One of my favorite things about long summer days is that I still have about an hour and a half of daylight after the kids are down for the night. A few days ago, after putting down the kids, I watered thoroughly (all this predicted rain has just not been happening lately); spread almost-ready compost over parts of the garden (this is the compost to which I had previously added the horse manure my uncle gave me to improve my raspberry soil--thank you, Uncle Darry!; picked peas; put "compost tea" on my grape vine (a euphemistic name if I've ever heard one); and examined the progress of some of my plants.
The zucchini is getting one last chance with me this year. Every year I give up on it because of mildew mold, and my plants have got it again this year, but I'm going to wait and see. I decided if my plants do not produce at least five zucchinis before all is said and done, I will give up on growing zucchinis for at least the next few years.
The green beans are actually doing significantly better since I raised the bed where I was growing them.
I found a great recipe for this broccoli rabe, combined with the bok choy I'm growing in another bed in the book The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without by Mollie Katzen.
My cucumbers did really terribly last year, so I planted extra this year. The plants I started from seed indoors turned yellow when I planted them out and had to be pulled. So I put some seed right in the ground and also bought a few cucumber plants. Anyway, it's looking like they're doing alright so far this year. We ate our first cucumber tonight. I'm so excited. I can handle not getting any zucchini far better than no cucumber.
The lettuce has been providing us with quite a few salads. It's a little more bitter at this point, but we're still eating it.
I put up a string trellis behind my tomatoes in the front yard. I'm trying a different system for staking them this year. I hope they just sort of grow up onto my porch posts.
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