Mid-summer garden tour

Raspberries, blackberries, string beans, potatoes, garlic scapes

Why is it that the day that I have time to do some much needed work in the garden, it is supposed to be the hottest day of the summer so far? So I was outside at 7am trying to get done before the sun could do me in, but there was no escaping the oppressive humidity.

This year’s garden seems to be taking its sweet time to produce. We had a late warm up for spring other than a brief abnormally summer-like hot couple of weeks early on and the heat now returning full blast. We’ve had more rain than ever, recording the wettest June in the DC area in recorded history. To further confound garden success, there has been a noticeable decline in the bee population and the flowers just don’t seem to be getting pollinated. The foliage is beautifully lush from the rains, but fruit production so far has been lighter than in the past years. This just makes me more aware how difficult it would be if we needed to produce enough food to be self sufficient.

Views of some of the raised garden beds: 1 - eggplant, soybeans; 2 - tomatoes; 3 - squash, popcorn

The season still has plenty of time to unfold through July, August and into September. I’m holding out hope that harvests will be more abundant in the coming months. In the meantime, I spent time getting the last spent plants from spring cleaned out and then planting for late summer and fall harvests. Out with the straggly overwintered and spring plantings of peas, kale, collards, cilantro and lettuces that had bolted. In went seeds for carrots, onions, a second crop of soybeans and lettuces that don’t mind a little heat.

I hope you enjoy these few highlights from the garden this year: