The summer plantings are well under way. The weather has been rather temperate this spring - mostly in the high-60's to the 70's in the daytime with no real heat waves so far. The lows had been in the mid-50's but in the last week has started to come up to about 60°F again as it had been the past couple of summers. I think the endless weeks of foggy evenings and mornings that had always been typical of the climate here are starting to become a thing of the past as climate change progresses. If the past couple of years are any indication, it will remain like this through October, not that the peppers or tomatoes will be complaining about that.
Box 1 was completely turned over last month for the zucchini and the beans.
Box 2 has the tomatoes which have been greatly outperforming those of last year. I think the winter rains this past winter along with 2 daily hand waterings along with a weekly 60 minute soaking from the drip irrigation is to be credited for this. It may be that the weather has not been nearly as cool this Spring as it had been in May-June 2015.
Box 3 still holds the onions which I am pulling as we use them. I harvested the last of the garlic a couple of weeks ago. They seem to have done a lot better this year which is at least partly due to the rains in the winter as well as the fact that I was able to plant them in October rather than January. They were starting to develop a rash of yellow 'dust' on the leaves in the middle of the patch. This may have been due to the plants being placed too closely as well as keeping them watered through to the middle of May. I removed the worst plants early but the rash may have developed too late to ruin the crop as they seem to have survived it ok.
Box 4 - the peppers, save for one, have been growing ok and now that the weather is stabilizing warmer they should do quite well from here on. I'm having problems getting the greens started from seeds again. When I prepared the box I left a layer of bagged steer manure as a dressing and that may have caused an issue for the seeds. I've tried a couple of seedings again but still not having a whole lot of luck. This may be a mixed blessing as the ones that have grown are doing very well which may be from a lack of crowding.
Box 5 - the herbs are mostly doing well. A couple of dill plants I put out succumbed to a plague of aphids but so far seedlings are coming through. The chervil plants died back quickly so I seeded some but only a couple came up and only because they're shaded. I've been diligent about trimming the oreganos and thymes which seems to have helped quite a bit.
The container herbs are all doing well. I've only been watering them once a week but may have to increase as the temperatures warm up.
I repotted the bay laurel as the soil level had gotten quite low and the tree was starting to look stressed. Unlike what I expected though, the tree was not root bound but adding a few inches to the soil level was not a bad idea. The only shock I could determine was some dieback in the tips of the highest leaves. Although bay doesn't need a whole lot of water, it's still important to keep a potted one watered at least once a week.
