One of the Volunteer sunflowers is 8.5 ft tall. I ended up with a bunch of them this year. They all started with some old seeds that came from Ft Vancouver back around 2000. I planted them and 2 grew even though the seeds were over 15 years old. They've been coming back for 4 years. I also have a bag of seeds I collected. It's an heirloom variety they grew at the Fort. They have one main flower and a bunch of smaller ones. The seeds are small not like the larger ones they sell to eat.
The artichokes I left for the bees are blooming. They're basically a giant thistle but they look nice and the bees love them. That's why I didn't eat them all. Gotta keep my bees well fed.
I guess I should take down my ghetto structure I set up real quick to cover the tomatoes for the 116° record heat we had. It's not tall enough anyway as the tomatoes have gotten taller. I think the heat still slowed them down but they're setting fruit now and there are a few early decent sized fruits in that overcrowded mess I planted. Maybe I'll start the tomato season with fried green tomatoes.
Some of the pears look like they got scorched but they should be ok. The skin will just have some blemishing. I'll just be happy to get a fresh pear. I will peel them anyway. I've been waiting years for this tree to produce.
Blueberries to the left are just loaded. We've just started picking them. The peach tree is a bust this year but at least the peach leaf curl didn't come back. I'm going to go easy on the pruning this year. Last year I had to hack the hell out of it because of PLC. I bet next year it will be loaded.
I got my cucumbers in pretty late but they're really moving now. I'm going to string them up so they grow vertical. Should be picking by the end of the month. They go fast once they get going.
I harvested the rest of the kale and am going to plant beets in that spot and as soon as I yank the radish seed plants in a couple days I'll plant lettuce there. I'm also going to plant some more peas for a fall harvest. But everything could go to crap real quick if we get smoke that blocks out the sun for 10 days like we had last year.
My garden isn't nice and neat but I like it this way. Not a drop of chemical pesticide or fertilizer. It's all KNF and JADAM. I'm still learning those methods and I made some mistakes but everything is doing pretty good. As I build the soil into a living thing it's only going to get better.
Happy Gardening
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