Giant Rhubarb and a June Veggie Garden Review

Giant rhubarb!

While the spring has been tough on some plants, others have flourished. Rhubarb is one of the things that has flourished. I have two plantings, my original here at home that I got from my mom, and a second I got from one of her friends when I complained that mine wasn’t very red.

My original plants taste great, but the stalks were more green than red. Apparently there’s many varieties of rhubarb that run from green to red, and green ones will never turn red. So now I have a green variety and red variety! Both are mature plants so I can harvest freely, but I never cut more than 1/2 -2/3 of the stalks and stop around late July to let the plant get ready for fall. What did I do today with my harvest? A 4th of July Strawberry Rhubarb Pie for my daughter and boyfriend who are visiting for the weekend!

How’s everything else doing? Fine would be the word I use, and for gardening that’s not a bad thing. I got my first full salad harvest the other day. The lettuce hasn’t bolted yet due to the cooler weather we’ve had, the Sugar Snap Peas are plentiful and I got my first YOLO Wonder green pepper and Summer Stripe squash.

Everything else is blooming beautifully and I’m looking forward to lots of July harvests.

Sweet Success Burpless and Telegraph Cucumbers are looking excellent climbing their trellises…

…All the tomatoes are looking great. Lots of flowers and green tomatoes just teasing me with their abundance.

I’m growing Husky Cherry Red, a bush type cherry tomato, and indeterminate Yellow Cherry and the larger Juliet Grape tomatoes.

Slicer tomato varieties are Burpee Early Girl, and 2 bush types, Grand Slam F1 Slicer Tomato (a Burpee Home Garden 2020 new variety) and Early Girl Bush. From the looks of it, I’m going to be having a great tomato harvest!

I’m really liking the bush varieties I’m growing. In the past, I’ve grown some slicer tomatoes in grow bags, but since they were indeterminate varieties they became really gangly and hard to deal with. These are nice and compact, great for a patio or porch, and seem to be producing equal to their wilder cousins.

Do I grow roma tomatoes? I used to, but I don’t have the space to grow enough to use for sauce etc, so I leave those to buy at the Farmer’s Market.

What else is growing?

My Burpee Home Garden 2020 new variety Redarling F1 Brussel Sprout, is looking awesome. I hope it begins to “sprout” soon.