The beds

A garden tour commences.  It always looks fairly nice in mid-June before the heat and bugs of July make garden work miserable, and the weeds take full advantage.

Lettuce - Grandma Hadley's romaine in front and loose leaf in back.  My lettuce is really behind - I should be harvesting by now.  Our spring was very cold and wet.

One of two garlic beds.

Our bed of sunchokes, transplanted last fall.

Gita yard-long and ideal market snap beans in the back, prizm kale in the front. 

Cherokee purple tomatoes in the back, California wonder peppers in the front, plus a few marigolds.  My peppers are also behind, they should be twice as tall as they are.

Strawberries!  We've got one bed of cavendish and three beds of flavorfest.

Marketmore cucumbers in the back and Waltham's butternut squash in the front.

Picotee Cosmos in the back and China asters (UMN seed trial) in the front.  And weeds scattered throughout.

Sunburst patty pan squash.  I ran out of straw half-way through.  We'll see if mulched or un-mulched are more productive.

Dwarf sunflowers (UMN seed trial) in the back, more Waltham butternut squash in the front.

Calendula back left, basil front left, black Krim tomatoes on the right.

And finally, photos of hubby's yesterday project - transplanting some of our golden raspberries.  Our old raspberry patch has gotten out of control and filled with brush, thistle and weeds.

He's transplanted 30 young canes to a new area and surrounded them with fabric and wood chips, in hopes to make things easier.  We'll cut down the old bed soon.  I hope this works!

Not included are a bed of rutgers tomatoes and ailsa craig onions, a bed of jade cross Brussels sprouts and Burpee's golden zucchini, and various other things planted in pots near the front walkway.  I've planted a lot of summer squash this year.  Last year my zucchini plants withered in the drought and I was totally bummed.  I love grilled zucchini.  So I'm making up for it with tons of plants this year.

Next week we're getting temps in the high 80's and 90's, so we'll see how things fare.  As long as the rains are steady, I'll try to keep up with the weeds.