Comments from the week of June 22, 2025

The wet weather from last week has turned into the first hot spell of the season this week. Temperatures have risen to just shy of 100º on multiple days, with this Thursday, June 26, being the last “hot” day this week. To keep things flowing along, I have been using the irrigation system every late afternoon to keep the grass green and the veggies content. So far, all has held up well and produce is coming along. The biggest surprise so far has been the productivity of the Yukon Gold potatoes. The harvest has been outstanding, with good sized potatoes being the norm.

After 5 days of temperatures topping out near 100º, we got a slight reprieve on Friday, June 27. I was able to clear out the pea patch and plant some more tomatoes and I also cleaned up the Yukon Gold potato area, planting 9 Ochra seedlings.

Cucumbers and weeds are the big thing now as the all day drizzle on June 27th allowed everything to spurt up. The strawberry field really needs to get cleaned out again, before the weeds totally take over.

Comments from the week of June 16, 2025

Despite the weather becoming a bit cooler and wet (over 8 inches of rain in one week), the garden has been going gangbusters. I have already harvested broccoli, tomatoes, peas, strawberries, blueberries, collards, cukes, pickles and even a potato.

I am pretty excited at how all is growing and I am trying to keep up with the weeding, so the paths are clear and neat. I need to clean out the blueberry area again and then throw down some wood chips to help keep down the weeds. The beans, which are now about a foot tall also need some “up close” weeding done, as I have neglected them since I put netting over them to keep the rabbits (I now have two bunnies coming for snacks) at bay.

In another few days I will have plenty of peas to harvest and some more broccoli to cut, along with taking some more collards to friends. The gooseberries are starting to change color, so they will be ready for picking very soon.

The tomatoes are about 4-5 feet tall, with lots of tomatoes on the vines, most of which are still green, after an early crop of 10 tomatoes that turned red. I also ate my first sweet gold cherry tomato, super delicious.

Finally, I still have a couple of areas that need to be prepped for seedlings, some tomatoes and a number of okra seedlings.

It will be a challenge to keep the weeds at bay, as it seems they grow twice as fast as do the veggies and fruits.

The photos below include an early harvest of cucumber, pickles, peas and early tomatoes. The Yukon Gold potatoes, planted in early April have been harvested and are excellent in size and taste. The Walla Walla sweet onion was started from seed in February and planted into the raised bed in the middle of April. We are also coming to the end of a great crop of gooseberries and blueberries.

May 12, 2025
The garden work keeps right on coming as I attack one plot/job at a time. Today it was cleaning out the pea plot, despite some rain, adding fencing to keep out the rabbits. That was actually a good thing, as I planted more peas and a couple of rows of Blue Lake bush beans. I spent a half an hour picking up bean seeds, as the bag broke before I could plant the seeds. I am hoping I can finish putting together the irrigation system, as it will get up to 80º again on Sunday.

My Walking
In the meantime, I just completed 6,000 miles of walking since May 2, 2021. I guess the next goal is 10,000, which would be like walking around the world. The 6k miles is 3 round trips to Florida or walking to the west coast and back. I wore out 4 pair of running shoes.

This year's trip down to Florida was a few days later, due to appointments having come right at the end of October. The drive down was pretty much routine, 15.5 hours with a few stops for gas and relief. The cottage managed to stay strong during the tornadoes and hurricanes that hit in early October, but many areas close by were hit hard, with devastating results. Six people died as their homes were destroyed by tornadoes (17 tornadoes came through the area) and huge warehouses crumbled under the powerful winds.

The rest of the month went along fairly smoothly, although the walking needed to be cut back as my left hip was hurting. I have tried to figure out if new pain is due to an IT band injury, a bursa bruise or the reduction in my anti-inflammatory drug I take. The end result is that my miles per week have taken a major hit.

There were no major projects on the docket as daily events seemed to take precedence and all projects were put on the back burner. Most consist of finishing up detail work left over from projects I did last season.