Starting to Grow

I wanted to show you my vegetable plot. It is slowly filling in. The peas enjoyed the cool spring and we've had handfuls of snow peas daily for a while now. The "Wando" shelling peas still need a few more days to get to a good size. I don't notice many new blossoms so I think our heat wave may have told them to stop producing. The zucchini are doing OK, just a bit behind previous years. Some of the zucchini appear to have vine borer damage. I just learned that you can bury the stem of squash if it gets damaged, as it will grow more roots along the stem. I will try burying the damaged areas. The plants themselves look great and leafy. We have had some lettuce to eat, though not nearly as much as last year. The kale is starting to look respectable. I think I'll plant more kale where the peas are when the peas are all done producing.
The sweet peas have finally woken up and started blooming. We've had enough to bring in two full bouquets already. They say the trick is to keep them well-picked so they will keep blooming, and to keep them cool. They've been sitting out there waiting to grow since February, so I hope they've put in a good root system to keep themselves cool and watered on our few unusually hot days. I wish I could post a scent for you. They are just lovely.

My Oregon Spring tomatoes are looking pretty good. I don't think we'll have any in July as these are advertised to do, but it's been a strange year with the weather. I'm just happy to see a tomato!

The scarlet runner beans are climbing up the trellis very quickly with huge leaves. The Kentucky Lake Pole beans, on the other hand, have had a hard start. We had a lot of rain and cold weather when I first planted the seeds, and most of the first set got eaten by slugs. I bought more seed and tried again, with the addition of slug bait every other day. That sounds excessive, but the slugs have been out of control this year. I finally have a good bunch of pole beans going and husband added more slug bait last night. In the middle of the picture is a Sugar Pie pumpkin volunteer plant. I threw our pumpkin out there last fall just to see what would happen. And now I know! I don't think slugs like pumpkin leaves. They appear to be untouched.

I ran out of cultivated, non-lawn ground, so I'm growing four tomato plants and four pepper plants in pots. The tomatoes are in 5-gallon buckets. They are looking pretty good for the most part. They are in a nice sunny spot and I have a few green tomatoes growing. The peppers are starting to blossom. It's a late start because of our cold spring. I hope that with the number of plants I have, I will have a respectable harvest sometime in August.




Our Berkeley blueberries are getting bigger but we still have a while to wait till they are blue and ready to eat. We put up some netting in the hopes that we will eat the berries before our resident robin family gets to them.

Sorry, no pictures of the strawberries. The kids eat them as soon as they get red. Few make it inside the house.