Garden Progress 7/10

I pulled 9 days' worth of weeds today that accumulated while we were on vacation. The garden exploded in the warm weather while we were away. Here is a "before" picture from June 25, just before we left:



and here it is today on July 10:



Here is the progress of my various plants thus far:

Carrots (Danvers Half Long): Direct-seeded 5/31; sprouted in 2 weeks; greens about 8-10 inches tall now.


Green onions: Harvested 14 so far, all good to eat; planting sets continuously to replace harvested onions.

Radishes: Harvested 16 so far; 10 were good to eat and the others were woody or the roots never bulbed out. Replanting continuously to replace harvested plants.

Beets (Ruby Queen): Soaked seeds overnight and direct-seeded 6/14/10. Not too impressive so far, perhaps 4-6 inches tall.

Eggplant (Gretel): Many leaves, no flowers. Transplanted from nursery 6/13.

Eggplant (Ichiban): 1 flower. Transplanted from nursery 6/20.

Tomatoes (Roma, Early Girl, Yellow Pear, Valley Girl, Rutgers): Transplanted the Early Girl from the nursery 6/10. All the others were grown from seed, started indoors on 4/3, and planted out 6/13. All of the tomato plants have flowers, but only Early Girl has fruit so far. Surprisingly, my Yellow Pear tomato has overtaken the Roma as the biggest plant in the garden.

Pepper (Chili Red): Transplanted from nursery 6/13. Flowers, no fruit.

Pepper (California Wonder): Started from seed indoors 4/3, planted out 6/13. Flowers, no fruit.

Pepper (Bell Boy): Transplanted from nursery 6/10. 2 fruits developing and many flowers (see yesterday's post for a picture).

Pepper (Cayenne): Transplanted from nursery 6/20. 2 long thin fruits growing, plus several flowers.

Tomatillo: Started from seed 4/6, planted out 6/13. I have 2 plants and both are flowering. I need both to survive the summer because they are apparently self-infertile, so you need a minimum of 2 plants. They have cute little yellow and purple flowers all over. Today I saw some bumblebees visiting them!


Cucumber: Direct-seeded in garden 5/31. I have 7 plants in the back of the garden and while they don't take up much space, they try to take over by lassoing the other plants. It's too bad I was away and could not train them up the trellis as well as I'd have liked. Today I carefully unwound their tendrils from neighboring tomatoes and shrubs, and tried to weave the plants gently through the trellis instead. I don't want to do anything too drastic because there are baby cukes everywhere!