June Garden Update (Raised Beds Edition)

Man, it's been so long since I've done one of these. Let's see if I can remember how it goes....

So yes, we eradicated the stink bugs. Not sure if they were doing lots of harm, but I get a little possessive of my tomatoes. If I can't have my tomatoes, they can't either. (Yes, allow me to be your whipping post for insect eradication for unnecessary reasons). I cut down all of their orgy fuel (mustard and other greens gone to seed), so now we have lots of room in the garden to plant other things. Now that temps are reaching the high 90s...that doesn't allow for much in the way of planting. But the drip system we hooked up seems to be doing well, and keeping things alive.

So my succession planting/permaculture idea was just that - an idea. I need to get some seeds started to cover the large swaths of open dirt because it will just dry out and blow away if I don't. I started a ton of nasturtium seeds recently, so let's hope they actually get large this year and shade the ground. I've never had much luck with them.

I'm half considering going and buying some established annuals from OSH. It's that bad.

My real goal was to interplant veggies with flowers, yet the dirt under my veggies sits empty. It wasn't for my lack of trying - mother nature had her way with the late frosts and early 100^o days. I must have started cucumber seeds like 5 times already, to no avail. The beauty of Northern California's valley is that I can wait until September and plant seeds that need about 90-110 days to produce vegetables. Our winter doesn't really start in earnest until December, so you can eek things out through November/early December. Hell, I took our pepper plants out on New Year's Eve last year, because even though they were flowering and producing massive quantities of peppers, they were rotting. Craziness.

The pictures below aren't the greatest. I missed the witching hour for taking pictures, so these are either a little dark or a little too light. (I'm looking forward to the photo classes I'm going to be taking with David later this summer. Watch out for *good* pictures then!)

And now, the picture parade. (More pictures in my Raised Beds Flickr set)