Planted peas this past Sunday…carrots went in today. Will probably sow beats this weekend.

The buds on raspberries are opening ever so slightly and the garlic is pushing 3" tall.

I cut my first spears of asparagus today. Peas, lettuce, radish, spinach and onions are all well on their way. The garlic plants are a good 6" plus, and the strawberry bed is filling out nicely. The lupine I transplanted last year from our land up north are really looking good, and I noticed that they have already spread to a few nearby spots. A few borage plants from last years seeding just popped up today. I took a few out that came up in my onions, but will let a few go along the rows for the bees.

Beets and carrots were sowed this past week.

I planted bare root golden delicious and gala apple trees today to round out my backyard orchard that already included two haralred and 2 honey crisp.

I read with envy a spring 2017 thread that was filled with entries from folks in zones 8 and 9. Gardens planted in April. Harvesting some early stuff late May. I'm container gardening with 7 containers of tomatoes. Tried growing them last year with some success, but needed to learn more about feeding. Also lost basil plant to *&@! Japanese beetles. I am just starting to see the beetles again this year. Everything was set up and set out first weekend June. Waiting, hovering, inspecting, watering, feeding, fussing .... :)

Garlics and multiplier onions came out today. All are on the curing racks, opening up a lot of space for fall crops. Next week I think for late cabbage, turnips, napa, etc. Daikons, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, and sweet potatoes are all putting on size. No tomatoes this year by the 4th, but there is a good set on most of the plants. Big Beef actually has a couple over 3 inches already. Now if I can just protect those from the tree rats! There are quite a few peppers already set and almost usable on the Sweet Banana plants. Sweet Banana has never failed me; so I always plant a few of them.

Had my first ripe tomato today, a cherry, SunSugar. Still eating sugar snap peas. Cucumbers are blooming but they were planted late so will be awhile. Pole beans are climbing and deer are sampling a few of the leaves as they pass by.

That is all I grow, pole beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes.

Thankfully I don't have deer, but the Japanese beetles are certainly enjoying my pole beans, as well as morning glory, and to some extent my zinnias, asparagus ferns and raspberries (interestingly not so much the black raspberries).

Yes, I have added knocking JBs into a bowl of soapy water to my morning gardening routine. Will be glad when they burrow underground again. Between them and the deer eating the leaves I wonder what the bean harvest will amount to this year.

Small beans are forming on the pole bean vines and should get a first picking in a few days. Finished and pulled out the last of the sugar snap pea plants yesterday.

Picked my first burpless cucumber (planted late) tonight. Have picked several Cherokee Carbon and Brandy Boy tomatoes this week as well as cherry tomatoes.

Veggie eating should be good until frost.

New veggie (to me anyway) that is very good even raw: bolting daikon radish stems - stems are smooth and sweet, leaves a bit rough and the whole has a tiny bit of a bite for additional interest. I have been pulling them as the flowers get ready to start opening. This would be a lot like broccoli raab. Many varieties of daikon and other winter radishes will bolt if spring planted. I expect some will be more pungent than others, but the daikons I have had are very good tasting, both sweet and mild. Next spring I will plant a bunch of fall daikons just to get the bolting stems.

Tomatoes are starting to come in. I plant mostly the "two bite size", for example Burpee's 4th of July, planning to eat them as snacks while working in the garden. 4th keeps setting fruit all season. Next year I will try to add Glacier which is said to be very similar but is OP. The first sweet banana peppers stated to turn red and then were eaten (as fresh). The plants are stretching for more blooming. Just two plants this year, a lot more next for sure.

I was hoping that scented geraniums (aka mosquito plant) would keep the tree rats out of the tomato I planted in the big pot. Didn't work, not even with a chicken wire skirt. BTW that kind of geranium roots real easy; I broke off stems to plunge into the potting soil on all sides and they all seem to have taken without any extra care.

Fall broccoli and cabbages have been transplanted. Fall radishes are up and have been thinned. Earlier daikons are starting to push up in the row and build diameter; some are pushing an inch (they would be much larger, but they got planted later than I like). I love daikons.

Sweet potatoes are vining nicely, but I didn't get the black landscape fabric down. Hoping for decent roots anyway (fingers crossed!). I will take some stem cuttings again this fall like I did last year. They root real easy in water and vine like pothos or philondendrons. Some of the root types have real interesting foliage - some ivy leafed, some real deep cut, some with various colors. You don't have to sacrifice interesting sweet potato foliage to also get roots.

Garlics are cured and bagged, now waiting for fall planting. Multiplier onions, too. Tree onions are ready to collect the topsets and then dig the roots.

Fun time of the year for sure!

My wife and I just got back from a week up at our cabin up past Grand Marais. My garden up there grew some very nice large yellow and white onions which were harvested for storing. The Kennebec plants were still green and growing well, but I harvested a few plants for eating potatoes while we were there. The lettuces, carrots and new strawberry bed are looking great.

When we got back I was treated to explosive garden growth down here. My large tomatoes are really starting to come in now and the plants are well over 7' tall with loads of fruit. Most of my yellow cherries are split. Fall turnips that took the place of my beets look great, and I had some absolute monster zucchinis. All the flower beds, winter squash and hot peppers are doing great as well…fun time of year for sure. It is beautiful.

I was hoping that the Japanese beetle scourge would have run its course down here when we were away, but I was wrong. I must have killed over a hundred of them that were all over my raspberries, morning glories, scarlet runner beans and pole beans. They were also on the zinnias and marigolds. I guess there will be a few more days left of daily killing after work.

My asparagus ferns look pretty brown for this time of year - not sure what that is about. I don't think it is the beetles as they have not shown much interest in them compared to my other plants.

The 5 year old neighbor boy who loves to follow me around and "help" in my garden must have been exploring in our backyard because the gate was wide open when we got back, but after beating around the bushes I didn't flush any rabbits and saw no evidence of damage, which surprised me, as we have a bumper crop of cottontails this year. The squirrels in my neighborhood seem to be down in numbers at the present time.

I hadn't thought to eat the radish stems. Last year I let some go to seed and harvested the immature seed pods which I rather liked.

The JB have found my pole beans but haven't made much impact as I knock them off morning and evening. They have also started eating clematis, again preferring the white blossoms. Hope they leave soon before the large deep red hibiscus blooms open. They are still a minor nuisance here while sounds like they are more numerous in the southern metro.

Birds and squirrels have been tasting the large tomatoes but don't appear to eat the cherry ones. Picking cherry tomatoes every other day after they begin to color and ripening in the house has prevented much of the splitting which comes from the frequent rains. Cherokee Carbon is new to me this year and very tasty. Brand Boy continues to be delicious. Both are much tastier than the tomatoes I bought at the farmers market a few weeks ago.

Extra rabbits here as well. Haven't noticed a reduction in the squirrel population in my yard. Deer have trimmed back some of the phlox and asters and continue eating a few pole bean leaves.

This week it is trimmer time again. The volunteer garlic chives are in bloom all over the yard, and have to be cut down before the seed develops.

I found 40# bags of organic compost with some manure (5-5-5) for a $1.75 a bag at Home Depot. I was real generous with that last spring for my tomatoes and I have had the most vigorous tomatoes in years. The current trunk-full is meant for the garlic beds. I prefer to work them up good and then let them rest maybe 3 or 4 weeks before planting. I use coir instead of peat moss and get that at Petco 3 bricks for $9.95.

I have my amendments for my garlic beds (7 varieties plus 2 types multiplier onions) for under $40 and still not have to mess around making my own which I don't have any space for anyway. Mulch will come as leaves raked off neighbors lawns. That worked very well for the tomatoes and banana peppers and kept the beds pretty uniformly moist all summer.