Its been an interesting week, much better than the previous, with the Affordable Care Act being ruled constitutional, a spectacular garlic harvest, a mountain climb (Mt Colchuck) on Monday to celebrate my husband’s birthday, the Higgs boson discovery, and the 4th of July. The weather finally turned nice too. Today was exciting, as I picked and ate a delicious sungold tomato! The best tomato i have eaten since last summer. I dont recall ever eating a homegrown tomato before August. We had a record cold and rainy June, too. I guess the difference is growing my own starts under lights instead of in a window, and maybe the warm spell in mid May allowed some tomatoes to fertilize early.

Report on the purple peacock broccoli plants:
This is a kale-broccoli cross that you are supposed to be able to harvest the leaves like kale and the sprouts like broccoli. It looks a little like the red russian kale but with frillier leaves. They are already forming small heads. I didnt think it was supposed to do that this year—i thought it would overwinter like the purple sprouting broccoli and I would harvest leaves this year and sprouts next year. It is the only brassica with caterpillars—I have been picking them off regularly. I decided to do a taste comparison.
The outer leaves of the ppb are tough and bitter, not like kale at all. The young inner leaves are sweet and tender, and taste mild, like broccoli leaves, without the sharp flavors of kale. Really I think it looks like kale but acts and tastes like broccoli, only with caterpillars. I harvested a bowl of mixed ppb, psb and red russian kale for tonights lasagna dinner, which was excellent.

In the bed i recently converted to veggies i have been trying a companion planting experiment. I had read contradictory things about whether peas and tomatoes grow well together. I put out the tomato cages in March to keep the cats from digging there, and planted peas, thinking they would grow on the cages and be removed before the tomatoes got big. I also planted carrots between the cages. The tomatoes went out there in May. Now the tomatoes and peas are sharing the cages and the carrots are growing nicely too. The peas will take over unless i go out there every few days and trim them back. Fortunately I have learned that I love pea greens so having a good excuse to keep cutting the plants back is fine. I nibble the ends of my trimmings and discard the ones that are tough and stirfry the tender ones or put them in a salad. Only the greens that are less than 3 days old are good—the older ones are tough. I’ll never know if this method is good for pea production because my son goes out there and grazes the peas every day so I have no idea whether i am getting a lot. It doesnt seem to be hurting the tomato production—all the plants are at the top of their cages and most are fruiting well despite the cold weather. Maybe the difference is the sunnier location, or growing where vegetables havent grown before, but i think peas-tomatoes-carrots might become standard companions for me.

Photos:
1. Harvest of brassicas and strawberries, for tonights lasagna and strawberry shortcake
2. Stupice tomatoes, 124 days after starting seed, 58 days after planting out. Pea greens in foreground.
3. Sungold tomatoes, 124 days after starting seed, 58 days after planting out
4. Purple peacock broccoli, red russian kale, and purple sprouting broccoli in garden
5. Sample harvest of Purple peacock broccoli, red russian kale, and purple sprouting broccoli

Weather for the month of June, from Beautiful Seattle:
“June’s 2012 weather for Seattle brought below normal temperatures, mostly cloudy skies, and rain after a cool, partly cloudy, and rainy May. There were nine days in June with partly cloudy sky conditions and twenty-one days with cloudy sky conditions.

Precipitation for the month was 1.39 inches above normal at 2.96 inches compared to the normal 1.57 inches. There were eighteen days in June that had precipitation - fourteen days with measurable precipitation and four days with a trace of precipitation. The maximum twenty-hour precipitation total was 0.65 inches on June 7. June 5 set a twenty-four hour precipitation total when 0.63 inches of precipitation fell breaking the previous record of 0.38 inches set in 1981. June 22 also set a twenty-four hour precipitation total when 0.62 inches of precipitation fell breaking the previous record of 0.46 inches set in 1993. Precipitation for the year was running 6.34 inches above normal at 25.35 inches compared to the normal 19.01 inches.

Temperatures for the month averaged 2.6 degrees below normal - the mean average temperature was 58.3 degrees compared to the normal 60.9 degrees. The average daily high was 4.2 degrees below normal at 65.7 degrees compared to the normal 69.9 degrees. There were only eight days in June that reached a high temperature of 70 degrees or above. The warmest day was June 20 when the temperature reached a high of 76 degrees; the coolest day was June 6 when the temperature reached a low of 43 degrees. "