As is usual up here in New England, the weather stays cold and rainy until almost the last outdoor track meet of the season and then, bingo, up in the 80's. This happened on Sunday, June 1, 2014 and then by Thursday, the high for the day was 59 again. Plenty of rain, so no need for extra watering this week.
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| A full view of the garden from the swing area. There a blueberry bushes in the foreground, and then Tabitha's garden that has beans, broccoli, tomatoes, acorn squash, corn and watermelon. The larger garden is in the background. |
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| Mostly Bloody Butcher tomatoes, an enhanced Early Girl variety. They are already filling up with tomatoes |
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| These are blueberries that seem to be coming along very nicely. We did not have a lot of winter moths this year. |
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| Knee High on the 4th of July....no, it is already above my knees on June 6th (at least a few of them). Those are acorn squash in the foreground and my soaker hose irrigation system. |
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These are my first crop of peas, which are flowering and have a few pods on the plant. I planted 5 x 8 foot rows for a total of approximately 40 feet of peas.
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My two rows of potatoes. Red Pontiac on the far right, Yukon Gold and then two rows of German Butterball saved over from last year. There are also a few varieties of Red Pontiac and Yukon Gold.
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| Sweet William under a Red Bud tree near the compost bin. This is their second year of blooming. |
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Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes. So I love to grow tomatoes. These are a bit later and are a combination of Best Boy, Beefeater and Bloody Butcher. I also have a few Cherry Tomato plants.
As you might be able to tell, I have been keeping up with the weeds much better so far. My original plan was to use the tiller between the rows when the weeds became unbearable. However, my Hooke and Crooke garden tool has been terrific. . I am able to pretty much just slide the hoe along the ground and slice off the weeds before they cause any damage. I get very close to the plant, but I try and either pull the really close ones out by hand or your the hand Hooke and Crooke. Both tools do a great job, allowing me to get under the soaker hoses and around posts with little difficulty. As long as the ground is a bit soft and moist weeding is like mopping the floor. If the ground becomes packed and hard, the it takes a bit more effort. You need to then angle the tip a bit more into the ground and then pull on the handle with some pressure. Bottom line is that I can weed my garden in about 1-2 hours now, instead of spending almost a week on my hands and knees pulling out 1-2 foot long weeds.
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The greenhouse is starting to thin out a bit. The broccoli plants are just about done, as the outdoor plants are beginning to get some heads. The kale keeps growing as Tabitha takes almost daily cuttings. I also have some transplants staying warm and cozy as I try to keep up with successive plantings. I still have cilentro, peppers, lettuce and corn in small pots. That is a potato plant on the right in the foreground. It grew from potato peels that I threw into the ground last winter for compost.
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| This is Jack's Garden which holds some nice bibb lettuce and spinach |
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