June in Bill & Judy's Garden

On a drizzling evening, I headed over to Bill & Judy’s home to catch up on how the garden is doing. The raised beds look great with some little additions that make the garden handy.

Numbered Beds
B & J added black wrought iron numbers to each bed. Numbering beds makes keeping track of what’s planted where in a garden journal simple. Notate in the journal how a specific performed. A quick look at was in the bed the year before allows for vegetable rotation that keeps specific varieties of plants from depleting the soil of minerals and nutrients.

Solar Lights
Solar lights, allow for early morning or late evening weeding or harvesting. A solar light inserted at the corner of each bed lights up the garden, allowing for early morning or late evening weeding or harvesting. Of course, lighting also means the ability to show off the garden during the night.

Toolbox

Bill built a toolbox on a post for Judy. It’s a handy addition to the garden that provides storage for garden gloves, trowels, hand-held diggers, and clippers. The rolling garden seat sits beneath the toolbox and a hose reel on the back of the post.

The Vegetables
Bill & Judy, a couple with a passion for cooking and entertaining, chose vegetables that meet their discerning tastes. Old stand-bys, like carrots and lettuce, grow along side less popular vegetable varieties. As pepper lovers, growing eight different varieties that range from mild red and green peppers to hot habaneros, adds spice to their culinary repertoire.

List of Vegetables

• Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
  
• Burpee's Hybrid Carrot (Zanahoria)
  
• Burpee's Evergreen Long White Bunching Onion
  
• Yellow Onion
  
• Leeks
  
• Burpee's White Giant Swiss Chard
  
• Early Extra Sweet Corn
  
• Illini Extra Sweet Corn
  
• Black Beauty Eggplant
  
• Self Blanched Cauliflower
  
• Broccoli
  
• Burpee's Everlast Tomato
  
• Burpee's Big Boy Hybrid Tomato
  
• Roma Tomato
  
• Burgess Tomato
  
• Rutgers Tomato
  
• Cherry Red Tomato
  
• Sweet Banana Peppers
  
• Long Red Slim Cayenne Peppers
  
• Asian Peppers
  
• Red Beauty Bell Peppers
  
• California Wonder Green Bell Pepper
  
• Golden Wunder Peppers (yellow)
  
• Hungarian Wax Peppers
  
• Habanero Peppers
  
• Jalapeno Peppers
  

Now get out there and keep those weeds at bay!