The Modern Victory Garden

It was gloomy, misting rain, and rather chilly today.   The high temperature barely crawled up to 60 degrees and did not hover there long before falling back to the upper 50’s.   My cucumbers, melons, squash, and pumpkins are seriously pouting.   They really need a dry and warm spell soon or I am not going to get any harvest from them to speak of.   The rest of the garden is doing fine though despite the weather.   In fact, there are a few items that were truly bright spots in the garden on this overcast, damp, and cold Saturday afternoon.                         

The raspberry patch is a wall of vegetation at this point.   I have some chicken fencing surrounding the base of the raspberry patch to keep my hens from eating the young leaves or low hanging fruit.   The hens free range in this back area so the patch needs the protective barrier around it.   As you can see in the pictures below, the short fence has done a great job, as the raspberries are growing thick and lush.                        

There are lots of flowers and developing berries on the canes and I saw quite a few bees working them this afternoon.   Hopefully we will start enjoying some raspberries soon.              

Close by the raspberries on the other side of the garden fence are three big black pots that have my artichokes in them.   I have never tried to grow artichokes before, so this is a new adventure for me.   I grew these out from seed and then exposed them to cold conditions earlier this spring before they were finally transplanted into these pots.   I am hoping the cold treatment was sufficiently long enough and cold enough to cause them to produce buds in this their first year.   I am feeling optimistic though, based on the size of these plants at this point.                     

Another bright spot in the garden this year has been the Lady Bell peppers.   These were some of the fastest germinating and vigorous growing pepper seedlings I have ever started.   So far, I am totally impressed with this variety.   They are growing in large containers in the unheated greenhouse.   The plants have quite a few peppers on and I can easily start harvesting some of the green peppers soon.                 

The pea patch is a mass of pea blossoms right now and it is really beautiful to look at.              

Even more encouraging is that these pea blossoms are quickly moving to pod formation.                       

All of the cabbages are doing really well as would be expected given it has been a cool and damp year so far.   The Alcosa (savoy type) and Gonzales cabbages both have nice heads formed now.   I have already started harvesting and using the Alcosa and will start using the smaller headed Gonzales cabbages soon.              

The Bright Lights swiss chard is thriving in this gloomy cool weather too.   I love this variety because it is excellent tasting, a vigorous grower, and is just beautiful to look at.   I have pink, red, orange, yellow, and white stalked plants all growing together and the colors really pop on a dark, cloudy, and rainy day.                 

 I did do some work in the garden despite the misting rain today.   All the container plants were watered and I gave the artichokes a drench of kelp emulsion tea.   The peppers got that same treatment yesterday.   I also watered the pea patch and the bed of kale, cabbages, swiss chard, and broccoli.   Although it has been raining off and on for the past several days there has actually not been any significant amount and the soil is drying out below the immediate surface.   I also did some harvesting today, but I will save that for the Harvest Monday post.   As usual, I had my garden companion Sid at my side as I puttered about in the garden this afternoon.   He was standing guard over the harvest items when I took this picture.     

Sid is always a bright spot in my garden (and my life).           

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener