The only high spot is that it looks like I'll shortly be inundated with tomatoes. I've already picked a few and they did NOT disappoint. :-) Though, with all the rain we're having (northeast), they're all threatening to split.
The cukes are not getting pollinated completely. I have not one eggplant despite blossoms. The only peppers I have are the lilacs and the one California Wonder bell that I bought fully grown. The Thai hot chiles are producing and the basil looks great.
The zukes are stunted, yellow squash is rallying. No pumpkins at all.
Next year, I'm just hoping for semi-normal weather.
To date (in Pennsylvania's chilly Northern Tier) we've had five ripe tomatoes from outdoor plants (6 plants). The miniature Red Robins growing indoors (in a big bay window) continue to thrive and produce enough cherry tomatoes to add to one serving of salad per day, sometimes two.
I planted cukes very late (I was sick) and I think they were permanently stunted from having been in their little 6-packs so long. I don't think we'll get cukes at all this year.
We picked two green peppers (from purchased seedlings, variety unknown) yesterday. They weren't terribly large, but I needed two green peppers for the dinner we were having.
I'm getting tons of zukes, tons of yellows squash (from one plant each). The white pattypan squash just started flowering this week.
Wouldn't THAT be nice. I'm hoping the same thing, plus hoping I don't again have an illness that keeps me out of the garden for all of June and half of July.
True to rainy conditions, all but 3 of my cuke seedlings were wiped out by slugs, even when using copious amounts of escar-go (we are talking 3 packets of seeds....several hundred of them...none lasted past germination). I had been planning on massive canning operations, but will have to scale back (I planted new seeds 2 weeks ago but they might not make it...seedlings are only an inch tall now).
The peppers sort-of like this weather. But if the weather stays damp AND gets cooler like it was in June (mid-sometimes LOWER 50s F all month long), then things will change. Tomatoes will be a banner year, dozens are over baseball size out there but not turning red. They're doing well mostly because I'm using a newly-tilled
7-hr-per-day sun spot in the back yard. And good thing, what with tomatoes going for $2 / lb at the store lately.
The local bumblebees are true soldiers, some going out in the heaviest of rain. Winter squash and pumpkin fruits are skyrocketing, most of the acorn squash and pumpkins are over softball size now. The butternut and spaghetti have some catching up to do, but not much.
I would prefer mother nature laid out her itinerary of weather ahead of time. Last year I could've grown cactus and sagebrush with great success....if I was told ahead of time this year, I could've gotten the mushroom, cranberry and rice paddies ready.
Dan, I've had very good results from broadcasting generous amounts of raw coffee grounds over my garden. Last year I was getting wiped out by the sneaky little blighters (contemplating whether to put in a third planting of beans or not) before stumbling across some Univ. of Hawaii research into the effects of caffeine on amphibian that had the interesting side effect of killing slugs. I applied the stuff and no more problems with slugs last year. This year, at the first sign of damage, I did the same. NO further damage. Lots of earthworms, etc (generally 2-3 per trowel full of soil) but, so far as I can tell, no more slugs.
According to the Univ. of HA research, the slugs can't handle the nervous stimulation of caffeine and die within minutes of contact with it.
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