Garden- Mid June

Most of my garden is up and running...vegetables include corn, potatoes, peas, carrots, beans and so on. The time of radishes is officially over because I grow them for snacks...to the point of being sick of them now! I have learned to space my radishes more and have concluded they don't do well in plastic pots...at least not in the location I had them. Those that were planted directly in the ground did better which is to be expected.

Radishes

 I had planted my garden rather early, taking the chance that we would have decent weather in the spring and for the most part we have but the leafy veggies have not done so well- the spinach initially started well and then seemed to stall and now looks like it wants to go to seed. Likewise the lettuces have been wimpy and inconsistent which is ironic because seed that fell last year had been turning up lettuces all over the yard which the dog has access too so those are totally wasted.

Spinach has not impressed me yet.

I've replanted but have put down way more seed and will pick out the seedlings to get decent spacing. I should have done this with the carrots too but carrots bring out my laziness...I don't like thinning them for some reason... The really big project has been the tomatoes and ground cherries. Tomatoes were planted from seed that I have been collecting since 2009 and 2010...I officially began gardening my second spring in Merritt and acquired a lot of seeds the following year. Thusly, last year was almost totally grown from collected seed or pre-2011 seed packs. I have around 50 tomato plants...I plan on canning a lot as well as eating fresh.

Those little white markers are for tomato seedling variety planted

 Likewise the ground cherries, which I only discovered last year. I purchased a packet for the novelty...they looked like a plant that was pictured in a flower book I've had since childhood. I also knew there was a wild version of ground cherry because it grew in Illinois where I briefly lived. The seed packet variety however were a definite culinary variety...I couldn't believe how wonderful these things tasted- like a cross between pineapple and strawberry...something like that. Naturally I saved seed from this plant- there has been a lot of trauma as I've repeatedly misplaced those seeds this year and resorted to purchasing new ones after pestering the local vendor to order some in. I planted about 20 in little pots but so far they haven't germinated and it's been about the time they should have. To be sure I planted some in the ground last week because some are sure to show up. Another irony is all the little plants that are showing up randomly in the garden that MIGHT be ground cherry...

Potatoe or Ground Cherry?

I am hoping so and have transplanted some of them to see what comes out of them. Funnily enough the seeds I had saved and then lost turned up today so I'm not in any short supply!