After an unseasonably wet and cool month of May, the garden is starting to take form for the summer months ahead.  We’ve harvested the beets and carrots that wintered over, and regretfully removed all the gorgeous winter pansies that were still blooming their little hearts out.  Hated to do it, but we needed to make room for edibles.  But boy, were they attention-grabbing and spirit-lifting.  All of the perennial herbs are doing great, so they are still in place.  Also remaining from last year, the rhubarb is exploding out of the ground — much larger than it had been last year.  We lost the artichoke over the winter, but its cousin, the cardoon, is looking fantastic.  It adds so much drama to the garden space.  Since the cardoon is rather hogging the space, I don’t think I’ll replace the artichoke.

In place of the root crops,  we’ve planted basil, peppers, three types of cucumbers, eggplants, fresh Swiss chard, and two more tomatoes.    The tomato cages are in place, as we recommend you place your supports at the same time you plant.  That way you will not disturb the roots later by inserting cages or cedar stakes.   The tomatoes we had planted in April are doing well in their season extenders – plastic structures filled with water.  In fact, they are poking their heads out the tops already.  It won’t be long before we will need to decide if we will leave the season extender on all season (some people do that to give the plant extra warmth), or remove it altogether before the tomato gets too big to remove the protection without damage.

Scarlet runner beans and lettuces and peas have been planted in the straw bale gardens – the plan is for the beans to clamber up the wrought iron pergola.  They are doing beautifully, and are just about ready to reach the support.   We chose this bean because it will grow to a height of 12 feet, which should nicely cover the pergola.  It boasts attractive scarlet blossoms and has edible beans.  What more could one want?  We will be interested to see how the straw bale garden fares as the season warms up — I have a feeling it will require vigilant watering, as it already dries out fairly easily. 

The columnar apple trees are doing very well, and after blooming have set many fruit.  We will wait for the June drop, when some of the fruit will naturally drop off, before going in to thin the crop.  As it stands now, we have way too many on the trees.

The barrel garden is looking very full and lush – in fact, we should start picking the lettuces.  Most of these can be harvested either by pinching off some of the outer leaves, or else by shearing the whole thing off with scissors about 2 inches above the crown.  This cut-and-come-again method enables the lettuce to keep producing more crops. 

We have constructed a tall structure for our cucumbers to be supported on – as we’ve said before, cucumbers are a great candidate for vertical gardening.  They have a very small footprint in the garden when you provide them with something to climb on.  And they are actually more healthy when off the ground too — more light and air circulation is good for them.

So that’s our latest update!  How is YOUR garden growing?