Turn of the Season

"Slow" is the key word for this year's growing season.  The wonky weather and generally cool average temperature for the season has slowed the growth of most of my plants, save the greens, which took the first hot weather as an opportunity to go to seed.  I pulled most of my arugula and made a nice Memorial Day salad with the leaves and spicy flowers.  I left a couple plants, as I'm low on arugula seeds and would love to harvest more.  My bok choy is also seeding like crazy.  I'm going to attempt to pull it for a stir fry, but I'm also content collecting seeds for next year's crop.  In their place, my purple mustard has started to thrive as their competitors are pulled and more sunlight is reaching them. 

I pulled two enormous radishes out yesterday, as I was weeding yet more gourd seedlings (note: never just throw vegetables in your garden without letting them compost in a bin or pile for a bit, or you'll be getting a lot of volunteers you may not want or need).  Radish season is coming to an end, however, as the high heat days deter radishes from filling out, and make them nearly unbearably spicy. 

My tromboncino squash plants are thriving with enormous, foot-wide leaves.  The real test is coming, however, as I've noticed evil squash borer flies buzzing about (June is their breeding season).  These little nasty bugs wiped out all of my summer squash last year, so I'm crossing fingers that they'll be thwarted by this resistant breed of squash.  One thing I seriously missed last year was some nice summer squash from my garden.  My biggest concern for these guys is what will happen when they start developing vegetables.  Last year the few produce that formed were stolen by my enemy, the wily squirrel.  I'd like to fence them off and net them, but I'm concerned about there being enough spacefor the leaves to comfortably fit.  Some creative netting may be necessary.

My pumpkins, however, are not doing so well.  Something, presumably a squirrel, has been furiously digging up my smaller bed.  It's buried my eggplant seedlings more than once until I netted and fenced the entire area off.  It's also dug up and destroyed all but one of my poor pumpkins.  I'm not even sure if they have enough of a head start to grow mature produce, but here's hoping.

Dilly Beans!Also in the realm of pests, I'm noticing my quinoa are being plagued by aphids.  I put in an order to Territorial Seed for a shipment of ladybugs, but they won't be in til the end of the month.  Sunflowers are blooming, and hopefully they'll attract some beneficial bugs to eat some of my pests, in the meantime.

Green beans are currently coming in, in record numbers for me.  I went with bush beans this year, as I was greatly disappointed with my low-yielding pole beans last year.  Today I took advantage of the first harvest by creating pickled dilly beans.  Using this website's recommendations, I prepared a jar and created this briny spicy treat for several months down the road.  I can't wait to open up the jar and try one, but sadly, I have to wait two weeks.

Lots going on as I gear up for my CSA and a busy summer of harvesting, tune back soon as I'll have more updates to share!

-Jen