july update

July had nice warm weather but it did rain enough that we didn't have to hand water.

Plant progress:

The fava beans were removed and the bed was prepared for bush beans, swiss chard and beets (the chard and beets failed to germinate, perhaps I planted to deep? and half of the beans didn't germinate, I am guessing they needed more water because they were all on the sunny side of the bed).  The carrots in the middle of the bed have FINALLY reached an edible size, but are still small.  I mean they germinated in the middle of march and still aren't ready at the end of July?!?  What am I doing wrong? 

Not much progress on the celery and all the fall brassicas got planted out (under row cover this time!)  hopefully with the kohlrabi gets harvested i can plant kale to overwinter there. 

The nightshades are really struggling, first the hail knocked half the leaves and fruit off, and then late blight struck.  I know it is inevitable here, but i probably could have slowed it down by training to one leader instead of allowing them to bush.  But old habits die hard, and i have to remember i don't live in texas where plants dry quickly so air circulation is key!  The eggplants are either also affected by the blight or just don't like the weather.  they are still tiny and not really setting any fruit.  Also the cape gosseberries in pots are doing much better than those in the ground, although they need such frequent watering.  The tomatoes under the roof are blight free, but really need more sunlight and those on the balcony are blight free but a bit unwieldy.  Next year, only the miniture bush tomato(really amazed with the variety balkonstar, not for taste but for how well it fruits in a small pot with only half a day of sun) get planted on the balcony along with chile peppers.  The rest will get planted under a foil tunnel to keep dry and promote warmth.  The space on the terrace will be used for potted flowers, cape gooseberries and peppers. 

The curcubits started out strong, giving is plety of cukumbers for fresh eating, but really not any to pickle.  Unfortunate i love pickles!  The variety Picolino was a dud, just not really setting large fruit.  Is it supoosed to be that tiny?  I mean they were cornichon size....too much space and work tiny pickles!  Our lone surviving zucchini plant put out 3 zucchini before succumbing to powdery mildew.   so sad, i would have rather had a glut.  An the pattison also set only 1 fruit.  I am not sure if they just need more compost/fertilizer or more sun or more space.  Thier rotation spot for next year is definitely sunnier and has been heavily composted for the brassicas that were there this year, so ill hope for better luck before blaming the variety. 

Harvests:

some not blight affected tomatoes, enough for salads, but nothing else.
a few baby eggplants that got added to a sambar.  these were picked to destress the tiny plants.

the rest of the onions.  the later onions were less worm ridden, or only on the outer layer which dried anyways and was removed.  The bolting seemed to affect the size, but they have still kept reasonably well.  We haven't purchased onions since the end of April.  

Cukes for fresh eating.  zuchinni/squash

2 pickings of Favas yielded enough for a small treat.  I love fresh favas for their taste and they are unavailable locally, but man do they have low yield/lots of problems (wind, aphids etc).  Plus  it doesn't help that i find the outer skin bitter and double peel which further reduces yield.  I'll still grow them because half of having a garden is to plant things you can't get locally (i mean i really doubt we 'profit' on anything except berries)

some basil, which it would grow faster! 

Rasperries finally coming in.  we have both fall bearing and summer bearing varieties mixed together and it is VERY confusing to prune, so of course I just procrastinated it till i see what dies back in fall.

Flowers:

The gladiolus are really wonderful cut flowers and make me smile every day at breakfast, definitely more colors next year!

The self sown sunflowes are also a delight and make great cut flowers.

The miniture dahlias, while good landscape plants, are pretty unimpressive as flowers, guess I will look for a better compact varity next year with more interesting shapes or colors.

the iris was very short lived ( a bulb type)  so sad, i love iris. but it is so carefree it can stay.

The miniture asters were also quite unimpressive.

I guess the moral of the story is, just because you have a small garden, don't go with miniture everything.  One large/beautiful plant is better than 10 tiny ones that aren't great.