Garden in June

I often didn't feel satisfied at work. I had a great position in a multinational company, but it felt like all I was doing was writing emails and spending time in calls. At the end of the day I didn't see any results of my work and after a while it became frustrating. Gardening is the exact opposite. I spend a lot of time outside 'playing' with soil, talking with our neighbours and I see the results of my work almost immediately. June and July are the months when I see the difference every single day.

Let's see what happened in the last couple of weeks...

I planted my basil about 3 weeks ago and today I was already able to harvest it for the first time! I have learned how to harvest it to promote its growth and like this I can enjoy it until the first frost. This is one of the things that I don't plant from seeds because the slugs always get to them first and it's a wasted effort on my side. I rather buy 2 pots full of tiny seedlings, split them and plant them around my greenhouses.

And yes, as you can see, we have started enjoying raspberries too!

Most of our neighbours try to limit raspberries. I do understand it as they spread like crazy, but I let them grow as long as they are not in the way. My raspberries grow on old wood which means that the ones ripening now are hanging on the branches from last year. I will cut them to the ground in autumn and only leave new branches that grew this year.

This autumn, I will also plant yellow and black raspberries to make it a bit more colourful.

Honestly, I don't even know how many varieties I have at the moment, but what I can say for sure is that there are at least 3 of them.

You can see it on the size of berries as well as their flavour.

There are a couple of days when I can enjoy strawberries together with red currants and raspberries 😊

Peppers are coming up! The plants are quite strong and if all goes well I'm hoping for a good harvest.

Some of the tomatoes are exploding! I keep watering them, pulling out the weeds and pruning the low hanging leaves. The plants seem to like it.

You might think that it is too early and I should have removed those tomatoes, but this is how I've been doing it for years and I'm always more than happy with my harvest. I don't need 5 super large tomatoes. I'm much more happy if I get 25 smaller ones.

This year, we will have many surprises in the garden because I didn't start tomatoes from seed for the first time. We were busy with the move, so my mom bought some seedlings for me and my sister brought them to Switzerland. She had no idea which plant was which variety, so I'm letting myself be surprised.

I'm so proud when I see them grow! Growing tomatoes is not so easy if you're doing everything organically because they could get so many diseases, but it is so rewarding to see them happy. I just hope they don't get blight again because last year I had to remove affected leaves twice a day to save the harvest. It did help though...

My volunteer potato is 'potatoing' 😊

It didn't choose the best location as it's kind of in the way, but well, nature has her own plan...

This kohlrabi is almost ready to harvest. Many of them split this year, and I'm not so sure if it's because of the storms or too high temperatures. We will eat them anyway, but I need to figure out why it has happened to try and avoid it for my next kohlrabi generation.

And this is it - the next generation...

You can grow kohlrabi almost all the time, and I have 3 generations so we don't have to eat dozens of them at the same time.

My pickling cucumbers are growing nicely, and I give them a couple of days before the first flowers will start appearing...

As usually, zucchini are pushing female flowers first, so they won't be pollinated and will die out. I can see some male flowers too, so I hope that they will sync soon...

I've started pulling oud the weeds around my beans, and it's been a nightmare. They are so tiny and it takes ages, but I have to pull them out because beans are heavy feeders and don't like to compete for water and nutrients... well, still a few hours to go...

My father-in-law gave me some celery seedlings. We almost never eat celery, but my husband promised that he will eat it, so I planted it. Let's see how it goes. Last time, I planted 6 seedlings and we ended up throwing it away after 2 years in the freezer. I don't like wasting food, but celery had such a specific flavour that I can only enjoy in certain dishes.

Today is a focaccia day, so I took some rosemary twigs home...

Forest strawberries are entering their second bloom...

This is such a stunning bush, but I had to cut half of it as I kept hanging on its thorns. It still looks good!

My romantic Astilbe makes me smile every time I see it...

Snow hydrangea has started blooming. Those green 'balls' will soon turn white. It's one of the most beautiful hydrangeas, but it has fragile branches and bends to the ground after strong rain, so I try to enjoy it while it lasts.

Another hydrangeas are coming to life too...

Each year I forget to water my Phlox and then one day it dries out. This year, I have decided to pay attention and water it deeply now and then. So far, so good!

Calendulas are popping everywhere...

Lemon balm is growing out of proportions and I really have to do something with it. I thought I would use it to make anti-mosquito spray because mosquitos love me. Today, I tried to use anti-mosquito spray with lemon balm from a pharmacy, and it did indeed kept mosquitos at distance, but all other bugs loved me. I got attacked by wasps! So I think that I won't use it in the end. I might dry it up and give it to friends as tea. Any other ideas?

My green manure is perfect! It keeps the weeds out and it has started flowering already. It also looks like mess, but that's exactly how I like it.

And let's finish this post with some lavender that I took home. In the past, I didn't appreciate growing flowers as you can't eat them, right? Now, I appreciate the beautiful things in life too, and not everything has to be practical anymore, so the flowers found their way to my garden and now I'm happy to take care of them and maybe take a few of them with me from time to time.

Thank you and until next time...