June Garden Update

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I find it very helpful to be able to refer back to the blog to compare how we're doing now with how things had been going.  So, here, for my own reference, are some garden notes.  The chickens are in the portable "tractor."  One of the hen house windows is propped open.  The Mimulus is in full bloom. The Saint Catherine's Lace is about to explode.  The Phacelia needs to be dead-headed, and is sprawling all over the place. The purple Russian Kale is still producing after being brutally cut back.  Lettuce seedlings are doing nothing.  Chard is finally starting to grow.  Strawberries are sulking.

Dyer's Weld is about eight feet tall.  I realize that I don't know how to harvest any of my dyeplants. The chickory-like greens are gigantic, and the chickens finally decided that they are delicious.  Good thing, because they're too bitter for us.  The California Poppy is sprawling across the garden.  French Tarragon is doing fine.  Perennial Arugula is booming.  Chives are lovely, but we're not eating them.  Parsley has bolted, as have beets.  We really only ate the beet greens, and I suspect the roots are going to be terribly woody.  We harvested the fava greens, and then never used them.  This happens far too often, and brings a lot of unhappiness into my life.  Why bother tending a garden, if the produce is not going to be eaten.  I suck.

The hops are doing well.  We still haven't figured out how to store them once we harvest. I never even tasted the beer made with last year's hops, because Robb declared it "too insipid."

California natives Coffeeberry and Ribes are thriving near the World's Ugliest Fence.  I need to tie up the Ribes because they tend to flop.

Our Persimmon is setting fruit.  I've been pruning it, and I think we'll have another great harvest.

The lemon tree has every pest known to mankind living on it.  Tiny white winged insects cover the blackened leaves.  I haven't found the energy to wipe off every single leaf on this tree.  I wonder how long the lemons will last this year?  Our lemon verbena is over ten feet tall.

Robb rigged up a shade cloth over our sitting area, and we're pondering a version of this that is not so obviously made of an old bedsheet, bamboo and clothespins.

Most of our fig trees are still babies, but the one our neighbors gave us has a few wee fruits.

The pluot we bought two years ago has a few fruits. I think we ate two pluots last year.

Our elderly plum promises a gigantic crop.  The ladybug larvae are doing a great job with the aphids.  My efforts at grafting onto the "volunteer" plum tree seems mostly successful.  I doubt I'll get any fruit from the grafts for a couple of years.