Extremes

June is behind us and the garden is in full swing. We ended up with 5 1/2 inches of rain for the month, which was less than last June's 8+ inches, but it still kept things wet for much of the time. The temperatures went from one extreme to the other, with a windy 100 degree day early in the month frying some of the tender seedlings. This year we have 32 different vegetables growing in the back yard, as well as five varieties of fruit and several herbs.

One of the challenges of having a garden in a small backyard is finding enough space to grow everything one would like. One of my favorite methods is planting vegetables together which mature at different times. Here is an example of that, where I've got cabbage interplanted with sweet potatoes. By the time the cabbage are mature and picked in July, the sweet potatoes, which aren't harvested until after the first frost, can spread their vines over the entire bed.

Currently harvesting: arugula, spinach, lettuce, strawberries, kohlrabi, radishes, beet greens, rhubarb, sugar snap peas, garlic scapes.