Smallest Farm at mid-June

Smallest Farm at mid-June

We haven't had a smallest farm update for a while so here's the crop report. No pics yet; I'm waiting until there's something that looks impressive and right now it would look like half-mulched weeds with some strategically placed sprouts.

The south garden fence must still have some wabbit-sized gaps because the sunflowers are still getting eaten and the peas are a total loss, chewed off at the ground just as they blossomed.

Everything else in the south is doing fine. Tomatoes and eggplants are a foot tall, with some baby tomatoes starting. The catnip-eggplant interplanting is working well as usual with no flea beetles seen. We've also got a couple baby peppers. I attempted to control the tomatillos in tomato cages but they're already spilling out.

Cukes are sprouted and a couple inches high; I had to replant those once as well but that was because some of them just died, rather than wabbits.

I deviated from the original plan and planted some zucchini and squash on the far south fence and those are also doing well. A combination of weather and scheduling kept me from following through with some of my intentions for the south garden, like carrots and onions, and these plants are sure to fill the gap. I tried to stagger the plantings to try and avoid the inevitable zucchini glut.

In the middle garden, corn planting was finished last weekend and the first two of three plantings are sprouting. I've mulched them as much as I can with grass to keep the weeds down, and had to dig up and give away a bunch of bee balm to make room for corn. (I have more left if you want any, it spreads like crazy.)

The pole beans are almost all sprouted; I had to fill in a couple gaps because wabbits got a few. But the reinforced fence seems to be working better on the middle garden. The tallest beans are maybe a foot up and starting to grab the nets.

Along the south edge the squash family is doing well, including a couple that volunteered from the compost heap and got transplanted. The three giant pumpkins -- duly designated Ethan's, Hayden's, and Daddy's -- are OK so far; the trick will be keeping the pumkins growing once they start. Last year they rotted on the vine.

The west annex is reverting to its weed patch roots but at least the weed patch includes a lot of cilantro. And the hot peppers in the small north garden are just starting to blossom, though the okra is going slow.

And everywhere we look there's catnip, catnip, catnip...