The weather here has gone from cool spring breezes to hot and rainy summer days. Not much work could be done for a couple of weeks because it rained most days. I tried to check on things during breaks in the weather. After the rain it became extremely hot and humid. The temperatures rose into the upper 90s. I weeded when I could but only did so in short intervals because of the heat. I would work in the evening but the temperature only dropped slightly and the days were very long, between daylight savings time and being at the very end of the Eastern Time zone, the sun doesn’t usually set here until almost 10pm.
Right after the rain our lettuce growth exploded. We harvested bowl after bowl full. I could it lettuce morning, noon, and night if I wanted. Unfortunately the arugula and spinach went to seed so they had to be pulled. I’ve started to sprout some spinach seeds along with some scallion seeds under a damp cloth. The sprouts are still tiny so I think I’ll wait a few days before I transfer them to small pots.
The radish seeds we planted strait to the garden are now as big as the nursery radishes we bought. We’ve harvested a few that grew so big they burst from the ground. They aren’t very spicy. They have a sweet mild flavor with a tiny kick at the finish.
Our sugar snap pea plant is growing strong and clinging tightly to its trellis. I noticed a bulging pod on it the other day and on closer inspection found a handful of smaller pods scattered on the vine not ready to be picked. I snapped off the bulging pod and popped it open. Three perfectly round peas were neatly packed inside. I ate them there in the garden. They were soft and sweet like candy, so tasty that I ate the outer pod as well which was sweet but greener tasting.
The black berries and currents are starting to sprout berries. Every few days, bright red currents are ready to be picked. There are only enough for a quick garden snack. They are more tart than sweet but delicious none the less. The blackberries are taking there sweet time. They were green for weeks and only today did I notice a red color beginning to take over. The raspberry plants still have tiny green berries while the strawberry plant still has no berries at all, only long shoots reaching out over its corner of the garden.
None of the other plants have yielded any harvest yet but I went out one morning to weed and found that the plants had all quadrupled in size. The Zucchini have turned into a prehistoric forest that may or may not be harboring miniature dinosaurs. The cucumbers are reaching out winding their tendrils on every available hold, even sometimes around themselves. The tomato plants are massive, reaching up and out, sprouting more flowers every day inviting large fuzzy bumble bees.
Unfortunately, because of the rain maybe, we’ve begun to see the damage caused by aphids chewing at the leaves. The potatoes were hit especially hard. We picked up a tub of about 5,000 lady bugs at the farmers market. I’ve been scattering couple hundred on the garden everyday in the hope that it helps and storing the rest of the ladies in the cool dark basement.
The weather is supposed to cool off this week and it is expected to rain over the next couple of days. Hopefully we’ll get another large lettuce crop before the heat of the summer sends it to seed. We should have our first big harvest in about a week or two and until then little garden snacks to much on while weeding.
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