Well, it is now official, most of Central Indiana is now in a “moderate drought” according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Needless to say we need some rain, but we did get at least some about 5 days ago, which helped a little. Despite the drought, my garden continues to produce an abundant harvest, as long as I keep up on the watering. The spring onion crop this year might be a record for me. The Red Candy Apple onion produced about normal, but the yellow Candy onion looks like a record harvest as I have some truly gigantic sized onions (see pic below). The harvest on the Red Norland potatoes looks to be near a record as well this year (see pic below). The Tango celery is growing really well (as long as I keep the plants watered) and harvest has started on these as well. The spring planted lettuce has finished for for now, but I will be transplanting lettuce seedlings for fall harvest in about another month. Harvest on my green beans has started. I am trying an heirloom pole green bean this year called Rattlesnake. It has started producing harvestable sized beans over the last week or so and I have been very impressed with this bean so far (see pic below). It also looks like I will have the best crop of Roma tomatoes as I have had in at least 5 or 6 years, as I have been able to keep the early blight in-check this year. I tried using landscape fabric under the tomato plants this year, and this seems to have helped. I anticipate harvesting many tomatoes in about another month or so. The broccoli harvest this spring has also been pretty good. All of the main heads have been harvested, and now I am enjoying the many side shoots that have been sprouting. The white Silver Queen corn is growing like crazy right now (see pic below) and harvest should start on in about another 3 weeks, YUM!! I have been harvesting Hot Banana peppers and a few Jalapeño peppers.

Even though it is only the middle of July, it is not to late to start planning your fall garden. I started seeds of broccoli, kohlrabi, cauliflower, and cabbage on July 3rd in cell packs. They have since germinated and are growing on the covered back porch. I will be transplanting these seedlings out into the garden on the first or second week of August.