xylem

I'll jump on the raspberry bandwagon - here's the handful I got today off of the black raspberry bush by my shed - quite a few still ripening there as well!

I've got a lot of this in my yard from the previous owner. It leaves great dry flower heads over winter, provides great visual interest and homes for overwintering insects in the stalks

I've been loving all the milkweed in bloom I pass on my commute! Definitely want to plant a ton in my yard next year!

My first cucumbers are almost ready to pick, and I've been pollenating squash flowers like every other day.

Another angle on my garden featuring the prolific pumpkin vine and the sunflower patch -

My AC is struggling a bit to keep up with the heatwave in New England as well, but the garden and I are surviving!

Finally figured out how remove exif data and add an image, so here's a picture of the garden! I hand pollenated my first butternut squash yesterday, and the cucumber plants are covered in flowers, several of which look like they might actually start turning into cucumbers! I've got some empty space that I want to figure out what to do with, I'm starting some more bell peppers and I think I might plant some more carrots. Overall very happy with how things are growing so far this year!

The raised beds with the arch trellis have cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, basil, some brassicas (not doing too great), radish, and beets. The beds in the foreground have chickpeas and some empty space where I may add carrots. There is another bed off camera where I have more pumpkins and some sunflowers.

My potatoes are in an absolute riot of growth, to the point that they're shading out plants next to them! Lesson learned, next year they get a bed to themselves!

The cucumbers and squash are growing up my trellis arch really well, so I'm hopeful that by the time it gets really hot I'll have some shade there.

It's been wonderful to harvest fresh lettuce for my lunch daily, and I've had some great salads with my radishes. Definitely going to keep succession planting those! If I'd planned better I would have staggered them a little more in my initial planting.

Haven't gotten the photo upload to work with the app I use (Connect) but maybe I'll try from my computer later.

I'll just say climbing plants are as good as having a pet! I love watching my cucumbers, peas, and squash reach out their lil grabbies - it's so cute!

On a not-as-fun note I have Three-lined Potato Beetle on my potatoes. They haven't done a huge amount of damage so far and don't seem too interested in my other plants yet but if anyone has mitigation strategies let me know!

It's been wonderful watching everything pop into full green growth over the last couple weeks here!

I've got pretty much everything planted out into the garden and things are acclimating pretty well, though I think the squash wants warmer weather to really get going.

I've been watching the path I use to walk through the woods on my commute slowly get overgrown with poisen ivy - does anyone have suggestions on what to do about that other than just going through with gloves and clippers? Definitely don't want to spray anything noxious since its not my land (and I wouldn't anyway if it was).

Balor from Irish legend - who doesn't love a giant with a frickin laser beam for an eye

I ended up getting Honey Crisp and Baldwin, semi-dwarf rootstock. I'm a total newbie to pruning, but I'm leaning towards the "don't try too hard, trees know how to be trees" school of thought, lol.. open to any advice from more experienced people though!

The violet tea was fun, I love the pH based color change from pouring in lemon juice! Planning to use it in cocktails next time, that would make a great party trick.

:D Most of the garlic mustard ended up in the compost because I was lazy but I definitely want to make some more pesto in the future.

The pair of apple trees I ordered from Fedco arrived last Saturday, so I planted those out - the weather has been pretty mild and wet this week so hopefully they're settling in well. Just starting to break dormancy.

I'm also starting to plant out some of my seedlings in the new garden beds, it's super exciting to see some foliage in them!

One area of my yard that was overrun with invasive garlic mustard is now overrun with native violets, so I'm happy with that! I picked a bunch of flowers today to try making a tea out of them.

My cherry tree is this close to bursting into bloom! It seems to be a couple weeks behind other cherry varieties in the area, and I think my yard has a bit of a chilly microclimate since I'm in a valley.

My squash and tomato seedlings are looking great, I'm excited to plant them out in a week or two. I never got around to replanting my sad brassica seedlings that got too leggy, I might just direct sow some more at this point and see how it goes.

Also just have to say thank you for posting this thread every week! It's a highlight, and I always appreciate your responses!