re: Our garden was starting a little late for our zone due to the mass amounts of rain. 



Same here! Some things took off because of the rain: my radishes and some bib lettuce in VT. My tomatoes are looking good, with golf ball-sized green fruit. The eggplants are short, but sturdy. My beans are a bit scrawny, but weeding them is helping.



I'm enjoying the fruits vicariously through your report, sahm! 



I've planted a lot of fruit trees and bushes at my property in Central NY, but not much has borne fruit yet. I'm not there full-time to care for it, but try all different sorts of things to see what can survive on its own. I just weeded and mulched my hazelnuts this weekend and *might* get a few nuts this fall. I did get some wild strawberries, up close to the yurt because of the lack of activity there lately. :-P I hadn't been to visit in two months, and the graases and goldenrod were over 3 feet high! I had to do triage mowing. I mowed around as many beds and trees as I could get to, pointing the mulching attachment to blow the cuttings towards the bed. Weeded a bit, put up a fence around some rutabagas and pumpkins (if they grow), planted the witch hazel tree I got two weeks ago, fenced it in, etc. I didn't have time to take care of the new bush cherries, but they didn't look too bad. I want to get back there again soon, probably at the end of July and then again around Roark's birthday. I didn't even get to look at the currents this time!



Back in VT, I'm still a little late getting some things in the ground, but IF a late summer means a mild early autumn, I should be OK, so I'm still going to put in some more beans (maybe this afternoon). I'm also going to do a LOT of fall crops for overwintering. I have almost unlimited mulch for the first time ever, hehehe, literally a ton of hay cleared from the cow mangers and old hay in barns that started rotting. (Ruth Stout bacame my garden angel!) I showed FOB an article from the Farmers Almanac about winter harvesting, and almost every one described "layer with 10-12 inches of mulch" for harvesting during the winter.