Things are pretty slow here as well... tomatoes and peppers are starting to bud, though they're still a bit small for fruit, so I may pinch those off... we'll see.

I never managed to get my cukes in this year, so won't have any of those. :(

Sort of all over the map. Most of the tomatoes have recovered from the wind events when they were hardening off. One tomato I may decide to cut down as it is struggling. Summer squash will be setting fruit soon. Lettuce plants are mostly done but I'll let several go to seed. Eggplants in Westminster are not looking good. Not sure what the issue is but peppers and eggplants don't do well here in Westminster but they thrive in Aurora. Vastly different soils in the two places. Blackberries are setting fruit and getting huge. We had a good run of strawberries this year but they're probably about done. Cucumbers are growing but the plants really have no taken off yet. Garlic is a week or two from harvesting. Onions are bulbing up. The new bare root plum tree is growing very slow hopefully it picks up speed to get enough reserves to make it through next winter. Potatoes look okay but will find out when they're dug up. Sweet potatoes are starting their rapid spread. Long beans, pole beans and bush beans are all growing at a good rate but no beans yet. Most of the basil is finally taking off. Most of the perennial flowers are doing well. We have way more oregano than we need.

Well, I had to go out to the big veggie garden to find out. The report here at home doesn't amount to much. The plants in the beds under the now-removed hoop house have had many pulled as they bolted. The 3 potted tomato plants look real good and 2 are beginning to flower.

Returned to the distant garden yesterday mostly to run sprinklers. Finally having some sunny, hot weather. Gjcore, it was likely a lesser event but I was pleased that the 35mph winds didn't do any noticeable damage. That garden is so exposed that it was probably higher gusts. The tomatoes there had recovered from their flea and potato beetle attack and subsequent spraying, look okay but haven't grown anywhere near the progress of the potted ones at home. Typical and they should outgrow those later in the season with more room for their roots.

Potatoes look fine - I felt it necessary to spray the beetles on 2 visits. Concerned that the spinosad was going on too early in the day with too much sunshine but there doesn't seem to be any damage. Eggplant, SOMEHOW, avoided the bugs - probably just because there are few plants growing together for a better target. Bok choy out there looked much better. That's a surprise and not just because of the flea beetles. It must have been years since I tried bok choy in that garden because the exposure to wind and sun is just too much for them.

Moved some corn plants while watering - shovel work so as to take advantage of some extra room available and overcome a little initial crowding.

Cucumbers and melons do NOT look like they have appreciated our cool, cloudy Spring. The peas will need more time before there are pods.

Harvested some baby beets again and the usual volunteer dill and cilantro.

Steve

slow, except of weeds, those are big

It is interesting how some of the vining crops are doing.

The cucumbers and melons didn't like the cool June. Melons are blooming but they are small plants - it might be best to prune off the blossoms but I don't know about doing that. Everything is a little late because of the cool Spring weather.

The winter squash is growing Wonderfully! C. maxima. I don't really know why but appreciate it.

Steve

now harvesting all 3 types of peas

A little strange. Lots of vegetative growth. The heat has killed off tomato blossoms mostly. Early fruit set on tomatoes was just Ok except for the small-fruited vines and 3 tomatoes in the new beds I built last fall that actually get almost full sun. The clsssic beafsteak down there has 20 green fruits. Picked the first Cherokee Purple today.

The Cesu Agrais tomato that J&L sent as free seeds is still setting fruit - I saw some pea-sized this AM.

Cukes just starting to set fruit and saw a couple of pea-sized cucamelons. Same story on the squash.

Honey bees are very scarce. Native bees seem to be taking u some of the slack - I rousted quite afew while spraying squash this AM.

A few Jimmy Nardello peppers are about ready (green state).

Hoppers are appearing.

My veggie garden has been totally neglected. I’m scared to look…. We finished our waterfall and the yard is planted out. I’m so excited! So are the bees. We’ve spent soo much time on the yard this year. Just not the garden. Putting our yard back together in time for the garden tour.

Ours is doing surprisingly well. We didn't plant any young plants. Only put in some seeds and relied on what came back from last year.

Our strawberries (they come back on their own each year) are still producing, just at a reduced rate but they are trying to spread in all directions. Chives, oregano, dill and tomatoes all came back from last year.

We have three good sized yellow squash plants that were sown directly in the garden plot from seed and now have baby yellow squash. We also have a nice crop of cilantro sown from seed.

Surprisingly no basil as we put in alot of basil seeds. I think it is the only crop failure this year.

I harvested a nice zucchini yesterday. Yellow squash is coming along now. Getting some peas and had my first green bean, too. Lots of raspberries getting ripe as well. This is a fun time of year

After a very slow start, the garden is starting to look like a garden. No real harvest yet except for nice garlic that has been cleaned and is in the cool basement for now. We had lots of tomatoes drop their blossons, a few tomatoes on the plants. Turnips, beets, beans look promising. Cucumbers are beginning to explode as well as Jerry’s cucamelons.

The currants and neighbor’s cherry tree have been harvested, a pretty good year. We are looking forward to cooler temps and lots of veggies to harvest.

We've harvested most of the currants and gooseberries.

All of the garlic is in and curing under the deck.

The Kale grex seeds are in, If anyone wants some let me know and I'll mail some or possibly drop them off . The plants were started with these seeds https://store.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/products/kaleidescope-perennial-kale-grex

then I've crossed with a dwarf kale that I've been breeding for several years.

Otherwise a steady harvest of a variety of stuff is coming in but the main summer harvesting has not begun. August 1 is Lammas day, a cross quarter day, according to Celtic tradition that's when the harvest season begins.

@gjcore, do you mind a question about the currants? I've tried to grow them and all I have to show for it is several stunted plants that rarely bloom and are very susceptible to pests. Would you mind (sorry if this is a hijack) sharing where, in the yard, you grow them? Watering strategy, variety etc? Thanks, Gg66

Well I didn't choose the best spots for them. The area I did choose is full sun all day long. It would have been better to choose afternoon shade. Also the area is in the south yard and has a fair slope to it so it tends to be drier than the rest of the property. Was out today adding lots of mulch over there and will be adding more mulch soon. Best to have a reasonably moist area.

Are you trying/wanting to grow them in the city or mountain garden?

The ones I have are in the city, and probably in a terrible place - afternoon sun and up against the brick house wall. Sprinklers don't get there very well so it's on the dry side. The rosemary and sage love it.

I'm considering putting currants in the mountains. Probably in raised beds, which may help . There would be a dedicated irrigation line and I could keep it moister. Options are multiple - but I certainly could do an east-facing wall with afternoon shade. Also the east-facing area is somewhat protected from wind (it gets really windy up there especially in the afternoons, and with the sun baking down that's hard on a plant that likes moisture) .Thanks for the tips!

*pops in*

Looking great, gardengrl66! How on earth are you growing such lovely brassicas without them getting decimated by flea beetles or other critters? Wow.

gjcore -- I'd be interested in your kale....but I'm afraid it would all get eaten! Like gardengrl66, I'm also interested in how to raise currant bushes. Despite a healthy ladybug population, mine got overwhelmed with aphids and thrips.

I made this garden update video over a week ago and totally forgot to post it here! Doh.

Even though we had several upper 90 degree days, the nights were too cool until last week and the plants really sulked.

And of course the overly-dry weather didn't help: due to my end of town not getting ANY rain for weeks on end (north Fort Collins got a brief downpour, but it only spit in my southwest neighborhood) the grasshopper and Japanese beetle activity intensified. And to add insult to injury, some voles got into my kale and potato containers just before I was gonna harvest them. Ah, well! At least we got half an inch of rain yesterday.

It has been an odd growing year, even for Colorado.

Well @Laura (Z5a Fort Collins, Colorado) for some reason we haven't had flea beetles up there but we do have lots of grasshoppers. I am keeping those beds covered between visits (sadly I only see that garden every couple of weeks. Someday I will be able to quit my day job and spend more time in the mountains). Row cover keeps most of the hoppers out, though not all - one really big green one jumped out at me as I was pulling the cover back, eww! Down in Denver we definitely have flea beetles. I have let some volunteer mustard plants grow here and there, and they've been a good "trap" for the beetles. The kale and cabbage are relatively unaffected, at least so far.

Flea beetles/grasshoppers -- I saw my 3rd grasshopper for 2022, last week.

The Asian greens were flea beetle victims in the distant garden. Fairly close to everything was attacked but those brassicas are a favorite and they moved in on them early and strongly. It was something of an experiment out there since Asian greens are grown at home where there is less exposure, especially to wind. But, there are just too many seedlings at a time.

Those greens did start off well out there but a second transplanting of the Asian greens burned up! We have had 6 days with afternoon temperatures above 100°. Three of those were 104-5. A little break the last few days but back to the 100's for a couple more days this week, we are told.

My first sowing of green beans resulted in puny plants. The cool June must not have been to their liking. The second sowing produced big, robust plants!. The pods are just about ready for harvest. They liked the early July heat .... however, the 3rd sowing of bean seed must have baked during those 100°+ days - emergence was probably less than 50%. Since those plants are so widely spaced, we can try a third transplanting of the fall Asian greens as companions. Ha! Learning from our mistakes?? Well, it works here at home!

The first sowing of sweet corn resulted in puny plants also but the ears are fairly good size and we are enjoying those now. Second sowing - robust plants!

The tomato plants are rising to waist height out of their sprawl. However, there are few green fruits on them and we have only harvested a handful of Bloody Butchers & cherries. I think that the high temperatures damaged their flowers. I did knock the flea beetles off of them well and they recovered from the attack, weeks ago.

Steve

I picked some bush beans and harvested a softball sized kohlrabi, as well as more zucchini than we care to eat