A June Garden Update

Sometimes as a northern gardener, it can be really frustrating to see blog posts of southern gardeners harvesting zucchini as mine is only just getting its first set of true leaves. Or seeing green tomatoes being harvested, when I'm only just seeing my first tomato blossom! Ah well. Could be worse, right? I watch the show Alaska: The Last Frontier and can only imagine how difficult gardening must be up there ... but they still do it, and they do it well!

So here's a picture update of what's going on in our garden these days. I had some root maggots attack my radishes. I purchased some beneficial nematodes, diatomaceous earth, and some of this stuff and applied all three. Maybe it was overkill, but I kinda panicked. I ended up just pulling up all of the radishes. I have some beets and other veggies planted nearby that root maggots would just love. So I decided to err on the side of caution. So far I haven't seen any evidence of them since pulling up the radishes and applying the nematodes. We'll have to wait and see!

Here we have rhubarb in a pot, peas almost ready for harvest, beets, and one of the 4 types of peppers plants I have growing:

Here we have butternut squash, apples, and a little tomato blossom!

And here some purple cabbage, cauliflower, and zucchini:

This isn't everything. We also have blackberries, strawberries, pumpkins, kale, broccoli, green cabbage, asparagus, cukes, cow peas, blueberries (still too young to produce at 2 years old, but growing well!), a total of 3 varieties of tomatoes (san marzano, black cherry, and brandywine), and 4 varieties of peppers (sweet bell, jalapeno, cayenne, and hungarian hot wax) and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. 

Aside from the root maggots in the radishes, we haven't had any major pest issues (yet). Last year we had a miraculously bountiful harvest and no pests to speak of. I'm a little nervous about what this year will have in store for us ... what are the chances of us having such an uneventful and plentiful garden again this year? 

Next post I plan to chat about some of the things I've learned about growing tomatoes ... every gardener's favorite topic.