Monday, June 17, 2013. Humid and very warm. High temp: 88 degrees F; low temp: 64 degrees F.
Almost all of our Jet Stars have tomatoes coming on already.
Compared to last year, this year at the community garden is sheer bliss. Aside from watering when we put in plants and seeds back in May, we have not had to get the hoses out once. It’s still possible to crumble the soil anywhere in the garden in your bare hands, and with just three people, we can weed the entire @3,600-square-foot plot in one to two hours.
For reasons unknown, the zucchini have not put out a week or more of just male flowers and have instead gone directly to female flowers and fruiting. Yahoo!
And everything just looks so nice. By this time last year, we already had hoards of voles taking down our peppers, a plague of spider mites in the beans (which we replanted three times and then gave up), and a terrible sense of hot and crisp everywhere else.
After a slow start likely caused by cooler, wet weather, our peppers are going nutty.
We did till in 18 cubic yards of fantastic compost from Better Earth, so that has definitely helped. We can assume that our gardening skills have remained about the same since last year. What makes so, so, so, so much difference is plain old normal weather: a cooler start to the season, followed by rains spaced adequately, and now heat and rain about every three to four days. Our primary goal for 2013 is 2,013 lbs. of food, all of which will be donated to local food pantries. My own personal goal for each year is to convince one additional church/organization in town to start their own giving garden, and that goal has already been met. I don’t want to get all jiggy, but everything is lookin’ good so far.
We’ve never grown cabbage in the community garden before, but they are really looking nice, despite our ignorance.
