It's been hot, dry, and smoky, but the garden is producing! I can't imagine what we would do without our long hoses though; we've had about an inch of rain since planting.
Here's a partial run-down:
Green beans – the original teepees were stolen(!) just as the beans were sprouting, but we replaced them quickly with some larger ones from the beatuiful bamboos of Kanapaha. Both the bush beans and the pole beans have been producing like crazy. We had this last night in celebration - delicious.
The cucumbers did very poorly and I just pulled out the last of their shriveled vines after having gatherered a total of two cukes form four plants. I'm going to try them in containers in the fall. The little Seminole pumpkins we planted a week ago should eventually grow over into that direction and cover the empty space.
The okra is doing a-okay after a little shower with soapy water to rid it of aphids. We planted three heirloom varieties, two of which I am very happy with (Star of David - huge, surprising tender pods, and good old Clemson Spineless), one not so much (Cow Horn - a little tough).
Basil is another faithful producer; with some pinching back of the flowers, these are producing nicely and will keep us in pesto all summer.
The tomatoes have been the best surprise! I had pretty much given up on traditional-sized tomatoes and have grown mainly the small cherry/grape sizes for the last many years. They're much more heat and disease resistant and produce more volume over a longer period of time before succumbing to disease. But this year we grew two regular-sized heirloom varieties - Amish Paste and Black Krim - thanks to a gift from Marvin and Kathy of Graham Farms. They have done GREAT. The Black Krim taste more like the delicious tomatoes of my childhood than any I have tasted for years. The Paste aren't quite as full-bodied, but they're great in salads and especially broiled on an open-faced sandwich. We are loving both of these. And their vines are holding up fine in this hot, dry weather. Whether it's the variety or the unusual dryness this month, I'm not sure. But we'll plant them again to find out.
Corn - We harvested most of the "traffic calmer" corn oasis. It was small in both stalk and cob, but it tastes great. When we planted them, we were thinking more about the "drama" of a corn oasis in the middle of a city than the practicality. Corn is a heavy feeder and needs to be planted in a pretty large block to be pollinated sufficiently. While ours did achieve pollination, I think the small size is due to the shallowness of the soil they were planted in. I'm thinking of reserving that space for the bees next season and have some tithonia in seed trays on the ready.
Generally, June is the end of gardening for me pretty much. After this it's usually heat, rain, disease, and demise - just clean-up and a few okra, cherry tomatoes, and hopefully some native pumpkins. But who knows with the climate-craziness we've been experiencing so far. Unusually hot and dry is keeping the disease at bay. I wonder what it's doing to insect-life...
