The State Of The Food Garden

The garden is slowly growing...  We've had such a crazy year for weather - a very late heavy snowfall causing terrible flooding, torrential rains for weeks on end (once again causing flooding), stubbornly cool Spring temperatures with gale force winds and a very late start to summer weather all equal a tough growing season.  The garden is behind for sure, but how much, I don't know just yet. 

In this photo below, you can see the state of things.  On the left, under the row cover our brassica crops are coming along.  Some are nearly ready for harvest and others not for a few weeks.  I staggered seeding so that we wouldn't be drowning in broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower all at once :)  

To the right are 300 onions growing fairly well - yes those are weeds that need pulling.  

This picture above is from the other side of the garden - you can see the row cover on the left and the onions are actually to the left of it.  To the right of the row cover, we have 3 rows of potatoes which are just now starting to flower.  I've hilled them up twice, but they could have used it a third time.  I think it's too late now that they are flowering, right? 

There are 2 rows of bush beans down the centre and they look like the'll be ready to flower in the next week or so.  Beside them, further to the right, are 4 rows of various carrots which seem to be SLOW to progress.  The actual roots are so thin and are barely discernible as carrots just yet.  This has me worried.  To the far right, are Fava beans (a first for me in the garden!).

                                         Potato flowers are opening up!

I've got peas forming and the plants are looking pretty healthy as this cooler weather agrees with them.

These are the tomato plants that are planted in main garden.  I have some planted in a hot bed nearby, so that I can compare where they grow best.  The tomatoes are all just now starting to flower :)

This sign (below) on my garden gate sums up my feeling about June and early July in the garden :)  I've done more weeding in the past month than I ever remember!  The entire garden needs another go around to pull yet more weeds so that's on the agenda for this week.

All in all, I'm a little disappointed and more than a little worried.  By this time last year, we were looking at lush "jungle like" crops with heavy yields.  The weather was perfect - hot and sunny in the day and regular rain at night.  The bizarre weather this year is not something I can control, so I'm just going to have to live with whatever we get from the garden this growing season.   I can't wait start harvesting at least some summer crops though as "harvesting weeds" just isn't as satisfying!