I have 11 or 12 empty squares where the lettuce, broccoli, and spinach was planted, any suggestions? I think I am going to re-plant broccoli in the same spots for the fall (probably the peas too once they are done), but that still leaves 4 or 5 empty spaces.

Apparently they are if you are trying to grow onion bulbs. I didn’t know that and just tried to search the interwebs to find out how long after they flower I have to wait for harvest. I also learned that you are supposed to plant the smaller of the sets to produce onion bulbs as larger ones will bolt. I assumed the larger ones were better (obviously?).

More and more tomatoes. All three types have a ton of blooms. There are beefsteak and cherry tomatoes in the picture below.

I think this is the same thing that is affecting the squash, but this time on the beans. I thought it could be (again) caused by too much moisture, but the black spots might indicate something else.

After digging around a bit more, I was able to find these. For being “New” potatoes, these (at least two of them) are larger than expected. Again, I thought there should be more, but perhaps it is still a little early.

My potato plants are huge, but if I dig around under them, I can’t find any small potatoes. I thought I read that when flowers appear the “new” potatoes would be ready. Like I’ve said before, I guess I’ll wait and see.

From what I can remember, this is earlier than last year. I also remember that I hadn’t hardened the plants correctly then either so they probably were a bit stunned early on. So far so good with these though. I was a little concerned that there might not be enough space only setting them a foot a part but they look OK so far. I guess we’ll wait and see what they look like in August.

I still need to do a little research on this, but if I had to guess, this isn’t normal.

In the last few days, I have been randomly grabbing vegetables as I have been able. I rolled my ankle and was told to stay off it for a few days so that limited my garden time. I was able to hobble my way out tonight to get some romaine and green onions. Below is a few pictures of the potatoes, beans, and tomatoes. From what I can remember, I didn’t have any tomato blossoms this time last year. This year, there are almost 10 groupings of blossoms so I am quietly optimistic.

A few days ago I was complaining to a coworker that I may have too much broccoli maturing at the same time. He suggested that I make broccoli-cheese soup. “Holy crap” I thought, “What a great idea.” This suggestion wasn’t anything earth-shattering, but it did remind me that even though I was trying to stagger planting to not have everything ready to harvest all at once, having a bunch of one thing isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What I was almost dreading, I now see as an opportunity. I get to try to make something I have never made before. With the invention of Velveeta, broccoli-cheese soup is quite simple.

The recipe I found makes a tasty soup. Its nothing super spectacular, but I would recommend it. I found the recipe on AllRecipes.com, and the only alteration I made was to use the 2% cheese rather than the regular, and to use the fresh broccoli rather than frozen. I should have more broccoli to use shortly, so if you have a different recipe you recommend, feel free to post it.