I have a large patch of Echinacea currently coming in to flower. Something chews off the purple florets almost as fast as they appear, but it does not seem to prevent the bees from enjoying what's left. Sorry I don't know much about bee identification so I can't say who this is... 😀 #gardening #Allotment #NewEngland #zone6b @npub1v5ap...ny6w #BloomScrolling #Bees

And so it begins... The first of my veg surplus was set out for the neighbors this morning. We have yellow Sunburst Squash, Zucchini, and eggplant on offer today. I was gifted a new sign for the cart as my old cardboard sign finally gave up. Happy gardening! 😀 #gardening #Allotment #NewEngland #zone6b @npub1v5ap...ny6w #Vegetable

Well, the corn can take heavy rain and it can stand gusty winds but not both at the same time. 30mph (48kph) gusts in heavy rain last evening laid over a considerable section of plantings one and two. Spent a while at sunrise putting it all back up again. Gotta love those July thunderstorms. Life goes on... 😀

This mornings "harvest": two pounds (about 1 kilo) of fresh blueberries and about 3 dozen cucumber beetles picked off the plants with my "sticky" stick. Good news! The first corn planting is starting to top out!. Now off to make some more blueberry pies for BeetBear. #gardening #Allotment #NewEngland #zone6b @npub1v5ap...ny6w #BeetBear

More good things. The mostly self-seeded milkweed and Cleome patch next to the rhubarb is coming along and starting to flower. Got my bug boards put out under the cukes and squashes to help pick the squash bugs. Raspberries will be ready soon and the rhubarb is still producing in spite of the heat damage to the older leaves. Oh, we also had our first tomato today thanks to the SuperSweet 100's. (SRY no pix of that) 😀 #gardening #Allotment #NewEngland #zone6b @npub1v5ap...ny6w

I've done enough complaining for now. Here's a quick video of the veg patch after overnight rain. Was able to pick enough blueberries to make about three pies before the birds find them. The zucchini & yellow squash have now started to produce heavily & a number of eggplant are ready to pick. In the video are yellow squash, cucumbers, butternut squash, corn, pole beans, okra, zucchini, lettuce, beets, cabbage, onions, and tomatoes. 😀 #gardening #Allotment #NewEngland #zone6b @npub1v5ap...ny6w

I am only now realizing the full extent of the damage from our June heatwave.ALL of the apples on my 6 apple trees (2 Baldwin, 2 Red Delicious, 1 Granny Smith, 1 Blenheim Orange) have fallen in the June drop. 1st time ever. The trees decided that this was not a good time to try and support fruit in these conditions. Before the drop, there were hundreds of apples developing. Look at the crunchy leaves in spite of plenty of water. #gardening #Allotment #NewEngland #zone6b @npub1v5ap...ny6w