Welcome to the 9th installment of the Wonder Works Organic Garden Blog. It has been over a month from the last update, as the garden is just starting to get into full swing, the cold rainy weather we experienced in the first half of June really slowed things down, and did a bit of damage to a few of the plants.

Overview

Most of the garden just kind of sat for the first few weeks after planting, due to the cool rainy weather, with a few noticeable exceptions. The broccoli, broccoli raab and kohlrabi seemed to enjoy the cool weather as did the peppers surprisingly. The tomatoes and cucumbers did not like the cool rainy weather at all. Overall the garden is now doing pretty well, with a few adjustments made to the planting layout.

The Tomatoes...

Most of the tomatoes succumbed pretty early to the cold wet weather, with the roots becoming quickly waterlogged, choking out the plants. Luckily, three of the plants made it through okay, and we picked up a couple more tomato plants at the Oak Park Farmer’s Market. The three new plants we picked up where, Cherokee Purple, Orange Russian and Amish Paste. We then dug up the three surviving plants, and carefully mixed in large amounts of sand and perlite to the large planting holes, hoping this will improve drainage enough to not repeat the kill off, and so far, so good.

The Cucumbers...

The cucumber plants remained of planting size for about 2 weeks, until the weather warmed up, and in the last 2 weeks, have gone from 6” seedlings to 3’ vines almost half way up our trellis. We already have several cucumbers forming and will be of picking size in a week or two. We are looking into cheap veganic fertilizers to keep up this good pace of growth. We are also tying the cucumbers to the trellis with balloon ribbon, once we tie up a vine, it quickly wraps it’s tendrils around the trellis and continues climbing. We should point out that the Lemon Cucumber seems not to be as vigorous as the other two types.

The Broccoli, Broccoli Raab and Kohlrabi...

The Broccoli Raab has been harvested and enjoyed, quickly went to seed in the hot weather and where removed, being replaced with nasturtiums, a completely edible flower, with sweet blooms and peppery leaves. The broccoli has grown pretty well, with the largest plants now being about 18” in diameter, the smaller plants are still doing well, but are half the size. The kohlrabis are small plants, but many are already developing their bulb, and few should be of picking size in a couple weeks.

The Peppers...

The peppers are doing surprisingly well, and not only did they double and triple in size in the last month, they are covered with flowers and some already have edible fruit which will be picked this week. All of the peppers are doing very well so far, and here you can see the large banana peppers ready to pick just 5 weeks after planting. Even the bell peppers are getting of size, and should be ready for harvest in 2-3 weeks time.

The Radishes, Beets, Turnips and Carrots and other seeds planted…

These where all planted in rows, and some have grown pretty well, while others have taken their time germinating and where recently replanted. You can see from the picture that they are still a bit small, but it has only been a month, and things are still looking good. We have planted Chinese cabbage and swiss chard in front of the cucumbers and they are all growing nicely, though a bit slowly.

What's in the Works...

The Wonder Works Organic Garden is water and/or weeded almost daily, with fruit starting to be collected as well. Everyone is welcome to stop by to look at, help with or benefit from the garden.