Garlic

The garlic has started to die, so I've turned off the water to their bed.

The Beckyberries are still going strong.  The boysenberries are just starting to be ripe
These are the Beckyberries.  Even though the birds don't seem alarmed by the flash tape, they are not eating the berries. 

We have our first little squash.  I hope the bees have found the flowers.

First Romaine

Yesterday I picked the first head of romaine lettuce.  It's done very well.  The heads are huge.

Today I pulled the snap peas.  They've stopped blooming, and we're getting tired of eating them .

Since Bill and Shauna left at the end of April the house next door has been vacant and looking really terrible.  The lawn had not been mowed and the weeds had taken over.  David went over with a weed wacker and at least cut down the worst ones to keep them from going to seed.  We've also had our eye on the berry bushes, so this morning we went over and dug up three blueberry plants.  They're now planted along the fence in our front yard.

This afternoon a couple of guys arrived and spent several hours mowing and cleaning up the yard.  It looks much better.  Let's hope it continues to be maintained.

The Vegetable Garden in June

Here's what the garden looks like right now.

The potatoes look like they're on steroids.  I think there may be too much nitrogen in the new soil.  The strawberry plants are also huge, with few flowers.

I ran out of my IRT plastic, and I haven't been able to find any to replace it. so I cut up a couple of black plastic trash bags for the sweet potatoes and melons.

The tomatoes and peppers are looking good, with lots of blossoms.

The salad greens are doing well.  I pulled the arugula and spinach and have replanted them, as well as more lettuce, kale, and chard.

I've also sowed another two rows of carrots. The first carrots are just about harvesting size, and the beets are golf ball size.

The eggplants and squash in big pots are also doing well.

Beckyberries and Blueberries

Today we got our first Beckyberries.  I've put up some flash tapes, and so far the birds have mostly left the berries alone.

The blueberries are just starting to turn color, and the birds have found them.  So we put up a cage of bird netting.

The top and ends are attached, but the long sides open.

I don't remember posting this, but we've had raspberries for about a week.

Boysenberries

We picked our first boysenberries today -- one for each of us.  They're yummy.  They are from the thornless one.  The one with thorns is quite a bit behind it.  But the Beckyberries are close.

The pole beans have finally figured out that the bamboo poles are there for them to climb on.

Clematis

My two new clematis are blooming.

This is 'Rooguchi'.'

This is 'Lemon Bells.'

The Oregonian

This is the only rose I kept from Naomi Horn's rose garden.  It is vigorous, disease-free, and fragrant.

Sweet Potatoes (again)

When I went to 13th Street Nursery yesterday, I found that they had sweet potato plants in 4" pots.  So I bought five.  Actually, I bought four and got one really pathetic Georgia Jet free.

I planted them this afternoon is a trench, to be filled in as they grow.

I also sowed two more rows of parsnips (four total now) and some basil in the bed under the bedroom window.  I never have enough basil.

Automatic Drip Irrigation!!

We've just had automatic drip irrigation installed in the vegetable beds.  They started yesterday and finished today.

First they removed all the wood chips from the paths.  Then they dug ditches for the water lines.

Then the pipes were put in and connected to the boxes.  Each bed has five drip lines the length of the box.

I can turn each bed off individually.  I love it.

The only down side is that I've lost a lot of space in the bed next to the house. This is where the eggplants in pots used to live.

Now they live on the deck.

And this is David's favorite part.  A new toy!!

A Week Away

We've been away for a week, on a trip to California, and things have really changed.  The tomatoes look really good.

The pea trellis blew over, so we've reinforced it with some rebar.   We have tons of snap peas.

The potatoes have gotten really big, but no flowers yet.

The beds with greens are doing well, under cover to protect the beets and chard from the pine siskins.

The pole beans are still not very tall, but the nasturtiums with them are starting to bloom.

The blueberries are looking good.  The Bluecrop has tons of fruit, but the Chandler has none.

The biggest disappointment is the sweet potatoes.  I had planted them before we left on our trip, hoping they'd take hold.  But they all died.