Although I’ve paid my garden little attention since planted, it seems to be growing strong. As are the weeds! I’ve managed to keep the weeds in the beds to a minimum, but between the beds is another matter. Still, there are hits a misses here and there.

This spring, I was so busy with work that I didn’t bother trying to start seedlings indoors. I ended up purchasing most of the seedlings and started a few things straight from seed in the garden (green beans, squash, and pumpkins).

After last year’s fiasco with powdery mildew, I thought to spray early with fungicide before mildew set in and so far, so good. Last year was also the invasion of the cucumber beetle, so I’ve been sprinkling diatomaceous earth liberally around cukes, squashes, and pumpkins.

While working on getting the greenhouse beds ready to plant (thank you Paul for the 300 lbs of organic compost you hauled for me!) I found a number of volunteer cilantro growing strong from seed that dropped last fall. From this little unexpected start we’ve been enjoying fresh cilantro in Paul’s Pico deGallo.

Tomatoes, squash, kale and green beans are doing great. We’ve enjoyed zucchini, kale and green beans so far.

Peppers, on the other hand, are not taking off yet – although my marigolds seem to be happy.

The pumpkins I planted in the greenhouse are growing stronger than those outside.

Unfortunately before long I’m going to be overrun with pumpkin vines in the greenhouse. It appears that I mixed up and planted a pumpkin where a zucchini was supposed to go.

The pumpkin I planned is climbing a trellis in the greenhouse.

Today I harvested my first small batch garlic, but it’s not been a great garlic year. In the past I’ve covered them with lots of leaf mulch after planting in the fall. By not mulching, the garlic suffered from repetitive frost heaves rejecting the garlic cloves from the ground.

More than once over the fall and winter I ran around shoving them all back in. I didn’t have the frost heaves the year before – or I did, but didn’t notice because my beds were covered in a thick layer of leaf mulch!

Of the 100 cloves I planted, only a smattering survived. However, those that did are big and hearty. I tucked onions in between the garlic to make use of the empty space, and they too are thriving. It’s my first time planting onions and I’m definitely going to do so again – they’ve been fairly problem free to grow so far.

I am curiously battling voles in the garlic bed – at least I think they’re voles – or mice. I didn’t think any pets liked garlic and onions. They’re not eating the plants, but have created a network of tunnels underneath the bed. They’ve been burrowing around in there so much that some of my garlic fell straight through into the tunnel.

Last year the little devils munched my carrots from the bottom up!

Voles are not the only critters I’ve battled in the garden this season – snakes, grasshoppers, bees, wasps, and mice have also been pesky. Grasshoppers ate my first round of basil to the stem. A bee flew up my sleeve and stung me this week, and wasps insist on building nests in the greenhouse.

This snake has me more than a little nervous every time I enter the greenhouse. I know it’s not going to hurt me (at least not seriously). It’s likely hunting the voles and mice, so it’s all part of the cycle of life, but seeing him never fails to make me screech.

How does your garden grow?