June Garden Update

It’s been 10 days since I took the photos of my container garden for Almost a Garden.  Every day when I walk out onto our deck I am amazed at what can happen in 24 hours, let alone 10 days.  See for yourself:

And look, we grew three dogs in ten days too!  Kidding; just kidding.

To see this progress is one of the things about gardening and growing that I enjoy the most.  But I know a lot can happen between now and harvest time. 

It looks like I may be learning to make pickles this year.  My little cucumber plants are going crazy and are covered with blossoms and little cucumbers.  I’d like to harvest some very early for cornichon-type pickles.  Then I’ll let them get a little bigger for some dill pickles and maybe some bread and butter pickles.  And of course, some will be left to become lovely, unwaxed cucumbers for salads and refrigerator pickles. 

I’m hoping to have an abundance of tomatoes to can.  Last year I expected to have a steady supply of tomatoes just for eating fresh.  I didn’t.  Of the two plants I had, one would set volumes of beautiful blossoms only to have them wither and fall off.  As you can see, I’ve upped my odds by having a lot more than two tomato plants this year. 

See the little cucumber to the left of the text?  I've not counted them, but there are many.

The tomatillos have blossoms as well.  Granted, they aren’t as prolific, but I’m okay with that.  I usually only use tomatillos in salsa and other sauces for which I prefer to use them fresh.  If I end up with more than I can use at a given time, I may freeze them to help preserve their color.  This particular variety is supposed to be a lovely purple color.

I considered harvesting some of the squash blossoms, but in recalling how frequently squash vines get boring insects that cause the blossoms to fall off, I chose to leave them and increase the odds that I would actually get some squash.  The seeds were mixed varieties so at this point I have no idea what kind of squash we may get, but I’ve yet to meet one I didn’t like.

And I have my first gooseberry harvest! 

It’s not going to make a pie by any means (not even a mini pie), but I’m excited nonetheless.  Perhaps next year the bushes will be well enough established that I can get enough berries for pie.  I’m also very excited that a wild blackberry bush on our property is currently loaded with little green berries.  Hopefully as they ripen I can get to them before the birds.  It’s been a number of years since I’ve made blackberry jam and it’s one of my favorites.  Fingers crossed!