Hello friends! Things are heating up in more ways than one this June. Of course the weather in Atlanta always gets toasty as summer comes to smack us in the face with heat and humidity, but with it the garden is finally showing some promise of the harvests to come. This spring was a bit up and down with weather, so my plants are just a wee bit behind usual. My snow peas kept me going this past month with a few good handfuls every so often to enjoy, and now I can see lots of squash in the very near future...so let's jump in with our monthly stroll through the garden!
But first, let me take a selfie (or two)...
Instead of a snow pea mustache, this month I opted for sage eyebrows. And a bonus beauty shot since the herb is often used in hair and skin concoctions. Can't disappoint 
It seems the squash will be the next thing to come from garden to table, now that the snow peas are just about done for the season. The shot above is from my volunteer squash plant that popped up near the beans that I was trying to identify last month. I'm still a bit confused because while this looks a lot like my zucchino rampicante from last year, the fruit that's coming up is nowhere near as long and squirrely. Perhaps it got cross-pollinated for a hybrid variety? Either way, this one may just get plucked soon before anything else starts to nibble at it. There are LOT's more of these coming.
In another bed are my pattypan squash. The first photo is just three massive plants. After taking my pictures I thinned out the leaves a bit so that the bees and other pollinators can make it to the flowers. I have one just about ready to be picked, and hopefully plenty more on the way. These are always one of my favorite squashes because they are so buttery and tender. I think most of these are my new variety, Gelber Englischer Custard Squash. We have a few friends who really love these, as well, so hoping for enough to share.
We should also have some beans soon. I planted some wax beans and Borlotto's, and I think the above is the latter given the purple/pink flowers. Once I pull down the snow peas I think I may still have time to plant another batch of beans to extend the season out. They're always welcome in my kitchen!
My cover photo is a blossom from our tomato jungle. Even though I thinned out our seedlings, I may still have a bit of a mess on my hands as these babies grow. I think I'd rather have too many than not enough given how hard the critters usually hit us on the tomato front, though! I found my first little baby cherry tomato after I put my phone away, so just like with everything else, fingers crossed for lots more to come!
We need to work this weekend on giving these a little support, but so far they've grown up nice and strong. I've started plucking any suckers I find to keep pushing the energy to growing fruit. Though the mosquitoes are voracious in their own sucking when we spend any time out there.
Speaking of support systems...
Ooh, back to the squashes, I do have two pumpkin plants vining out like crazy. We've had a few little baby pumpkins start then rot off, but that seems to happen with the first couple of fruits. These are Jarrahdale, so even if I only get a few that will make me pretty happy!
On the fruit side of things, my figgies are looking fantastic! I think I showed our existing tree in my last garden journal and how good it looked. It continues to grow like mad (much taller than me now) and we have lots of babies popping up. In the pot is the small cutting I ordered this year, finally sprouting some leaves. I think we'll just be leaving that in the pot until we can plant it out next spring since it's a bit late in the season to transplant it. We weren't sure if it was going to make it originally, so very happy to see it looking good now.
Finally, some watermelon! These took a bit to take off, but perhaps we'll get to harvest a few during the summer. Last year something ate the maturing fruits before they were even near harvest time. A possum we think is likely. This year we'll have to pay closer attention to protecting them as they grow.
Darn pests. I don't mind sharing some, but when they take most of your harvest it's a bit frustrating!
I hope you've once again enjoyed seeing our seasonal progress! It's always a pleasure to jump in the Garden Journal fun. I can't seem to find much time to post otherwise, so this gives me a good excuse to get at least one post a month, haha. And to catch up with my other favorite Hive gardeners!
Happy growing my friends!
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