I haven't garden blogged in 9 days! Seems I am always marveling at how long it has been between branded columns. I think it is because life has a way of making time either fly or be unavailable, and I have so many critically acclaimed trademarks, I can't fit them all in!

This one is jumping ahead of a few I have chambered because I missed the last @simplymike #gardenjournal2019 challenge https://steemit.com/homesteading/@simplymike/steemit-community-garden-journal-challenge-june-2019-with-steem-bounty Another reason is because the weather seems to be taking to long to become hot and sunny and all my plants seem to be RUNTS! Well I will just macro photo them by jamming my iPhone up close to seem artistic and give the illusion of big plants. Don't tell anyone.

I have 2 raised boxes and a couple big flowerbeds I am slowly taking over to produce more....produce! You can check this year's lead up here https://steemit.com/gardening/@zekepickleman/outside-the-garden and here https://steemit.com/gardening/@zekepickleman/zeke-s-growing-garden

Starting with the green beans, I was impressed to see they are indeed growing, and scaling the stick I put in there a couple weeks ago. these worked well enough in a pot last year so I put them in the corner of the raised bed to see if more soil would promote better growth and yield. I love these vining veggies.

The little Nasturtium bed I made last year out of a short 2x4 and back of garden soil is going to be back this year. I include them here because they are edible flowers my little one likes to snack on right from the garden, and are also the COOLEST thing to shred up and add to a salad to be fancy. They were planted with the seeds produced last year and are in a battle with the thistles but I help out. Looks like they are sprouting just fine and we should have many different colours and blooms soon.

These Beefsteak tomatoes are small but mighty. I left a little room around them this year because they REALLY get bushy and can crowd each other out. I will also be using much thicker sticks to prop them up and let them climb because they get heavy when the big fruit grows.

Blog followers from last year might remember the weaselly little Asparagus I planted....only to be told soon after that they will take 3-4 years to grow to the point of being able to harvest any asparagus. The whole family eats them and they are great on the bbq. So, I kept them and will wait it out. You can see they are going quite nuts and I will take suggestions on how to contain them so they don't cover the whole box. ;)

I added Roma tomatoes this year because I discovered planting only beefsteak tomatoes leaves you with a HELL OF A LOT of tomatoes that don't freeze as well. Fresh, they will be great for sauces. When I get too many of them, I can freeze and preserve them for the winter months.

Another new addition this year is carrots. I wanted to make sure I had enough soil for them to grow down and become big. I planted them indoors early and probably didn't have to as the seeds just sprouted when sewn outdoors. I have a really big row of them probably too close together so we will see how that turns out. They are doing rather well and are so soft on top.

This is the humble beginnings of my cucumbers. They are barely awake and my dreams of english cucumbers and pickles/relish seemed to be in peril. Knowing that each of these will grow into a nice vine is comforting but I may go buy some more mature seedlings this year. Need lots!

My Ghost Pepper plant is doing alright. I don't think they grow as tall as jalapeno or chili peppers but there are some nice branches which will hopefully produce some really hot ones for my hot sauce, and seeds for next year.

The Jalapeno plant is probably a foot tall now and has doubled in size. It even has some blooms that will soon become peppers. Probably the closest plant to producing anything and encouragingly leading my bed of peppers. I like to slice these onto burgers and will use them for the hot sauce and pepper relish.

My sweet green peppers as still a little runty. I do remember them being a little slower last year as well and hopefully the increase sun will help them do even better this year. I tried growing orange and yellow peppers last year but never got them to wander much from green which they start out as. So, I just went for green this year.

Habaneros are new this year as well and will add flavour, colour and heat to a hot sauce for sure. They probably end up smaller than the jalapeno plants but seem to be off to a really slow start. Peppers need heat though and that is around the corner.

The chilies look happy and healthy and are probably just pleased they don't have the tomatoes hogging the sunlight this year. Can't wait to chop up some for stir fry and to add a little ZING to tomato sauces.

This is the third year for these raspberry plants. They started out really modestly and didn't produce a berry til last year. This year, they are going nuts like my steem gardeners told me they would. I will be containing them and tieing them up so they don't spread everywhere. As you can see, I should have a metric ass-load of berries this year.

Last but not least, I have my @lostandconfused plant. She was a follower last year I enjoyed and named a mystery plant (that turned out to be a sunflower) after her. It was planted probably by my little one and seemed a little lost and mysterious until it finally produced a flower. This is the same and looks like a sunflower at this point. We will see and track its brave performance and development here as we go. Hope you are doing well!

As I mentioned at the outset, a pretty modest start for the garden this year.So, it looks as though I have been treating the garden like my cryptos lately: looking at the weather and not paying too close attention for the lack of growth! I am encouraged with both lately and it is always great to get outside to garden.

What grows in your garden?