The end of May and early June brought a lot of changes to the garden. Seeds started to sprout, blossoms started to show up, and the freezes of spring passed. This little patio began to heat up, and come alive.
THE GOOD
The onions have started to form their bulbs, and I've even been able to pull a few for green onions. This variety is Stuttgarter Yellow.
The lemon thyme bloomed a huge flush, and I pruned back all the flowers so it wouldn't seed everywhere it can.
The Nelly Moser clematis finished it's May flush of blooms right on schedule, and is now busy making it's puffballs from the flower centers. One of these days, I'll learn how to collect these for seed (I think that's what they are.)
This time of year, is one of my favorites on the patio, not only is everything booming in growth, but the strawberries are ripening regularly! Currently, I've been picking small handfuls almost every day, or at least a few times a week. We've been eating them regularly, and also froze a small ziploc bag full.
Along with the strawberry harvests, we got our first ever successful crop of garden peas! They thrived in the cold we had in May, and set a huge crop of peas before drying out in the 90°F weather.
The lettuce and mesclun patch bolted quickly in the heat, but not before giving us several gallon-sized bags full of greens! We've been eating them with everything, and I have been loving the fresh garden salads all spring long. I'll definitely be planting the greens earlier next year so I can have them longer.
The peppers, and tomatoes have started growing like rapid fire, and are putting on tons of leaves and branches. Also, the tomatoes are setting blossoms and fruit like crazy. There are currently about 20 clusters of blossoms, and 3 clusters of tomatoes between the 4 plants I've got growing. I've also found a few peppers growing in the bunch.
The corn patch is starting to get about a foot tall, and a couple have taken on rapid growth and are double the size of the others.
My German Chamomile has been a beautiful little bloomer all spring, and while I haven't harvested any yet, I've been deadheading it like crazy. The best part is, it smells sweet like apples. I need to learn how to harvest it for tea. If you know, please tell me in the comments!
THE BAD
Despite all of this awesome success, there have been set backs.The roses came in a big flush during the cool of spring, but when the heat shot up to 95°F just one week after our freezes, their blooms stopped coming as quickly. With all that heat, the spider mites flourished, and I had to hard prune my red rose bush by half.
The cucumbers, honey nut squash, mini cantaloupes, and zucchini have all been stunted for some reason. They are taking their own sweet time to send out leaves, or they're dying. I'm not sure what's going on, but I've been racking my brain, and the internet to come up with solutions.
The Blue Lake Pole, Chinese Long, and the Bush beans are all getting murdered by bugs. So far, I've found slugs, aphids, grasshoppers, and cabbage worms trying to eat everything possible in my veggie beds! My beans are definitely trying their best to survive, and I've even planted several sections again just in case they die.
So, everything is looking really good, and struggling at the same time. It's been frustrating battling pests I've never had. I guess if you build a bigger garden, the pests will find you!
BOOYEAH!
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