The garden here is loving all the rain for a change! I guess that is the flip side of our sandy soil – when it is dry it is really dry, but when it is wet it is only kind of wet instead of soggy.

Here’s a look at the whole garden for this week. It’s hard to see, but the potatoes are starting to fade a bit as are some of the onions. The tomatoes and pumpkins are growing like crazy.

 This is the Bitter Gourd (aka Bitter melon) vine. It is just starting to tendril, and the leaves are so different from our other vines. It is also very tender. The leaves and stem almost feel soft, especially compared to cucumbers and other vines that we grow.

This ‘Maraschino’ sage has grown well and is starting to bloom. We will have some happy bees and other insects this summer!

There were two little strawberries on the ‘Mara des Bois’ plant this morning. The three of us that were in the garden split them and gave them a try. They were good, but not exceptionally flavorful. They had almost a sweet-floral flavor and not much acid. Of course, given the rain, I’m surprised they tasted like anything at all.

The creeping savory is doing a pretty impressive job of creeping, since it started out in a tiny 2″ pot. Savory is the Herb of the Year next year, so it will be nice to have some good healthy plants growing.

We have green tomatoes! I went through all the plants this morning to check fruit set, and we have tomatoes on 5 of the 7 heirloom varieties. The two varieties that I couldn’t find any fruit set on were Opalka and Amana Orange. They are 80 and 90 days respectively, so I’m not surprised that they are lagging. I am also wondering if we are getting a little bit delayed fruit set due to high nitrogen. It is warm enough that the compost is starting to break down and release nitrogen, so it is possible that could be promoting foliar growth and inhibiting fruit set somewhat, because there weren’t lots of tomatoes set on any plants. Or it could just be that these are heirlooms and that is what they do!

Have a great weekend!