It is June already, and so much has happened since my last post! I don't know where to start! I have peas popping and rabbits hopping! Last night we ate our first salad made solely from vegetables grown in our own yard. It was delicious and so fresh. I used spinach, several assorted varieties of leaf lettuce, and radishes. This morning I even tossed some spinach and radishes into omelets with a bit of goat cheese for a great start to the day! The sugar snap peas are coming on quick and should be ready to eat in a day or two! I can't wait!We had a bit of a problem with bunnies in the yard so we devised a simple fence by stapling green plastic fencing to 1" x 1" x 4' stakes which we slide in and out of brackets screwed to the outside of the raised bed frame so that we can get in to the garden easily but the rabbits can't.
I think it is working wonderfully as it takes only seconds to put up or down. A deer is munching on my purple loosestrife growing just a few feet away from the raised bed garden. I am hoping this brazen little buck with his newly sprouted velvet covered antlers doesn't decide to lean over my rabbit sized fence and sample my veggies.Most of the things I planted are doing well. The marigolds and nasturtiums never sprouted. I am wondering if I inadvertently weeded them away in my haste to clean up the garden one day. My banana peppers got long and leggy and flopped over. Since then they have refused to grow another inch. I may replant them now that it has warmed up.
My scraggly eggplant seedling got seriously sunburned when I moved them outside Then the few leaves that survived got attacked by flea beetles. I am managing this with plastic jugs to cover the eggplants. I cut the bottom off the jugs and saved the top caps. Then I set the jugs over the eggplants. I cap the jugs at night to keep the warmth in, and uncap them during the day to keep them from overheating. This is working well and the eggplants are perking up. I haven't seen a flea beetle on my eggplants since. Soon the eggplant will outgrow the jugs which is okay since the jugs need to come off before the plants begin to flower anyhow.
I took my camera out to the garden and snapped some shots of the Tom Thumb lettuce and Bloomsdale spinach after the rain. The French Breakfast radishes needed a bit of wash up before they were camera ready! Anyhow aren't they gorgeous?
