2021 Mid-season garden check-in

I needed to change things this year with the garden. Last year was a disappointment. The only things that did well were radishes (briefly), carrots and onions. Everything else was either disappointing or a failure - Okra produced zero servings. Sweet corn struggled until it was wiped out in the derecho. The cucumbers pooped out after a promising start. Even the tomatoes disappointed, with only cherry tomatoes doing OK after the derecho.

I changed up this year. I'm skipping the corn and okra and adding more carrots, some beets, and lettuce and spinach. I am planting fewer tomatoes, crowding them less, and trying to maintain them better. Vickie took over some space for dill, cucumbers and basil, all of which are doing well. I have even planted some sunflowers, just for fun.

I have four 4'x4' raised beds. Starting with the best looking one, the tomato-dill/cucumber garden.

Here are Vickie's dill and cukes, all doing well.

The tomatoes are promising:

Soon, soon...

The next bed over surprised me when it had some volunteer onions left over from last year. I left them alone. Here is my layout from this year, looking south:

Results so far are mixed, with only Vickie's basil plant doing well. Part of it might be because I'm a sucker for "heirloom" seeds. I think I should try to grow varieties I won't get in the store. That doesn't always work out. For example, the "Lolla Rossa" red lettuce "should" be ready by now, and it has a long way to go. 

Onion sets were sold out, so that plan had to change. I have started some onions from seeds, but those aren't likely to be ready until October. I planted some leftover sets from last year, but those have gone badly. The fancy radishes have grown well, but the bulbs are skinny like green onions. Last week I planted  some leftover Burpee radishes from 2017, and they all have sprouted well. I have planted the radishes about two weeks apart to try to have them all summer. Here is the whole thing, looking from the east (south is left):

If you are wondering, this is normally covered with a wire cage, so I can't blame rabbits.

Moving west one more bed, this is mostly doing pretty well. Spinach, Red-cored chantenay carrots, "bulls blood" beets, and pole beans - all "heirloom" seeds, all growing well so far.

 The beans are growing almost too well, crowding the beets, despite my attempts to get them to climb the trellis. These carrots have sprouted well. I have recently planted more beets in the two squares on the left side in front of the beans, as the first ones I planted there failed to sprout, mostly.

Finally, the west bed:

The six squares to the left facing the camera were all planted with "dragon" heirloom carrots, and only one or two sprouted. I have just replanted with beets and the red-core chantenay that are doing so will in the next bed. The six squares to the right are "juane du dobbs" carrots. About half grew, half didn't - conveniently on a square-by square basis, so I have replanted with the same thing. This variety did well last year. 

The sunflowers are doing well, I think: 

I have no idea what I will do with them if they succeed, but I'll be happy if they are just nice-looking.