Fruit Report

We've picked the first blueberries (Earliblue) and had a couple of pickings of strawberries.

The raspberries and Beckyberries are a little further behind, but the Beckyberries are starting to show some color.

Oh, and the nectarine tree still has quite a few small fruit.  Some are damaged by leaf curl, so they'll probably fall off.  But some still look good.

Blueberry Cover Version 26

O.K.  We have another plan.  This one was the easiest one yet.  I hope it works.  It covers only the top, which we found last year did an acceptable job of protecting the berries.  We covered metal stakes with some quilted fabric to keep them from tearing the netting.  Then we just put the netting over them, holding them tight with rubber bands.  We'll see...

Mulch

On Saturday we had Highway Fuel deliver 4 yards of dark hemlock mulch.  That day and the next we spread it in front and in most of the back.  It really looks nice.

State of the Garden

The vegetable garden is really starting to take shape. 

The potatoes are looking amazing.  They seem to grow right before our eyes.

We've put up the fence to hold up the asparagus and added another layer of twine to the raspberry bed.

 I planted the tomatoes, aubergines and peppers, the latter two under netting to foil the stink bugs.

I started the summer squash in the pea bed.  We've been getting really nice lettuce, which is also under netting to keep the leaf miners out of the chard and beets.

Bean Tower

I'm trying again to make a bean tower that actually works.  This one is made from eight 1x2s.  It still needs to be staked down, but I think it might work.

Yesterday I got nine new dahlia tubers in the mail.  Today I planted them in groups along the back wall of the house.  I also planted some zinnia seeds in the big gold pot.  I pulled out all of last fall's carrots.  They had gotten too woody.  And I sowed a couple more rows of Yaya.

Even though I've covered the chard and beet bed, the leaf miners are still in there.  They were probably already in the soil.  I'm doing a daily patrol to get them all out.

New Fountain

Today we got a new fountain for the deck. 

I started melons and cucumbers and sowed leeks in the onion/garlic bed.

Onions

Today I planted the onions that I started from seed (Copra).  There aren't as many as I had hoped to have -- only twenty plants.  I planted them in bunches of four every foot, ala Eliot Coleman.

My Lillian Austin rose is blooming, filling the patio with its wonderful scent.