This gardening stuff is easy...

June has been good to my garden. Hot. No hail. So far no bugs. I have more lettuce than I know what to do with. My snow peas are now two feet tall and have just blossomed, which means I should have pods in about a week. The basil is going bonkers. The tomatoes are flowering too. My bush beans, cucumbers and squash are just poking up. I even have a few peanuts planted by neighborhood squirrels that have sprung up.
And what have I done to deserve such a bounty? Nothing, pretty much. The garden is hooked up to my sprinkler system so I don't have to water it. I let my greyhound patrol for squirrels. Other than the 10 minutes of weeding I did Sunday evening and my daily trip out to pick greens for dinner, I haven't done squat. Who knew gardening could be so easy?

Here's a tip for these hot dry days we've been having, pretty much since winter. Standard gardening says that you are supposed to plant on the furrow, so seedlings will not get drowned by rain. When there is no rain, and you want to make the most of your irrigating, plant in the dirt trough along the furrow, where water naturally collects.
When it hits 90 degrees, don't be surprised to see plants wilt a bit, especially squash and lettuce. It's best to pick these veggies in the morning when they are cool and firm, then stick them in the fridge for dinner.

To encourage plants to be as drought tolerant as possible, give them a heavy watering once or twice a week, then let them dry out. This will encourage the roots to go deeper in search of moisture. If you water every day, they're happy to stay near the surface.

On a note from my spring cool crops, I picked the last of my radishes yesterday. Now I have a free spot in my garden. Any thoughts on what I should plant? Give me some suggestions below.

Summer: time for hail

Perhaps gardening makes you focus on the negative. Instead of thinking of June as a month of sunny, carefree days, you think of it as afternoons full of potentially flattening hail storms. And that's what happened in many northern parts of El Paso County yesterday.
Eventually in Colorado, you plants are going to get whacked.
I've seen several solutions, including a metal mesh ramada for tomatoes.

Here is another thought from a local gardener.

I have tried several hail mitigation techniques, but the one I'm using now
is to string a 1/2 inch mesh bird netting over the garden in a double
layer. It lets thru sun and rain, but blocks most of the damaging hail.
Perhaps some day I'll have a green house big enough not to have to worry, but
that'll be a while. In the meantime, I'll do what I can.