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Sunday, July 22, 2012

Late July 2012

July has been a hot and overall a very dry month here.  My tomatoes, peppers, and melon family plants are growing like gang busters.  Here is an overview of the growth to date.

I've got mixed beds, as usual.
Cucumbers on left, Zucchinis on right.  I'm working pretty hard to tie the cucumber vines to the trellis.  So far, both seem pretty happy with this arrangement.
Here are peppers, basils, and Eggplants.  I've used this mix a few times before, but this is the best that it has looked.  I think that the heat has been helpful.
This bed was all lettuce 6 weeks ago but those have all bolted to seed and the Kales are going to town.  This is the first time that I have grown red Kale and I'm pretty happy about it as it is very tasty and super heat tolerant.  I'm leaving a few lettuces in place with the hope of spontaneous reseeding but plan to replant with fall greens in a month as well.
Celery.  This is a first for me.  Its in a bed that gets a little more shade and seems pretty happy.  I have 6 healthy looking plants intermixed with carrots and they seem to be growing well in close quarters.
Kohlrabi - tasty, heat tolerant, funky looking.  This is really the only of my brasicas that look remotely healthy.  I think that hot dry weather has taken its toll on the others.

Hopefully we'll have baskets of tomatoes soon...

Winter, finally (and seriously)

I planned to start this blog last spring as my garden flew into action, but then got into the actual work of gardening and abandoned the task. However, today its winter, really winter. I'm wearing long underwear and sitting under a blanket and I'm still cold.
Today is the shortest day of the year so from here on in it gets better. I look forward to longer days, that's for sure. But I'll also tuck in and enjoy winter's freeze and snow, it does mean skiing after all. Maybe more importantly is the snow pack - without snow there isn't water for the West.
The end of the year and the solstice are a good time to think back on the last 365. I have no reason to complain and feel really lucky about the last year and really hopeful about the year to come.