It is June, and I am almost giddy with excitement. And why is that, you might ask? Because the garden is mostly all planted and I am through babysitting hundreds of little plants. That seems to happen every year about this time. I still have to plant sweet potato slips, but that is on my schedule for today or tomorrow. Much of the garden has been mulched with paper and/or straw too, and I will continue working on that this week. And we still have another planting session for the Impact Community Garden. But the greenhouse is no longer bulging at the seams, and that is a good thing indeed.
squash plants mulched
Another reason to be excited is that we are seeing some ‘new’ faces in the harvest basket right about now. Like the first kohlrabi of the season, in the below photo.
Kolibri kohlrabi
There’s more kohlrabi to come. I think I planted around 25 or so plants of it this year. That’s Kolibri in the above photo, which was the first to size up this year. Winner won’t be far behind. I also have the big Kossak variety planted, which takes a bit longer before it’s ready. You can see one of those plants in the below photo.
Kossak kohlrabi
I also harvested some Red Ursa kale last week. I’ve got it and Beedy’s Camden growing in one of the cold frame beds. The cold frame is protecting the plants from the pesky critters, but the kale is starting to get too tall for the cover to close. I need to come up with another solution, perhaps some sort of frame to hold netting? I would like to keep the cold frame bottom, but rig something up that would cover the plants inside, maybe something with a PVC frame. I can always take the top off temporarily. I am open to any suggestions anyone might have.
kale getting too big for the cold frame
I have surely been enjoying the spring lettuce this year. I guess a rainy April made it grow big and lush leaves. I cut a head of Simpson Elite last week for wilting. And we used some of the Oakleaf for a taco salad. I need to get replacement plants in the ground soon so there will be lettuce for later this month.
Simpson Elite lettuce
In the future harvests department, there are a few garlic scapes that are ready to harvest. Red Janice and Uzbek are two hardneck varieties that were early to put out scapes. These Asiatic/Turban types aren’t good keepers, but they do have earliness going for them. And good flavor, for that matter. It’s my wife’s week to cook (yes, we take turns) so I need to see if she can work some scapes in her menu. Maybe with some Garlic Scape Pesto? That would be yummy! The one in the below photo looks fuzzy, but it’s really little drops of dew that were on it early in the morning.
garlic scape ready to harvest
Some of the broccoli is starting to head up. That’s Packman in the below photo. I am looking forward to fresh homegrown broccoli. It will be nice to have it when the asparagus is through. And speaking of asparagus, we’ve hauled in 21 pounds so far, and we plan on harvesting another couple of weeks as long as the size holds.
Packman broccoli heading up
Our sour cherries are starting to ripen. We will only get a few from our small tree, but it is a good start. My wife and I plan on going to a local orchard to pick more cherries for the freezer. We did that last year, and it was nice to have a few more than usual for use throughout the year. Like for the chocolate cherry muffins I make but haven’t yet written up the recipe for sharing here.
tart cherries
And as is usual, our large mulberry tree is loaded with ripe fruit right about now. That brings in lots of birds to feast on the tasty little berries. It remains to be seen whether it keeps the birds off other fruits, but there are usually plenty left for us. I know the mulberries themselves are edible, but I haven’t yet acquired a taste for them.
mulberries
I’ll close with an image from a foggy morning showing the view from our front porch.
View on a recent foggy morning
YUM! oh those cherries and kohlrabi looks so good! The greens look beautiful too, but I’m drooling over your mulberries – our tree is still too young to produce and I can’t wait to make a jam out of them once it does kick in.
Oh that broccoli looks so good. Mine haven’t started heading up yet. Mulberry trees are weed trees out here and I hate them. They drop their fruit all over and it makes such a mess of things. The worst one is by the bus stop near my house. The flies and the smell are so bad when I’m waiting for the bus. Though that being said they are pretty trees and the wildlife sure likes them when they are fruiting.
Cherries! YUMM!!!
As for the grow boxes…pound some rebar down around the boxes, use PVC to go over it to create a dome. Use netting over that and attach with clamps. Good luck!
Thanks Barbie! I have rebar, PVC and netting on hand. Should be easy-peasy.
I have to cover a lot of my veggies to protect them from the birds. Lately I’ve been using old sections of black polyethylene 1/2-inch mainline drip tubing slipped over rebar stakes to make hoops over the beds, then I drape either bird netting or row cover fabric over the hoops and clip it onto the hoops to keep it from sagging. It works great, but if you use netting it must be suspended tight and high enough above the greens so that the birds can’t land on it and use their weight to drop down to where they can peck at the greens through the netting.
Ah, there are mulberries and then there are Good Mulberries. My sister who lives in Indiana poo-pooed my mulberries (in my previous garden) saying they are just sweet but have no flavor. Then she tasted mine! Mine were Persian Mulberries, Morus nigra, Morus yummy…. Oh do I miss that tree. I’m trying to get one started here and it’s slooow to grow.
I use pvc hoops, agribon and rocks.
Your cherries look lovely.
Do you live in a cemetery?
The cemetery is across the road from us. We always tell people the neighbors over there are quiet!
So much going on in your garden! And congratulations on releasing all those little babies into the world to thrive on their own 😉 Man, it feels good to get the garden in, doesn’t it!
Nice to be able to sit back and enjoy lots harvests after all your hard work. Your kholrabi looks fabulous. I’ve never been very successful at growing kholrabi. And chocolate cherry muffins sound delicious!
I ended up just taking the top off of my coldframe for the summer. So far the sides have been enough to keep the rabbits out (my sides are a bit higher than yours). The rabbits and chipmunks have been bad this year, so I might have to find a better solution for next year. They did get all my kohlrabi, so I am jealous!