Despite threatening to alternately cook and drown us, the weather stayed bearably hot and dry, so I got some time in the garden today. Everything that had survived so far was doing well, probably due to having been very well watered for the last week - it's June and we've had over a week of cool grey and rain, unlike May where we hit 100F and had weeks of highs in the high 80s. Ah, the wonders of climate change.

Anyway, the potatoes are doing well, to the point I had to start mounding some of them already. The few corn that had sprouted are doing well, and a couple of the ones I planted last weekend from the fresh pack have started to come up. The turnips are doing well, if above ground (they were planted to the suggested depth, they've just pushed to the surface). One of the garlic died, but I carefully excavated one of the others to see if it was ready yet (it's not) and it looks in good shape.

We're getting quite a few peas from the few plants that survived. Quite a few on our scale is still only half a pound total so far, but it's more than I was expecting given only a couple of plants made it.

The spinach is doing well, and my SO even ate some of it. (Unlike the peas, that took some persuading, the peas I have to fight for, and they certainly never make it as far as a cook pot).

Only two of the onions survived, but I don't think it's too late to plant some more. The second batch of lettuce is doing better than the first (40% germination rate rather than 10%. As I only planted 10... maybe the soil isn't right for them or something, as the packet claims 90% germination). As the one lettuce we did get was quite tasty (small but sweet), I filled in the gaps with new seeds.

Several things that have been trying to survive in pots made it into the garden. Hopefully they wont cook or drown this week. (We are forcast more rain and heat). That includes some ornamentals (sweet peas, black eyed susans, ornamental grass, sunflowers), the two tomato plants that made it, a couple of pepper plants and several cucumbers.

I also got the black solar mulch paper down on the thistle patch after weeding it. (Those are one of the few things which are not going in the compost). It looks much better than the pieces of cardboard that worked as a proof of concept (does it keep the thistles down). How well it work work long term I'm not sure, as the thistles have extensive roots (to the point they are woody in places) but hopefully it will do less to spread them than trying to dig them up.

There's still a lot left to do, and it's too late in the season for some of it, but a day in the garden was a welcome change from another weekend in the office.