The Modern Victory Garden

Summer gave us a brief one-day visit today, breaking the long streak of rainy days.   Unfortunately, it is not forecasted to stick around tomorrow so I devoted myself to enjoying it today while it lasted!   I started the morning out by doing a quick cleaning of the coop and the chicken yard.   I put the girls in the portable pen and let them graze in an area adjacent to their run.   The pen is covered with bird netting to keep them from flying out and to keep predators from swooping in.      

While they were occupied I scooped and swept out the soiled shavings in the coop and added them to the compost pile.   I also raked up the wet plant debris in the run area and added it to the compost pile as well.   New shavings were added to the coop and the feed and water containers were cleaned thoroughly before being refilled.   I had the coop opened up wide while I was cleaning.    

After the coop was cleaned, I moved into the garden and spent most of the day puttering around there, or just sitting on the deck reading.               

The cucumbers are generally doing good after several efforts on my part to replant and replace ones that had previously died.   However, just when I thought they were settling down and doing really well, I had two more plants die (two of the smaller replanted ones).                                          

It would appear that they died from root rot, likely due to the constant cool and wet conditions we have had.   The remaining plants all look very good and the warm sunny conditions today probably helped them a lot.   Hopefully this will be the last of the cucumber deaths and we can get on with the business of growing some cukes!                                           

On a happier note, the zucchini plants are looking good and even have the first formation of tiny little fruits.   The bright yellow Gold Rush fruit are fairly easy to see even when this small.                                    

I removed the small planting of spinach today as I had harvested the last of it this week and the plants were definitely gone by.   After a quick cultivation of the soil, I used my 3 inch planting jig and did a 2’x2’ planting of Bolero carrots in that area.   The bigger planting of carrots made weeks ago is now forming true leaves and starting to look like a carrot patch.                   

The other direct seeding I did today, was Blue Lake pole beans.   The first seeding was not coming up well and/or has been being eaten as fast as they are emerging.   It is just unacceptable to do without a large planting of pole beans, so last Thursday I started some pole bean seeds in a wet paper towel and by this morning they were just barely sprouted.   I planted these up today in the soil that was feeling nice and warm from the abundant sunshine.     Hopefully this round of pole beans will make it to the finish line.   Oddly enough, the rest of the bean plantings have been doing remarkably well this year.   All of the runner beans are now up; the Pinto beans have been up for some time now and are getting some good size on them; the Kidney Beans are just emerging; and both plantings of the Royal Burgundy bush beans are doing splendidly.   Here’s the larger of the two patches of the Royal Burgundy bush beans.

The peppers are holding their own but would be happier if we had more than just this one sunny day.   I do see flowers forming on some of them, so they cannot be too stressed by the cool and wet weather.                         

The potato bed continues to fill out and grow taller.                         

We have been out of storage potatoes for a while now.   As a result, we are eating more bread, pasta, dried beans, and rice and I am increasingly wishing we had potatoes back on the menu.   It will be a while before we have baby potatoes to steal from the plants, but I expect they will be available around the first part of July.                                               

All in all, it was a perfectly enjoyable day in the garden.   A brief bit of sunshine and warmth does the body and soul a world of good.   Doesn’t hurt the garden much either!                                           

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener