Kitchen Garden Update {early summer}

I can't believe it's already July, but then I walk the kitchen garden and realize there's no denying it, cooler days are a thing of the past and summer heat is officially here. 

Last weekend we pulled all our early summer crops that have been suffering in this heat. Lettuce and spinach, radishes and sugar snap peas are all cleared away to make room for warmer weather tolerant crops. 

I spent at least an hour hovered over the kitchen sink washing and sorting our lettuces. There must be an easier way. Anyone?

We're finally seeing some headway on our yellow squash plant. It's taking it's sweet time, but that's ok as long as it results in a nice harvest.

Meanwhile our cucumber plant has taken over. We're two giant cucumbers into the season and couldn't be happier ( I think we may have had one shriveled up cuke last year, maybe).

Our rosemary plants have doubled in size. 

As have the strawberries and thyme plants - both back with a vengeance from last summer.

Plenty of summer salads coming our way this week and next. 

Looking forward, as our infatuation grows for Southern crops we're contemplating adding kale, collards, sweet potatoes and even okra. If you have any advice to share, we're all ears. 

Hope you enjoyed this little tour of our early summer kitchen garden. We've missed our Chicago garden, but this one is finally starting to come into it's own…after a lot of trial and error.  

until next time,