June Garden

Year to year the garden is full of surprises. Plants that often struggle suddenly do very well. Plants that are consistently hardy wither for no reason. This year the dill and sage are doing amazing right now and typically I struggle with these two. Instead I'm having trouble keeping marigolds alive, the cucumbers have a brown wilt from the start (not late in the season like normal), and the chipmunks are out of control. It's half the fun of gardening though - you never know what's going to shine and what's going to make you want to tear your hair out. 

I will say there feel like a lot of extra pests this year. Not just the chipmunks, but aphids, japanese beetles, little white flies and those awful lantern fly nymphs that are crazy good at jumping to avoid being squished. Not to mention the early onset of blight from all the rain. This is going to be a tough summer for gardening - the temperature swings and weather are swinging too wildly too. 

Tomatoes

The tomatoes are tall and held up really nicely with the new square tomato towers.  Everything is tall, lush with flowers and most have tiny tomatoes. There's blight on the bottom leaves but we've had a lot of wet weather. The borage is blooming now. We have snap peas on the trellis growing up. The marigolds are struggling, which is weird because usually they are so hardy. This is the second/third round of them because they just kept dying.  

Vines

While this bed isn't doing terribly, overall it's struggling more than the others. Several carrot sprouts were eaten by bugs early on and never recovered. The cucumbers and melons have a brown leaf wilt from all the moisture. They are still growing and production might be fine... but it might not. There are peas on the archway, rainbow swiss chard and nasturtiums filling in the gaps that are all doing fine.  

Flowers

The bed is half snapdragons, one decorative magenta celiosa, 2 pink lemonade cosmos, 1 red globe amaranth, and then three rows of zinnias. The zinnias include pink seniorita and el dorado, both pretty salmon/coral zinnias from baker's creek heirloom seeds. I'm very excited about the color potential from this bed this year! 

Dahlias

Starting the dahlia bulbs in the greenhouse this year - with enough plastic pots and soil to give everything a good start - has been amazing. Last year was my first time pre-starting and there were a few growing pains. Poor labeling led to even more problems with mystery dahlias in the fall. This year I've worked out some of the kinks. Most things survived the winter (there will always be a few that don't) and with proper planting I have many plants in bloom already! These include (from the full collection, not just what's back here): totally tangerine, red bishop's children, thomas edison, cornel bronze (which weirdly has been a late bloomer these past few years, not an early bloomer?), daisy duke, preference and even apricot desire. 

Herbs and Strawberries

We didn't get a single strawberry this year. Not one. And not for lack of production - the strawberry plants bloomed early and we had a million tiny strawberries. But then the chipmunks laid siege to the garden. The deer netting, partially buried in the gravel, was dug up so they could go under. I'd put a rock down, a brick, but they'd find a new spot to dig up and go right back in. I tried to keep up, but I lost the war. I have a new plan that involves folded and buried chicken wire around the perimeter - something that isn't flexible they can't easily dig up and squeeze under. 

The herbs are all doing really well right now. I've never had dill and sage do this well! The chamomile, calendula, lavender, basil, rosemary and borage are also doing really well. The thyme almost didn't come back, but the patch that survived is thriving. The oregano has to be cut back constantly so it doesn't take over (as oregano likes to do). 

Pots

The pots are hanging in there. The pepper plants aren't as large as I'd hoped by now, but they are blooming so hot peppers are hopefully in Mike's future. The morning glory vine is doing much better than it was last year. The basil, pineapple sage and rosemary are growing happily. 

On the other side the potted brown turkey fig tree and lemon balm are doing well. The lemon balm managed to spread itself everywhere seed-wise last fall and I'm battling it outside the pots! 

 

Elsewhere

The chipmunks are a problem elsewhere in the yard too - not just in the garden. They are trying to dig up dahlia bulbs (even though they are already growing plants) and it's making a mess. They are chewing on the stalks of my purple sunflowers and hurting them too. They are digging up my potted flowers on the patio, deck and porch. It's such a mess and very frustrating. They are not very afraid of us or even Morgan (she chases but they have so many escape tunnels). They don't seem to like it when I spray the pots (not the dirt or plants) with windex, but that washes off in the rain. 

At least the chipmunks haven't discovered the raspberries - a few have gone to raspberry bird, but the rest are ours and we're getting small bowls daily. There are blueberries ripening, but we didn't get the boxes built in time (there's always next year!) so I think the birds will probably get most of them. The chicago hardy fig tree is back in full force, wrapping it definitely helped protect it in the winter again. The potted citrus trees on the deck are covered in small blooms. The elderberry bushes are growing so quickly I'm nervous that they might become... invasive. At least I'll be able to harvest them sooner than later?