We've got tons of lettuce! Sounds familiar, kind of like this time last year. We have been giving lettuce to neighbors, coworkers, and Facebook friends. A few lettuce plants have started going to flower, and have already gotten the associated bitter taste. The spinach is on its way to reproduction mode as well. Our collard greens are doing amazing. We've got some leaves that would make any grocery produce manager proud. It is strawberry harvest time. It's started slow, but with a lot of potential energy. The last few days have yielded two berries each day. There are hundreds of unripe berries sitting under the canopy. I've got a feeling we are going to be eating strawberries with every meal in about a week. The blueberries are slowly swelling, but they are still a shade of green. The asparagus harvest was less productive than we hoped. We had a few bites of spears, but there simply wasn't enough energy in their roots to fill our bellies. Most plants are doing very well. We should get a big tomato harvest this year. We have some new plants we are trying this year including: tomatillos, leeks, sunchokes, zuchino rampicante, and wonderberry. For the first time, it looks like we are going to get a grape harvest this year. The grape vines are over 6' high.
Did you know that you can cut the tops off carrots, and the bottoms off celery, leeks and onions and they'll grow into new plants? We've been growing some plants from these veggie scraps and they are doing very well! This method grows a full size productive plant faster than any seed will.
I've noticed some powdery mildew lurking in the Bee Balm. I was hoping we would get most of the way through the Summer before that awful fungus showed up. The Bee Balm is near the house, and is in the shade for a good part of the morning letting the morning dew stay for a while.
