June in my garden...

Of all my plants, the squash grew the most from the beginning of the month to the end of the month.

The squash has lots of flowers, and some of them have clearly set to fruit by the end of the month.

The current plant doesn't seem to be doing much. Not sure why.

The sunflower does seem to be doing well. Dramatically bigger by the end of the month! Likely I'll see sunflowers on it by the middle of July.

At the beginning of the month the tomato plants were growing, but by the end of the month they were all getting ready to have ripe tomatoes soon.

I have about half a dozen tomato plants. Of them all the stupice were the earliest with green balls, and by the end of the month the first of them were edible. As of July 5th, I've eaten about three of those! Everything else just keeps looking more pregnant, as their green balls grow and grow without changing color. The suspense is killing me! I want to know what those things do to a salad...

That kale plant is mainly just a big batch of seeds at this point. Providing shade for the squash, which that plant really doesn't need. Not long after I took this last picture of the thing I pulled it. Not much kale in my garden any more now.

These potato plants seem to be doing quite well. I had another one, but that dried up and blew away. I'm afraid that was caused by some disease. I'm hoping these guys do better. Never having had potato plants doing well before, I'm looking forward to eating homegrown! My starts came from Lubob, who gave me the potatoes with growing eyes. One is a Yukon Gold, the other is a Rio Grande Red. Forgot which is which.

By the end of the month the potato plants looked more like bushes! Virginia said the Irish guy said "harvest them two weeks after you see flowers." I harvested them on July 4th, which was about right. Got 44 oz. of yummy looking potatoes out of them. Yummm!

The fava beans have dried out now. After I took that picture I harvested the beans. Turns out I got about a pound of beans out of that (maybe a square yard?).

In the middle of the month I planted nasturtiums and cucumbers in the bare spot near the grapes. By the end of the month they were nicely sprouted.

The grape vines are steadily growing. Maybe it was two weeks between these pictures, and look at the change! There are other plots where MUCH MORE growth is happening to the grapes. I think those gardeners use a lot more plant food on their stuff than I do. I'm grateful for the progress I'm seeing from these though.

It's exciting to me to see the vines finally reaching the top of the structure. I figure it's only a matter of time now until they start giving me some good shade. :-)

Looking forward to lots of grapes in the fall! All I have to do is keep watering them all summer...

The artichoke is fading now. Every time I go out to tend the garden more of its leaves have fallen on the ground. I pick them up so the snails don't have places to hide in the area. I've eaten something like two dozen artichokes from the plant this year. I'm very happy with that. Never had all the artichokes I wanted before!

These were the last good looking ones I expect to eat this year. Batina likes to leave a few on the plant to ripen into pretty blue flowers and then seed. Me, I just ate them all. Thank you artichoke!

Okay, so she inspired me. I left the last two to flower. This is the better looking one.

I'm getting nice roses on an ongoing basis now. Usually I leave them on the plant until they are past their prime, and then I deadhead them. Smell the fragrance before throwing them away though. They all smell great.

That broccoli plant gave me yet another serving of broccoli not long after I took each of these pictures. The stem was a bit woodier than I really wanted, but still it was a yummy food. This is the only broccoli plant I have at this point in time. I had another that was threatening to feed me again, but I tripped over that one. That killed it.

The collards are my most reliable producers of food. Generally I harvest all the leaves that are growing into something else's space. After I get all those I harvest all of the leaves that are MUCH BIGGER than my hand. These plants are mature enough that there are usually another half dozen of those every day or two.

Lately I've been eating a pound of leaves every few days. They fill my belly with chewy and fibrous filler. I ask people "what's the point of bariatric surgery when you can accomplish about the same thing by eating lots of collard greens?"

These days the collard plants don't look a lot different, but they churn out another pound of leaves ever day or two. This is a typical harvest, maybe a pound and a half of greens. I've taken to adding collards to all kinds of dishes. My latest discovery is that they have the same kind of cooking time as eggplant and the two flavors go great together.

Every now and then the pepper plant yields another pepper. Sweet at this size. I'm trying to leave one on the vine long enough to find out if it changes color and/or flavor as it matures. I've also planted another couple of pepper plants. One isn't enough to keep me in peppers!

That basil is freshly planted. I've only had a couple of stalks of the leaves, but they added a delicious and fragrant note to the meal. Glad to have that plant. Since these pictures were taken I added a couple of Thai basil plants, which look quite different. I've not tried those yet. One thing I've learned, basil takes a lot more water than some plants.

In early June the first bean plant has started climbing up the scaffolding. I replanted after the snails cleaned out most of them. If the first batch had survived they would all be crawling up right now. By the end of the month many of the beans were crawling up the netting, and I was eating another pod of beans just about every time I visit the market.

Talking to Marci about the snails she said "put the snail bait down in the places where they hide in the day." "The shady side of boards and places like that." She also indicated that if I put it right by the plants I'll wash it out with watering. What good is that? Lots of gardeners think that the best thing to do with a snail is step on it. I've not been converted into a snail hater yet, but I'm getting there.

At the beginning of the month a good harvest was four artichokes, one garlic bulb including stem, a few basil leaves, and a pound of fava beans (plus pods).

Gardening in flip-flops seems to be the best way to deal with the convienience/protection tradeoffs. Doing this I've gotten by far the best tan on my feet I've had since the 1970s. I think of those as "Brazilian tan lines" because of the flags on the flip-flops themselves.