Summer has arrived!

Summer has arrived with a vengeance. In late spring we had plenty of rain but also sunny days.  The past week or so we have been blessed with daytime temperatures of 90 to 92 degrees and 80% humidity.  Rain has been somewhat sparse. The flower bed along our sun room is looking pretty healthy thanks to the water in our rain barrels.

Our baby Rose of Sharon bush next to our back porch is beginning to grow. It is more than two feet tall and has had one bloom so far.  The neighbor's cornfield is very healthy looking this year.  We had a nice rain last week and we think the corn grew a foot over night.  The houses are on the next road south of us.  Wish all of our neighbors were that far away.

In the foreground is one of the green bean beds.  The first picking should be in a few days as there are small beans forming. The bed on the right behind the beans is our Butternut squash and they seem to be having trouble staying within the boundaries of the bed. To the left of the squash is the carrot and onion bed with zucchini at the far end. The asparagus ferns are looking good and are hopefully feeding the roots for the crop next spring.  You can't see them very well but at the rear of the garden are the strawberry, cantaloupe and pepper beds.

The bed on the right shows some of our tomato plants. This year we are trying a new tomato called a Juliette.  They are shaped like a Roma but are to have less seeds. We grew the plants from seed and they are flourishing.  To the right of the shed is one of our rhubarb beds and behind the rhubarb is one of the apple trees.

In order to draw more pollinators to our garden, we killed all of the grass on the north end of our house and started a perennial garden. This garden is still in the early stages but should be complete by next year.  It is already drawing honey bees and butterflies.  We have a number of perennials in small pots waiting to be planted when they are large enough.  Our grow lights in the basement worked overtime this spring.