Garden Journal Entry #5: June
I haven't done a great job of keeping track of the days this month, so instead of my usual dated list, this list will simply be in the order in which I can remember things.
Moving: On June 7th we moved. The garden of course came with us. My new yard and back deck are both high on my priority list for upgrades, behind about 25 other important things.
Oh. Moving.
The weather: This month has been unseasonably hot with most days hitting the high 80s and even the low 90s. We put the garden on the back deck which gets about 4 hours of direct (and hot) sunshine every afternoon. We've had thunderstorms blow through more days than not, but most have only thundered from a distance and sprinkled a little bit. No really good dumps of rain this month.
The new house: There are no spigots on the back side of my house (what the heck), so for the first two weeks I watered my plants with some pitchers filled in the kitchen sink. Needless to say, in my hopes for rain, there were more than a few dry days in a row for my babies. I've been sort of weeding out the yellowed leaves and praying the for a full recovery.
Growth update: At one point my oldest child went out and counted at least 48 tomatoes growing, total. I picked and have eaten several in the last week of June - and they are yummy.
Death update: My cilantro flowered, my spinach bolted, and my two sprouts of garlic turned brown. Also, I doubt I will see another strawberry this year.
Herb update: my jarred rosemary sprouted roots so I transplanted them into the old spinach pot. One little lavender grew a root so I put it with the other lavender but it looks like it might not make it. Have been picking and enjoying TONS of fresh basil, and putting it on my kitchen table for a splash of color and fragrance. Ooh, I love basil. The sweet mint is pretty dry and not thriving. Otherwise, I trimmed some peppermint and some lemon balm to dry for tea.
June 29: Sprayed all my plants with an epsom salt and water mixture (read it on Pinterest, not sure what it does) and gave them another tablespoon of Miracle Grow.
Back at the old house: my raspberry bush turned out to be blackberries. This is the first year that the birds haven't cleaned them out before they all turned ripe and we've picked two big bunches and ate them all on the way home. Also, the plot I was using for a compost pile is growing a healthy little volunteer tomato plant and acorn squash.
