6/26/22 Temperature in 70s and very windy. Picked a lot of wild strawberries.

Temperature in the 70s. Pretty windy. 20mph west wind. Rhubarb gardens. Blackberries. Alyssum. I planted new zealand spinach to left of alyssum but rabbit ate it.

 

Coldframe. Arugula, mustard, cilantro, claytonia are going to seed. Still getting peas, orache, and new zealand spinach. The orache grows very slow. Patio gardens with mostly tomatoes and peas. Peas are still producing so keeping them a little longer. Rabbit is eating beans. Short row of carrots is growing. Turnips are growing. Wasabi radishes mostly went to seed. This doesn't seem to be a good location for radishes. Chamomile starting to flower.

Planted a few sedums at northwest corner of house. Easter egg radishes in front circle garden doing well. I really like this radish mix. I didn't think radishes would grow there. Lots of rocks. OK soil. Very weedy. Transplants surviving. Marigolds, alyssum, and ground cherries are growing. All 4 sunflowers seeds sprouted and are growing. Dug out edge so water would run into garden. Hosta garden needs more hostas and less lawn. Clover doing well, Need to move soil so water runs away from basement window. Everything tilts that way.

Walking onions and chives at edge of patio. Lemon balm with I don't know what kind of onion next to it. My sister gave me some seeds that I threw on the ground there and these onions came up. They form bulbs. I was going to move it but it was too well rooted so I'm waiting to see what it does next. Asparagus has little balls on it. Volunteer squash plant probably planted by squirrels or birds from neighbors plants?

Kale, mustard, turnips, nasturium, dill, peas, radish, mint, turnips, colorado wild spinach. I hope I can get seeds from this colorado wild spinach plant. Its leaves stay thin and it seems to like sun and wind. New zealand spinach leaves get too thick. Turnip and radish leaves are too prickly to eat now. I picked a lot of wild strawberries from driveway garden. More than I want to eat. They are doing a good job of spreading. So I've been removing some of the sedums underneath them for planting in front north garden. I listened to a podcast where they discussed having a wild strawberry lawn. These are very drought tolerant. The soil under them is very dry yet they are still giving tasty small fruit.

6/25/22 Peas and tomatillos are flowering. Picked oregano and dill to dry. Planted more greens.

Temperature in 70s. Very light mist/drizzle most of the day. Not enough water in bucket to measure. Peas are still flowering. Tomatillo flowers. Mint.

Planted out cress. Planted more arugula and mustard inside.

Picked some oregano and dill to dry. Also a seed pod from cold frame which is either arugula or mustard. Picked some chives, peas, and wasabi radishes.

6/23/22 Planted sedums in clay in northwest garden.

 Dwarf orange hat tomatoes are so cute! I can't wait to see what their tomatoes look and taste like. You are supposed to be able to grow them indoors in pots so if they taste good I might try that. 

Planted sedum in northwest area that is difficult to mow due to rocks. Very hard clay except where I put down some compost. A good test of sedum toughness. Pretty hot, especially in the sun.

More peas and greens. Can't eat sorrel anymore because summer has made the leaves tough and astringent. Carrot leaves from carrot ends are still tasty although some of the beet and carrot ends are putting out seeds.

6/21-22/22 Picked a bunch of wild strawberries. Peas, tomatoes, and marigold flowering

 Got up to 95F today, sunny. Last night only went down to 70s.

Peas are still blooming. I thought I would have a bigger harvest where I could freeze some but we are eating them fresh as fast as I can pick them.

Broccoli, brussel sprouts, tomato, wild spinach. The leaves are very delicate and thin so far. Unlike New Zealand spinach where the leaves are very thick. Can't eat older radish and turnip leaves because they get prickles on them. Broccoli and brussel sprout leaves still taste fine.

Ants are climbing all over this good growing tough rose with killer thorns. I read somewhere that rose can act as ant trap plants for raspberries. Marigold lemon gem with edible flowers that I haven't tasted yet.

Planted out colorado rhubarb, parsley, oregano, and new zealand spinach using newspaper pot to shade seedlings. So far working well on previous seedlings. It seems to protect them while they are getting used to the outside. 

The seeds of the cool weather greens like arugula and some mustards are still curing and we have moved to eating warm weather greens like kale, red mustard, orache, nasturium, etc. So far the leaf lettuce has not bolted yet. Nasturium has an interesting taste sort of peppery with medicinal undertones. I have been eating the wild strawberries as fast as I pick them but managed to pick enough to put in a container to eat later in the evening for dessert. Looks like we will be getting some raspberries in a couple of weeks. Not sure about the blackberries.

6/20/22 finished drying dill and oregano, picked some peas

Got up to 88f today, somewhat humid but not unbearable, sunny.

Probably why it takes overnight to dry dill and oregano. It is much easier to dry on stems, then strip off the dried leaves. Another reason it takes a little longer.

6/18-19/22 Much better weather this weekend

Much better weather this weekend. 50s at night and 70-80 during the day.

Moved raspberries that had escaped from west gardens to driveway garden. Put those sedums behind garage and threw some compost on top. Soil on east and south side of garage is very rocky and dangerous to cut grass because the rocks fly all over so working on planting sedums there which should choke out weeds and not get too tall.

Planted out sprouted indoor plants; fern leaf dill, red spinach, poppy, bloomdale spinach, mesclun, alyssum, sparky marygold, chamomile, nasturium, cilantro, sweet majoram, thyme, greek, blue, and lime basil. Most went behind west gardens except for basil which I planted in patio gardens. New planting technique. Dug square hole, dropped seedling out through bottom, then used pot to shade and protect plant.

Cilantro and dwarf orange hat tomato blossoms. Picked a full container of volunteer cilantro to freeze. Fern leaf dill in patio garden is growing slowly.

Picked 2 radishes. Picked oregano and volunteer dill to dry. Started it about 12:15 noon but still not dry at 10pm so went to bed. Must be too humid.

Finally some of the wild milkweed seeds have taken. Hope my neighbor doesn't weed wack them down like he did my wild strawberries that I started planting under the fence behind the garage. He only went up to the lillies. So I made sure to weed along our fence west of the lillys. Magnolia peas are very tall. Previously planted marygold and nasturium are doing well. Not sure if I like the taste of nasturiums but my husband does so it's a good summer green, along with kale, new zealand spinach and wild colorado spinach. I'll keep planting mesclun indoors along with other greens and bringing it out but I expect it to bolt pretty quick.

More peas, radishes, one young turnip, and greens. Also thinned out 1 carrot.