gardens doing well, more rains since the last time, including yesterday morning downpour that gave us over an inch and a half of rain in about a half hour. i'd made some effort to make some ridges in the north garden for holding back the water so i could soak in instead of running off so this was the first time all of those were tested. i did a survey this morning to see which could use some shoring up for the next time. almost all did exactly what they needed to do so i'm happy.
a bit too hot and humid for me to do much in the afternoons, but right now we're in the sweet spot of gardening where most of the plants are big enough to prevent the weeds from having an easy start of it and so i can get through all the gardens each morning, checking for Japanese Beetles and pulling up or turning over some weeds that may be drying out.
purselane is a weed i'll pull and leave to dry, but if it gets a chance to reroot it will do that, so after it rains or a few days of laying on the ground it helps to flip it over. eventually it completely dries out and the worms get their due.
cucumbers are doing great (as usual). i'm so glad we only put in four plants instead of fifteen. even four is too many. we don't eat them ourselves all that much (Mom won't at all - i'll eat some), most we give to my brother and whatever is left that he doesn't want we turn into cucumber salad and give it away. today's batch is going to the hospice folks.
tomatoes are as tall as i am and have a nice crop coming on. we're going to be in an interesting spot if all of these plants come through even close to normal for us (20-40lbs per plant isn't uncommon). we're gonna need to get more canning jars!
we have our first baby blue hubbard squash. i don't think it is a baby as it is already a foot long, but it is the baby we got so we'll accept it and hope to eat it when it is ready.
onions, beans, melons all growing well. it's really quite a contrast from year to year how things can go. full steam ahead.
