Garden update - June 25, 2011

The garden is looking good this year, but I have planted too close together again.  The broccoli is crowded by itself and the Kentucky wonder bush beans.  The sunflowers seem like they would like more than the measly 1' of space I have given each of them.  The tomatoes are OK, but I bet I could plant them at more than 2' apart and they would do better.  Time for a quick photo tour:

 The triticale (a wheat/rye cross) is doing well.  The chickens will love it in the winter when they get a handful at bedtime.

Onions in the foreground with flowering cilantro on the right, basil and Greek oregano in the rows, and tomatoes at the far end.

 Row of tomatoes.  Experimenting with ways to hold them up.  The poles on the right are held up by wires, the PVC on the left is bent and poked into the soil.  I have three varieties of tomatoes, plus whatever volunteers come up from last year.

Cukes, a mystery variety of beans, and ground cherries at the far end.  Ground cherries are an annual bush that grows like a weed, is native to PA, and makes abundant little fruits that grow inside adorable little paper lanterns.  The four plants I planted (and the numerous volunteers) are great for snacking and sharing.  People are always amazed when they try one.

Swiss chard, lettuce and a row of mexican sour gherkin cucumbers - they are thumb sized, look like a watermelon, fall off the vine when they're ripe and are sour, like they've already been pickles.  To the right of the cucumbers is an emerging patch of soybeans for edamame.

A row of pole beans without the trellis up yet.  That job is coming very soon...

 Pole beans climbing the twine trellis.  This trellis is suspended from a rope top "bar" which is held tight by posts set in the ground and guy wired to stakes.  One end has a movable knot on it to adjust the tension.

A volunteer sunflower in front of the peas and pole beans.  I had read that the peas die down about the same time the beans really get started so they can be planted in the same row.  We'll see.

 Garlic coming on strong.  I harvested all of the flowers and stalks (called scapes) and made a garlic scape pesto that was fantastic.  Froze most of it, but brought one batch to work.  It was widely enjoyed by my co-workers.

Sunflowers on the west side of the garden.  The tallest is currently over 7', and they're not done yet.

The garden princess squinting into the sun as her doting subject weeds and takes pictures.

I have 1,000 gallons of rainwater in storage right now for the dry part of summer, but that's not here just yet.  rain possible tonight and likely tomorrow.  Glad I got my weeding in while it was still dry.