Spring into Summer

Tomatoes (trees being used as stakes) and cocozelle squash

Well so much for a mild Spring. Trying to garden in this heat is so tough, especially for the tomatoes. We have days on end with hot weather, and then we get a rainstorm. The next day you can pretty much bet you'll have evidence of blight and at the very least cracking tomatoes. That's one reason I am such a fan of Fall planting.

White Concord seeded grapes

But, I am managing to get quite a bit of produce, including peas, beans, squash, blueberries, grapes, strawberries, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes of all types and sizes, and eventually I'll have lemon cucumbers.

I'm not sure if we'll get any wild blackberries that are worth anything. They are really late, and are just sitting there not turning. I suspect if they do turn, they will be quite bitter. Bummer, because we are loaded with blackberry vines. Same with my raspberries.  :(

Pea trellis

I wanted to show you an updated pic of my pea trellis. This was my experiment for making a trellis that wasn't visually obtrusive, and had an organic look.

To do this I cut a bunch of small trees and large limbs to use, which worked well, but I had to secure them against the intense winds we have on our hill.

Looks kinda pretty though I think. But the main thing is it really gave much better support to the peas, and it's biodegradable.

I should get at least one more growing season out of these before they degrade, maybe more.

My blueberries look pretty good. I have about 10 bushes, still very small, but I am hoping they will take off this year since I only put them in the ground last Spring.

Blueberries so close to turning!

My fig trees, which a friend gave to me, I thought had died from all the ice and snow. But this last week I finally discovered new growth. Yeah! I love figs, and I think this is an old Celeste variety. Unfortunately it will be at least 2 years before they begin fruiting.

This year I am having real problems with aphids and thrips and a whole host of other pests. I am waiting for my frogs to start helping me out, but the polliwogs are taking forever to develop.

But I told you I'd update the blog with pics of the frog pond once it was finished. I decided to wait until the day lilies bloomed, which they started doing this week.

In the first pic you can see yellow water iris, which are done blooming for the year, mixed in with some spanish flag (shorter grass) that has yet to bloom.

In the water I have floating water iris that look like lily pads, and the small little plants floating on the surface are duck weed. Great frog, fish, and chicken food. There's also about a 1000 poliwogs, so hopefully my little garden helpers will be free to start helping soon!

Here is another view of the pond with some of the daylilies blooming. I lined the top and sides of the pond with about 2 tons of rock I pulled up the hill out of the pasture. I have a small log that I use as an escape for any critters that might fall in. But the frogs love it and use it when the are serenading.

The far end is where I have the water iris and the spanish flag. Most of the floating plants congregate around these, which has created a little baby frog nursery since the frogs and toads seem to prefer laying their eggs there.

That's it for now. It is June so I know I have to start thinking about planting for late Summer/early Fall. Amazing how quickly it sneaks up on you!