What a difference a month and over eight inches of rain makes!
Plot #63 at Roseville Community Garden on Tuesday, May 14, 2013. (Click the photo to enlarge)
Plot #63 at Roseville Community Garden on Sunday, June 16, 2013. (Click the photo to enlarge)
As New Jersey approaches its wettest June ever in recorded history (the State average of 8.27 inches of rain on June 19 is just .34 inches behind the 2003 record) and with flooded farm fields suffering in Mercer County, Plot #63 at Roseville Community Garden remains soggy and wanting for some solid days of warm sunshine.
While the garden has grown significantly in the last month (see comparison in side-by-side photos to the right) the excessive rain has caused some problems. Tomatoes are getting taller and setting many fruit already, but they are showing early signs of leaf blight from being so wet. The Bushmaster Green Bean seeds I planted never did sprout, as the seeds may have been too cool and wet and rotted. And don’t forget the problem with radishes I mentioned in my last update, also caused by cool, wet weather.
I’m still harvesting the Black Seeded Lettuce in huge quantities (upper left corner of garden in the photo above), and making great lettuce & radish salads from the second radish crop now coming ready to harvest…with no cabbage fly maggot damage! The Neon Lights Mix Swiss Chard and Ruby Red Swiss Chard are almost ready for thinning and first harvest, while the Chioggia, Detroit Dark Red, and Early Wonder Beets are doing fine, Both chard and beets would probably take off like weeds with a few days of warm sunshine.
The squash/zucchini plants are getting huge, thankfully with no squash bugs and striped cucumber beetles yet. Proactive spraying with Garden Safe Fungicide 3 (fungicide/insecticide/miticide) should help keep them away, and also help with the tomato leaf blight.
I did plant another nine-foot row of Pink Beauty Radishes and three purple eggplants ‘gifted’ to me by my friend John Kowalski since he overbought for his garden. Hmmmm. It’s a beautiful, late-Spring evening. Think I’ll take a trip over to the garden and see how things have done since this photo was taken Sunday. More soon.