Random Garden Update

Its been a very hot and wet start to the summer here at the Miller homestead.  Most of the garden has been doing pretty well.  We got a modest snow pea harvest.  Spring greens were again very poor this year.  The onion plants didn't seem to grow real big, but the bulbs are still in the ground, so we shall see what we end up with.  They are just about ready to harvest along with the shallots and garlic, both of which looked quite good above-ground.  Its currently broccoli harvest time.  The heads aren't all that big, but considering that they don't do real well in heat, I'll take what I can get.  On to the success stories....  We've been inundated with lettuce.  In the last few weeks, they've started to get tip burn from the heat and new seedings haven't been coming up well.  Thats OK, I'm about sick of lettuce.  Every year it seems as though I underestimate how big my potato plants are going to get.  They grow a couple feet high, then kind of fall over and grow sideways.  They have now grown about 4 feet away from their planting holes and are taking over nearby beds.  I'd better get a bumper crop of potatoes this year.  The pepper plants have put on a serious growth spurt and I'm letting them set fruit now instead of pinching off the flowers.  Should be another good year for bell and spicy peppers.  The pole beans are also doing their usual out-of control growth.  I really should only plant bush beans, but with my limited garden space and a big wall of my garage that they can grow up, it so tempting to plant the pole beans.  Of course, then they grow 8+ feet high and so dense that it is a serious struggle to find and harvest beans.  I lopped off the bean vines at about 7' high to try to get them to put more energy into beans and less into growth, but that only slowed them down for about a week.  Only bush beans next year!!

In the pic below, the beans are on the left side, peppers and broccoli front and center, lettuce front right.  Garlic and onions are on the right side, brussels sprouts in the center, and potatoes are all you can see in the back.