After the May frenzy to get everything planted, June feels like rather a quiet month in the garden. Every bed has been planted, and there’s not much to do but water and weed and wait for things to grow. We didn’t get much sun in May, but so far June has been beautiful. Everything seemed to be stalled for a few weeks, but now that the plants are enjoying some sunshine, they are really taking off.
The pole beans are winding their way up their poles.
My second sowing of bush beans have all popped up out of the ground. The first round of plants are getting big and will probably be flowering soon.
The chard is still being nibbled and has some leaf miner damage, but mostly it seems healthy and is growing fast.
The garlic has sent up its scapes. Garlic scapes are a tasty early summer treat, and trimming them off encourages the garlic to put its energy into growing a bigger bulb. I harvested most of them, but I’m going to leave a couple of them intact. They’ll develop into tiny little heads of garlic.
Wherever I have the the space, I’m leaving plants to go to seed. Partly because I’d like to try saving more of my own seeds, and partly to provide food for pollinators. Also because I’m just interested to see the whole life cycle the plant. A couple of parsley plants that survived the winter have sent up tiny little umbels. In the same bed, a carrot that I neglected to harvest is about to flower as well.
I think the least attractive thing in the garden right now is the spinach, which has all gone to seed. Spinach has separate male and female plants. The female plants have all set seed, so I pulled out most of the male plants yesterday. The one remaining male plant is the lighter colored, fuzzy looking plant in the photo above. If you look closely you can see little clusters of seeds all along the stems of the female plants. The seeds need to mature a bit more before I can harvest them.
As I write this I’m realizing that there’s too much going on in the garden right now for one blog post. More to come later in the week. . .
forgottenpickles.com 
Yes, that’s spinach going to seed! We’re pulling and putting in the paths of the garden right now. Yesterday I picked some of the radish flower tops and put them in water with some herbs bolting already. Very strange but most likely production season so far!
Your garden looks beautiful!
looking great. What do you do with garlic scapes? I’m getting some with my CSA tonight and I’m not sure how to use them.
My favorite thing to make with scapes is pesto. You can also just chop them up and use them in place of garlic cloves in just about anything. They have a really nice, mild garlic flavor.
The wild flowers are really pretty – and you’re going to have loads of beans!
Your garden looks great. We have had terrible rains that is really stressing my garden and some is underwater. I’ll be updating about my garden tomorrow. Let’s hope we have a sunny summer.
Thanks, Karen. Sorry to hear about the rain! We’ve had a lot of rain here lately, but fortunately we were spared a lot of the heaviest rains that hit farther North. I hope you get some sun soon!
We have had two days of sun but rain again now. The week ahead looks so much better. Thanks for your wishes.
I’m looking forward to the next update! And I can see there is so much going on in your garden, i’ve never saved seeds from Spinach before so thanks for the inspiration and the info on the male/female plants. Happy gardening!
I know what you mean about June being a time of waiting after the frenzy of May. Mind you, like Karen, we’ve been getting too much rain. And the forecast is more of the same all week! Your poppies look lovely. I’ve got some will flower seed but nowhere to sow it!
Everything looks so good.
What a very beautiful and interesting blog you have – so glad to have found you via your comment on mine!
June in the Garden (Part II) | The Museum of Forgotten Pickles
I have allowed the purple sprouting broccoli and kale to flower and the bees (and chickens) are loving them. I’m going to need the space soon, but it’s going to be hard to pull it out before the flowers are over. Sadly seed-saving is not possible because those brassicas are so promiscuous!
That chard is looking very pretty – a real favourite of mine!