Garden Tour: June 1, 2026

We will return to our regularly scheduled knitting on Wednesday, but since today is June 1st, I wanted to document my garden as it stands before the growing season truly gets underway.

Let's start with the herbs. 

The basil I have up here is just grocery store basil I set outside. Most of it died during our final frost, but it's attempting to make a comeback. Otherwise, my oregano looks good and everything else is having a lazy start. Not pictured is the now-empty pot that used to have sage in it; a squirrel sat on it.

 

The parsley is absolutely thriving. I planted two kinds -- "Big Italy" parsley and "Giant Italian" parsley. I have a sneaking suspicion they are the exact same kind of parsley, but the Big Italy did take off a bit faster than the Giant Italian.

 

Cilantro often eludes backyard gardeners in Virginia, as the temperatures swing from literally freezing to 80+ degrees within a month. This year, I'm experimenting with "Slo-Bolt" cilantro and I plan to start new seeds every week or two to keep the greenery coming as long as possible.

 

The basil I started from seed is starting to look like basil. I have Sweet Basil and Genovese Basil in these boxes. I'm also attempting to start Lemon Basil and Thai Basil, but those haven't popped yet.

Next, let's talk flowers.

The morning glories I planted next to the mailbox are filling in, and I expect they'll start climbing soon.

The morning glories that planted themselves from last year's dead vines are also doing quite well. I'm beginning to understand why my aunt calls them weeds. 

 

 

I've started several sunflower seeds, but so far, this is the only one that hasn't been trampled. I haven't figured out yet if it's the squirrels, the chipmunks, or the neighbor's cats to blame, but I'm very annoyed with at least one of them. 

 

As for the native plants, here we have a little bit of bee balm in the front and a big black eyed Susan plant in the back. We just planted the black eyed Susans last autumn, so they may not flower this year, but it's fun to watch them grow.

 

 

I'm incredibly proud of my zinnia seedlings. I snipped the tops this year, which I didn't know to do last year. They're already starting new leaves and looking so much happier than the ones I accidentally neglected last year. When these bloom, we should have lots of pinks, plus maybe some reds, whites, and oranges mixed in.

Now, let's talk vegetables.

You know the snap peas have been doing their thing since March. They have now outgrown the fence, overgrown their trellis, and have fallen off the back of the garden. They just started putting out peas this week and Samson loves them.

 

Since the snap peas will finish up their season early, I've started the first couple of cucumber plants in the same bed. What you see in the forefront here is Straight Eights, but I also have a Jibai seedling behind the water dish.

 

Now that the rain has subsided, the tomatoes and peppers are starting to take off. In this bed, I have Bread and Salt tomatoes, shishito peppers, and Cubanelle peppers. Shishitos were a new food to us last summer, so I'm excited to see if we can grow them ourselves.

 

Next to those, we have Alice's Dream tomatoes, serrano peppers, and a couple of very sad tomatillos.

 

My tomatillos were the star of last year's garden, so I'm hoping these ones survive. At the moment, it looks like the flea beetles may have gotten the better of them.

 

Luckily, the bugs haven't made their way to this bed yet. In years past, we've had terrible battles with squash beetles, but so far these zucchini plants are looking happy. The Roma tomatoes in the cups are happy too, they were just a bit too small to put in the ground when I planted everything else. I'll pop them into the dirt soon. 

 

This bed doesn't look like it has much going on, but that's because I'm saving space in the middle for a second wave of zucchinis. For now, it's home to some dill starts and the random pepper plants my roommate brought home from the grocery store. 

Here's a close-up to prove the dill is in there. 

 

Finally, I'm waiting to see if these jalapenos decide to do anything. If they don't, we'll still have the serranos, but it's always the more the merrier in a vegetable garden.

 

Thank you for sticking with me through this non-knitting content. If you're growing anything this season, I'd love to see pictures! Otherwise, I'll see you back here on Wednesday for an update on my purple cardigan.