Weed-free again

After 15+ hours of weeding (!) the garden is looking good again.  (Two weeks away at the end of May is not the best plan.)

This is what the whole thing looked like when I returned...

I came back to loads of fruiting blackberries.  My hope now is that I get to eat some before the raccoons eat them all.

'Navajo' blackberries

Bunnies apparently favor green beans.

'Calima' bush beans

'Calima' bush beans

The 'New Red Fire' lettuce looked bleached out, with very little red on it, but the new growth is coloring them up again.

Last year, my wasabi radishes had no bulb on them at all.  I thought I'd give them another try this year, and they did produce radishes.  They don't taste any different from a regular radish to me, but I think they're pretty.

Some 'Tender Sweet' carrots on the compost hill are big enough to harvest.  they're neither tender nor sweet.  They're  carrots.  I keep looking for a sweet variety.  I have some 'SugarSnax' just getting started.  I'm hoping they will be sweet, but I'm not holding my breath.

'Tender Sweet' carrots and 'All Blue' potatoes

The potatoes are tall and lush, but when I dug one up, the spuds were still quite small.  'All Blue' is not a particularly large potato when mature, but they surely will get larger than these are now.  They're a little hard to spot in the dark soil.

 'All Blue' potatoes

The little potatoes taste and have a texture much like a red or yellow potato.

After I got some weed control over on the compost hill, I found the small Persian melons and the one 'Sugar Baby' watermelon plants were coming along just fine, despite the dry heat.

Small Persian cantaloupe

'Sugar Baby' watermelon

The melons are at the top of the hill, which originally when I started the garden in 2014, consisted of sod lifted from the lawn area where I made my garden and was about 5-1/2 feet tall.  I now have a compost crate and use the much reduced hill for planting.

On the left this year I planted some Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia), and running along the south half of the hill's edge are 'All Blue' and 'Yukon Gold' potatoes.  Cilantro grows voluntarily now on the south side, and I sowed carrots on the east.

The pet cemetery grew up considerably in the two weeks I was away.

My vision of Dorothy's skip to Oz through poppies when I planted field poppies has been disappointed.  They're scraggly and kind of sad looking.

The roses were very happy in the dry heat.

'Razzle Dazzle'

'Shazam!'

I was able to put together some bouquets for a craft shop in Arrow Rock at the request of a friend.  I think they're lovely.

 Until next time, enjoy the early summer days.