We Finally See the Light!

Country Garden Report:

Yesterday, June 8, 2010 we were finally able to plant a large number of our tomato starts out in the garden! We have had a day or two of dry, sunnier and warmer weather this past week which we are so grateful for! We ended up planting 44 of our all purpose tomatoes with many more specialty varieties left to plant in the next few days. Luckily according to the forecast we are supposed to have some sunny and dry weather coming up this weekend and beyond.

This Friday we'll take advantage and try to plant the rest of our tomatoes and peppers. We really need to plant most everything in the next two weeks in order to give the plants time enough to mature and bear fruits and vegetables in time for harvest in the late summer and early fall. It is fortunate that both I (Trista) and Serena are on vacation from teaching classes this week and next so we'll have extra time to get some gardening done.


All of our potato plants have come up and look very healthy! That is great news as we hope for a lot of potatoes to use in winter dishes. The organic russet potato plant is pictured above. Most of the plants look the same but the purple potato plants have a slight purple tinge to the leaves.


In other garden news our peas are now blooming as are our boysenberries (pictured above). Also, there are berries setting on our raspberry bushes.


Also, tiny baby grapes (in the above photo) are forming on the grape vines and the heirloom roses (used for rose hip tea) are blooming like crazy! Things are starting to shape up quite nicely after our very cold and rainy spring!



In fact, in the NOAA weather report for May, Oregon was among the coldest of all of the contiguous states for the entire month. We didn't have record rainfalls, although it shows the northwest was well above normal. You may also be interested to see how your own region's information. See link for maps below from NOAA:

http://tinyurl.com/26ta9dv

Suburban Garden Report:


The big news in my suburban garden this week was that there were a few ripe strawberries on the bushes in my raised bed garden! It was certainly exciting to see these and as soon as I pointed them out to Adam he quickly devoured every last one! (Pictured below)


In other news the rhubarb continues to grow. It has done really well in the wet weather and the second plant that hadn't been doing as well is now growing much bigger and getting healthier. I may even be able to harvest enough for a pie towards the end of the month! (Pictured below).




Happy gardening to you all this week!