UPDATING VEGETABLE PATCH PRODUCTION

HELLO & welcome to Garden Daddy here at the urban farm! WHEW...has it been hot & humid! We are experiencing above normal temps here in the Jackson, TN area and it has taken its tole on the vegetable garden. We had floods the first weekend of May this year and lots more rain in May as well. Then June hit and it went dry...dry...dry. The garden has looked beautiful though. Huge, dark green plants, larger than life themselves. I have looked and looked almost daily for produce as this time usually in the season I have harvested many cucumbers and a few tomatoes already. But then this past weekend I realized I have no bees like last year. The summer of 2009 my garden was inundated with bees and the blooms were covered and they floated from plant to plant and the harvest was on in a big way.
This year I have seen NO BEES at all and it seems there is nothing going on in the garden but a tremendous plant growth and blooms but no fruiting. I think the lack of bees and the humid heat are turning this years garden to just a lush greenery factory. Generally by now I have harvested many cucumbers and a few tomatoes before July 4th, but not this year. In fact, my sweet banana peppers are tall, bushy and vibrant green plants but there has been a single pepper show up on a single plant out of 12 plants. Again, I am growing a lush greenery garden.
I hope July shows some improvement and soon. I did see today that I must pick some purple hull peas tomorrow. There are not that many yet but a few and enough for a quick mess for one meal anyway. So at least something is coming in.
To update you on the little pullets I would just say that they are fast becoming LARGE little hens. Not chicks anymore by any means. They cluck when they hear me coming to the coop every day to open the door and let them have more air circulation and when they are watching me work in the yard. There are a few that even literally run over to me and cannot wait for a scratch on the back or under the breast when they see I am coming in to feed and water every day. I think I told you in a previous posting that I no longer give oatmeal as the main treat and they are now getting regular "scratch" feed for a treat along with their usual grower feed. Other treats they are getting are watermelon and cantaloupe rinds and trimmings, lettuce leaves from cleaning lettuces, etc. and I also am giving them almost all the grass clippings that I catch in the mower bag every week. They will eat two full bags in a very short time. If there were completely free and loose in a barnyard or larger area they would be foraging anyway for everything and this way they can stay a little more private and more controlled were they travel to in the yard and still have that sense of the digging and eating the tender leaves of grass and leaves.
So I leave you today with our ongoing gardening affirmation: "URBAN FARMING: ONE EGG AT A TIME!"