Happy last Saturday of June! Wow! A big thanks to Natalie of Natalie the Explorer for hosting WeekendCoffeeShare.

Wow! It’s end of June! I can’t believe it! Can you? We have passed summer solstice, which means the days will now get shorter once again. For my area, I probably won’t feel it until mid-July. As of now, I still have a little over 15 hours of daylight per day.

The garden has been in transition this month – from a spring garden to now a summer garden. I have pulled out the struggling crops as they get fried in the intense summer sun.

I have pulled all the potato plants but two. I tried a new variety of potato this year, called Harvest Moon. It was a very expensive variety of potato and it failed miserably. Four plants only produced 2 pounds of potatoes. I don’t think it was an error of mine because I waited for it to completely die back before pulling. The weather might had played a part in the demise of the potato plants because it got too hot too fast, almost like it skipped spring and went straight to summer.

I think I’ll go back to growing Yukon Gold next year. No more expensive potatoes for me.

Meanwhile, the pumpkin vines are getting crazy in the front garden. These aren’t your Halloween pumpkins. They are Kabocha – Japanese pumpkins. This is a new variety of Kabocha I’m trying this year and I have to say, either the soil in this bed is overly rich or this variety is better than the one I grew last year.

So far, though, I’m struggling to get the pumpkins pollinated. I tried pollinating them myself but it’s difficult as the stigma is so deep inside the flower that it’s hard getting the pollen in there. Hopefully, I’ll get a pumpkin successfully pollinated soon.

I’m finding the bees extra unreliable this year.

In other parts of the garden, flowers are blooming and I could see the insects are loving them. I only wish they would focus less on the flowers and more on pollinating my squash.

In the back garden, more is happening. I removed all the snow peas and failure carrots and replanted the bed with daikon radish and beans. Daikon radish is a Japanese radish. Basically, it looks like a white carrot. I heard it can be planted in the spring but most people plant it after summer solstice to make sure it will form a tap root instead of bolting.

I have started harvesting one or two cherry tomatoes every few days but so far, nothing substantial. It’s strange. I would usually be very enthusiastic about tomatoes but this year, it’s feeling like I’m putting my tomatoes on the back-burner. Maybe I haven’t had enough to start loving them again.

Or maybe my love for tomatoes is being overshadowed by another beast in the background. Blackberries!

I pruned the Triple Crown blackberry bush nearly all the way back last year. I left about 3 feet of canes standing. It began waking up in March and it grew and grew, becoming a beast and invading the space of its neighbors – lavender and yarrow. I believe I’ll have an abundance of blackberries by the end of July and I can’t wait to taste these.

Beside this plant, I actually have 3 other blackberries plants that are different varieties. None are more productive than this one though. I’m so glad I picked this plant on that fateful day in the spring of 2022.

I hope you’ve enjoyed a look at my end of June 2025 garden and we’ll chat again next week. Have a great week ahead.