June's Blooms

The garden is full of blooms right now. We've had several weeks of hot weather with several good soaks of rain and the plants are loving it:

Orange Hawaii Marigold:

Pink Brandywine:

Gold Nugget:

Red Marconi Pepper:

While many plants in the garden are growing like weeds, some seem to be lagging a little bit compared to last year. I'm not sure if this is a function of growing from seed, or if it's just one of those years. My Red Marconi Pepper doesn't seem to want to get any taller, while it's cousin the Fish Pepper is reaching for the sky. My Gold Nugget and Pink Brandywine tomatoes are getting bushy and putting out blooms, while the Green Zebra, Black Krim, and Black Cherry are stubbornly refusing to grow and even getting a few krispy leaves.

I finally decided to pull the beets that were clinging to life - the kohlrabi were starving them for space and sunlight. Didn't I learn my lesson with sun deprivation last year? I'll sorely miss having beets this year, but I guess I can just hit up the local farmer's market. I also finally gave in and pulled my zucchini and yellow squash plants. They were blooming, but not healthy. I forced them to start too early and should have known better. New seeds have been planted and hopefully they'll get off to a better start this time. I take the blame on this one.

Other than a few errant nibbles from neighborhood bunnies, things are looking nice. I had a nice conversation with one of our neighbors about the garden - she was eyeing all the pots in our yard and probably wondering what the hell I was up to. I'll have to make sure the yard is in tip-top shape the next few weeks - apparently the house two doors down is being taped for DIY Network's Desperate Landscapes show. I don't want to make a bad showing if they happen to meander down our way...