Early summer in my garden

Another week, another gardening post...

It was raining a bit last week, and my garden took off. I don't only mean the produce, but the weeds too. I knew this moment would come when I was cleaning the garden in spring and saw the seeds spreading all over the garden while removing old dry weeds. It was impossible to avoid it. It took some time for them to germinate as it wasn't raining and I only water the soil around my plants, but as soon as they got the chance they all started popping up and annoying me. I keep them for now as they are too tiny and my patience for them is too thin, so I let them grow a bit before removing them. From my experience it won't take long for them to grow and I only wish that my vegetables would grow as fast as the weeds. I try to ignore them for now and focus on my plants.

Let's look at the progress!

I didn't plan to grow radishes, but when I had a few moments I took some seeds and spread them all over the raised bed. I didn't even expect them to germinate as the seeds are at least 3 years old, but to my surprise, I am able to harvest a few radishes every day. I don't need many as I only like them with bread and butter, so delicious! Well, I like to bake them in the oven with a little bit of olive oil and maple syrup too, but I only do it when there are too many of them.

The beauty of our garden is that we have a well with drinking water, so I don't need to take dirty produce home. Saves time and money too.

I love those rainbow radishes so much. I thought most of them would be red, and I was pleasantly surprised to see many yellow, purple and white ones too.

Our garden is planted for continuous harvest (as much as possible), so our strawberries are finishing while our red currants are taking off and soon raspberries will be ripening too. I'm not a big fan of red currants if they're too sour, but our variety is a bit sweeter and yummy!

A small bowl full of goodness...

I take chives home every day. The more I harvest, the better they grow.

You might also see a tiny dill in the bowl. It was growing so well until a slug decided to eat its 'heart' which means that it can't grow anymore. The side leaves were left alone, and I harvested at least that. I can only plant dill on the balcony as the slugs love it and I can't seem to be able to protect it. This year, I surrounded it with heavily thorned blackberry branches, but those little monsters don't mind. I thought they would turn around when they would feel pain, but it looks like they have some sort of armour.

This is the most delicious lettuce that I have ever eaten. It stays crunchy in fridge for 2 days, and it is kind of sweet, not bitter at all.

This variety is amazing too, but it doesn't last that long in the fridge. As every summer, we eat plenty of lettuce every day. Next year, I will only plant these two varieties as they are my favourites.

They are a bit crowded, but look how pretty. I think we'll need to share some with our friends as we won't be able to eat all the lettuce I planted before it bolts.

This year, they grew as big as in the shop, but so much more delicious!

My cucumbers are growing fast. I have a feeling that soon there will be first flowers appearing. There is no protection against the slugs, but I don't mind as long as they stay on the lower leaves.

Can you see those tiny flowers? Looks like the season is about to start and if we're lucky, we'll be able to share our zucchini with our neighbourhood. This is the yellow one...

And here we have the green one. It's becoming bushy...

This looks like a slug buffet. They demolished all the new tender growth, but it looks like they are surviving and should keep growing even though it's going to be slower. Luckily, I have more than enough.

The second row of beans looks so much better...

And here you can see those weeds that I was talking about. It's almost as thick as a ground cover. It will take ages to remove, but I will have to do it as otherwise they will reseed again and spread even more.

It's the first year when I have tried to plant 2 pepper plants together to support each other and it seems like it's working. They are happy! Some of them have already started flowering, but I removed the buds as it's way too early in the process. They have to focus on becoming strong first.

I planted basil a bit later this year, so it looks so much better as the nights are warmer. If it goes like this it's going to be a great year. I have around 20 small bushes and with correct pruning I will be able to harvest almost until the first frost.

My volunteer potato took off, so I hilled it up and I might even get a couple of tubers.

I love the morning light! It makes the gooseberries look irresistible...

Once red currants are finished, we will start eating gooseberries. They are big and look ripe, but when I gently press them they are still too hard. Look at that thorn behind the fruit! They are huge and make harvesting a nightmare. It doesn't matter how careful I try to do it, it scratches the hell out of me every single time.

This bush has been very generous...

Raspberries won't be bad too. Last year wasn't so good, so I cleaned them up very well, loosened the soil a bit and look at that! Next year I will add some fertilizer and we won't be able to eat them all.

One of the last strawberries for this year...

And the strawberries to be for next year...

I've talked so much about them already, so here they are - my lovely red currants.

The second variety will start ripening once the other one will be finished. Like this we have almost 2 months of daily supply...

Those foxgloves keep growing and growing. They are already taller than me!

My green manure bed has started blooming...

They look amazing for a couple of weeks and then they turn into a horrible mess, so I try to enjoy them as long as I can...

A couple of weeks ago I showed you a bunch of leaves, and now it is about to start blooming. There will be quite a few calendulas.

When other roses stop blooming, this one starts showing delicate flowers...

Well, some more radishes (I couldn't resist)...

When they are clean...

As you can see, I, on the other hand, am far away from clean 😁

Thank you for reading and until next time... It will be about tomatoes 😊