Hot dry days

We have had a week now of unseasonably warm weather. The ground dried and cracked a few days ago where not tended with a garden hose. Most of the early greens like spinach, tatsoi, cilantro, parsley and mizuna have bolted at this point. The good side of this is that I will soon have a lot of open garden space for planting the celery, cucumbers, kale, peppers and beans that were started in the basement.

The experiment with planting a lot of lettuce closely together did not pan out. Most of the plants have remained very small while the lettuce with more space has matured nicely. I will probably replant the smaller lettuce to give it more room to grow once the beds are cleared.

Holes are appearing in my choi leaves. I wonder if they are related to the flies I have seen congregating on the plants, or if it is slugs and I need to refresh the beer traps?

Raspberries, peas, columbine, lupine, azalea, rhododendron, iris and coral bells are blooming. Peonies, lily, loosestrife and clematis are preparing to open. Apples, forget-me-nots, quince, lilac, bleeding hearts and tulips are mostly done. The maple trees just dropped more seeds than I can ever remember seeing before.

I need to get the irrigation system going soon, do some transplanting and build a couple more frames(?).

Azalea, rhododendron and coral bells

Columbine, lupine, azalea, clematis

Fly on choi, related to holes in leaves?

Super Sugar Snap peas blooming/Shade cloth

Harvest

Insect on Lily

Memorial Day Pics

Bee balm. zinnia, alyssum, delphinium

Morning harvest

Kale, choi, lettuce, chard, peas

Transplanting

Last night I transplanted what was left of the most recent tray of 3/4" soil blocks. Included in the operation were California Wonder sweet peppers, Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, Tango celery, and Catnip. Blue Lake green beans and slicing cucumber that were soaked and planted a few days ago are beginning to emerge. Yellow and zucchini style summer squash seeds were planted after being soaked for a couple of days. The marigolds were planted directly outside after sprouting yesterday morning. I have decided that sprouting them in paper towels in a baggie makes them difficult to transfer because the roots grow through the paper towel. Next time I will just plant them directly in soil in trays.

Something took out a few of my carrots last night and left a neat hole. I may have to build a chicken wire protective fence around some frames even though I am in a residential neighborhood. 

Here is our asparagus harvest from yesterday. This will be one of the last asparagus harvests this year. The remaining shoots are getting thin and will need to mature to feed the roots for next spring.