farther along. 

Right now i'm harvesting salad greens, Swiss chard, asparagus, garlic scapes and a few strawberries, although most are wild. Chickens are laying really well and we've been giving away a lot of eggs.  In a another week or two i should be getting sugar snaps, broccoli and kale.

Every year i totally over plant everything, and end up overwhelmed by July. It doesn't stop me from expanding my gardens each year though, and spending almost all my time outside trying to keep it under control.  We had a lot of setbacks last year, and am truly hoping this year's garden makes up for it. 

There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling. ~Mirabel Osler