It's Officially Summer: A Kitchen Garden Update

Summer is finally here, but we've had summertime weather for at least a month already.  Thanks to the early start that my greenhouse provides and the unusually warm weather, the kitchen garden is way ahead of the schedule I had set in my mind.

A row of beneficials, top to bottom: Sunflowers, Zinnia, Dill, Fernleaf Fiddleneck, Borage, Nasturtium.

These are my tomatoes and strawberries.  Behind the tomatoes are later tomatoes and then the melons.

I've already told you about the tomatoes in my last post, so now for the rest...
The beets and peas have been enjoyed by the humans, hens, and the handsome furry ones.  I froze the rest.  We like to eat root vegetables roasted with herbs all fall and winter, so the sweet potatoes and carrots will soon join the beets in storage.  I've also planted another set of beets where the garlic was.

I froze over 20 pounds of Detroit Dark Reds.

Our pepper plants have taken off.  The Hot Portugals and Orange Bells, in particular, have a lot of fruits developing.  Hot sauce, here we come!

These Hot Portugals will turn bright red-orange when ripe.

The Wisconsin Lakes sweet peppers will soon be red.

I'm letting the day-neutral strawberries fruit now.  We've had them for over two months, so the plants have had enough time to establish themselves.

Seascape strawberry

This was our first try at growing garlic.  We planted elephant garlic (really a type of leek) and Georgian Fire.  I'm happy with the results.

Garlic harvest

This garlic will cure for a few weeks in the sun.

I've done four different plantings of corn.  The True Gold corn is the most mature, and growing fast.

I've planted some Queen's Island Blue squash amongst the corn.  I hope they make fast friends.

There's nothing like the aroma of butternut squash roasting in the oven.  I'm so glad that I planted my winter squash early this year.  Maybe we'll actually get to have that butternut squash soup!

Left to right: Pie pumpkin, Butternut squash, Amish Butter squash.

Waltham butternut squash

Pie pumpkin

Pie pumpkin vine

Pumpkin blossom

I planted cucumbers where the peas used to be.  I'm going to make sweet pickles this year.

Northern Pickling cucumber blossom

The eggplants have been struggling to overcome the flea beetle feasts, but I think they'll make it.  Overall, we've been extremely lucky so far when it comes to pests.  Besides the flea beetles and a few slugs, things have been relatively uneventful in that department.

 Pintung Long eggplant, riddled with holes.  The new growth looks good, though!

We've even got some eggplant blossoms!

All of the apple trees are doing well.  Ben planted them last year, so they're still babies.

The Yellow Transparent is the first to fruit.

The artichokes are truly an experiment this year.  I'm going to attempt to overwinter the strongest ones.  I doubt we'll get any 'chokes this season.

This artichoke plant will be a keeper, for sure.

Blueberry season is nearing, so I'm trying to get all my ducks in a row as far as the kitchen garden and asparagus are concerned.  Lots of weeding and mulching to do!  My hands are dirt-stained and blistered, just the way I like them.