Happy first day of summer! Now the days only get shorter! Kind of anticlimactic if you ask me, or S. We had a discussion the other night about it – I think the shortest and longest days of the year should be midwinter and midsummer, but alas, I didn’t make up the calendar.
The garden’s doing pretty well. Weather’s been pretty mild, and we’ve had regular rain. I think I’ve already cut the grass more times this year than I did all of last year – I didn’t cut it between Memorial Day and 4th of July last summer. Since it has been more moist, slugs have been a bit of a problem with some things (took down at least half of my lima beans at the soil line just as the broke the surface…), and the chickens don’t seem to want to eat them, although, what would? I hear geese, maybe.
Only disappointment of the year so far have been the radishes. I planted some regular table-style, and also daikon, but since it was a bit late in the year when I did get things planted (re: warm), most of them bolted without doing anything. I guess that’s what having a baby around in the spring will do to your plans.
We’ve been picking greens, the peas are tall and finally starting to flower, and everything else is on schedule, as far as I can tell, though definitely behind where I was last year at this time, due to my later planting. Tomatoes and some peppers have flowers, but it’ll be a while before we get any fruits. C helped me plant our little squash and pumpkin patch again this year, and he also helped plant a few different things to supplement the chicken food during the winter: mangels, sorghum, and some mammoth sunflowers. We’ll see how those do – I don’t ever anticipate growing everything that they’ll eat, but for their sake at least, it would be nice to have some variety when things get cold.
All in all, not bad so far. The fact that it’s actually raining sometimes definitely helps.
One of the new garden areas in the back. I just can’t stop.
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