We are coming to the end of June and about to celebration Canada Day (July 1), so we thought it would be a good opportunity to provide an update about the garden growth.

We have had a few battles, so I feel like some of our plants are a little behind where they could have been, but overall we are happy with how things are progressing.

The first harvest every year is either the drive way wild strawberries or the rhubarb. Most often, it will just depend on if I am ready to start using rhubarb, otherwise it would always be rhubarb as our first harvest.

This year, we actually had a tie between the rhubarb and our ever-bearing strawberries, with a close second place for our wild strawberries. May 14th we had a harvest of rhubarb and a small handful of the ever-bearing strawberries. May 18th brought out first harvest of some wild strawberries. So we will start with those plants.

The ever-bearing strawberries and the rhubarb go hand-in-hand since they are planted right next to each other. The rhubarb as usual is trying to encroach and take-over some of the strawberry patch, meaning I tend to harvest from the one side rather than all the way around.

The strawberries in the meantime are also sending off runners galore to move into new territory. We have snipped a few and will remove the rest after we have a few good-size baby plants to put into a few areas that didn’t come back.

The driveway strawberries have been also spreading out a bit, and have really produced quite a bit. As we near the end of June, we have noticed that there are no more flowers, and only another harvest or 2 before the plants are finished for the year. We have already doubled the amount over our 2023 harvest, but are just shy of the 2022 harvest numbers. I think we will have them beat after the final harvests for the most productive year.

The other harvest we have enjoyed is the garlic scapes. With more garlic planted this year, it is no surprise that we had more scapes. All of it was turned into delicious garlic scape jelly which should see us through until next June. Last years batch was just finished off as I canned the new batches.

The kale has also been doing very well. I have enjoyed many salads over the last month with home-grown kale. I just have to battle the cabbage moth a bit and the little green caterpillars that are trying to beat me to the delicious leaves. Luckily, I am harvesting so often, that I can catch the caterpillars long before they do much damage.

The romaine is really starting to take off now, so I planted more where the iceberg was originally planted. Unfortunately the dog kept stepping in them so the iceberg lettuce didn’t have a chance. I have put up some pinwheels that at least make Basil jump over them, saving my planter.

The herb garden is in full swing. I have already had to dehydrate a batch of oregano because it was trying to take over the thyme. The basil is struggling, but seems to be coming along a bit better now that it is warmer. The thyme, rosemary, tarragon and sage are all very happy and growing big.

We did a little trimming of the tomatoes recently because they have finally really started growing. Mostly bushy, but also some good height. We wanted to open them up a bit to ensure lots of light can get into the tomatoes. We noticed a few have started, so it was perfect timing. Lets get all that energy into growing more!

The cucumbers are doing great, though I would have had much larger plants if the magpies hadn’t snipped the first ones that sprouted. Unfortunately, that set back the cucumbers by a couple weeks, but at least they are growing strong and uninterrupted now that the pinwheels have done their job of keeping the birds away.

The peppers are hanging on. The cooler weather definitely put a damper on their growth, but they seem to be perking up and spreading their leaves much wider in the last few days. Though still overcast, the temperatures seem to be getting a little higher.

The butternut squash plants are very happy. They have been steadily growing since sprouting and look nice and strong. Hopefully I will have another successful year with them after years of only male flowers. Time will tell.

At the bottom of that bed is our zucchini. For the first time ever, I have struggled with it and almost gave up having plants. I planted some seeds that never came up. So I got some new seeds and planted again. Still nothing came up, so I debated planting more. Jammed about 8 seeds in to see if I could get anything to come up. Finally had one sprout and start growing only to be snipped by the magpies, around the same time the cucumbers got snipped. Gave up. A couple weeks go by and 2 more have sprouted, so I guess I’ll have some after all.

The cabbage is one of the happiest of plants right now, loving the warm but also cool spring weather. The ants have not done any damage, and I have 8 heads of green & red cabbage plucking along. There has been a few battles with the cabbage moth, but so far, I have been able to keep on top of the egg clutches and few caterpillars that manage to grow.

The celery & leeks are doing great. We aren’t sure if the type of celery we have should be trenched, and the seed packet didn’t specify, so I am going to have to do a little research about it. If it does need to be trenched, we will have to adjust the setup a bit.

The cantaloupe is finally pushing up and out. They also got snipped a few times before I was able to get the birds away. Seemed to stop when we got rid of the magpies, so once again, I believe they were the culprit. The watermelon is also popping up but isn’t quite at the same size yet. There are however, more watermelon plants so we will see how it all goes.

The broccoli and cauliflower are both very happy, similar to the cabbage. Not as many caterpillars on these so far, which has meant to great leaf growth. The second planting is also trucking along, starting to get a bit bigger. Hopefully we start seeing some heads developing in the next week or so.

The beet patch is coming along nicely, though we had a small issue with them this season. I unfortunately had some seeds left from the company that provided a lot of dud seeds last season. I didn’t have problems with the beets last year so thought I would be safe. Nope. Only half my beets came up, so I did a second planting, which wasn’t such a bad thing.

The carrots are growing beautifully and look very happy where they are. They have nice tall tops, but will be a bit longer before I get to eat some of them. Kurt’s sister was visiting with her lovely dog Kali, who thought to inspect the carrots. She is a big dog at well over 100 lbs, but luckily didn’t do any damage. Dogs and carrots, they will sniff them out!

The potatoes have been mounded 3 times and are now happily growing. I considered mounding them again, but it seems that they have stopped growing tall, which should hopefully mean they are putting all their energy into growing some potatoes. It is a very large patch this year, so we are hopeful for a large harvest that will see us through to mid-summer next year. We finished off last years potatoes in March, which was still a great amount of time to have home-grown potatoes.

The onions are also doing great. The ones I planted in the fall are just about ready to harvest, so I will definitely be doing some in the fall again this year. I like having onions earlier in the season, so I think half my bed will be planted in the fall and the other half in the spring. Hopefully this will leave me with onions for most of the year. Though we do go through them quite quickly so likely not.

The flower pots are all also doing fantastic. My little canna lilies are starting to really grow, though it will still be a while yet before they flower. I am going to start them in December this year, just to give them an extra few months to grow. I will also see about providing a little extra heat for them in the early months when the sunshine window can be a bit drafty.

The addition of the pansies this year has really provided a pop of extra colours. We love to add as much colour as possible, and this year definitely have a rainbow riot happening. With less projects that are pushing at us, we are able to sit back a bit more and enjoy the beautiful view.