Within the first few days of June we reach our monthly average for rain and by the end of the month we had recorded the wettest June in recorded history for Portland Oregon, over five inches. For my garden plants; the anemic looking tomatoes, the slug riddled lettuce, beans, cucumber and broccoli, the yellow sickly spinach I reached the point probably every parent reaches. You say to yourself I have done my best and now it is out of my hands.
The bright spot the sweet peas, the rain and bugs did not seem to hinder their growth. By the middle of the month I was harvesting them, good raw or cooked. While I planted the tomato plants in the last week of May it was almost a month before I had to water them, June 23rd after a few dry days and a couple of warm days.
In the last week of the month the tomatoes and other vegetables begin to look green and more health. We are still having some mostly cloudy days but summer is showing it's face and with it hope. I didn't lose any tomato plants seven plants and each one is a different variety. So I am hopeful even in a down year we will have plenty of tomatoes. Spinach and green beans are coming and squash and cucumbers are growing.
When I first moved to Oregon over thirty years ago, it was common to await the summer weather that came after the fourth of July and so this year we seem to be returning to that pattern. We'll see!
March | April | May |June |
July | August | September |
October | November |
zucchini
