I’m joining with Cathy at Words and Herbs who hosts The Tuesday View, an opportunity to share the view of one or more of our gardens throughout a growing season. I’ve chosen to alternate views between a few areas of Coppertop on Tuesdays and am posting  on Wednesday this week due to yesterday being hectic, with crappy weather to boot.

Today we return to the veggie garden, shown from each side three weeks ago and today.

We’ve gone from unseasonably cool to unseasonably hot weather too rapidly. Yesterday we had some relief with thunder showers. Most of the veggies have responded enthusiastically to the recent heat; the potato field is greening up as spuds send up shoots, lettuces are offering good harvests, and peas are doing that climbing thing they do.

A few plants have bolted in the heat, including the overwintered Red Russian kale and a few of the spinach plants. I harvested almost all of the kale and am allowing a few plants to go to seed which I’ll gather for next season. I’ll replant the bed with broccoli starts and Prizehead lettuce seed to allow staggered harvests.

The biggest change overall in the veggie garden is the installation of an awesome new drip irrigation system. Hooray for Hubby! All of our water comes from a well which I first wrote about here. Each of the raised beds, bean and pea trellises, asparagus hedge, potato field, and cucurbit hills are now irrigated, and an automatic timer allows watering in zones a few early mornings each week. This saves me many, many hours spent hand watering the beds. We selected a large kit from Dripworks, a California company, and couldn’t be happier with the quality of product, ease of installation, and customer service.

On the entry arch, the Akebia quinata or chocolate vine is just beginning to bloom, spreading its sweet aroma. I’m such a sucker for fragrant plants!