Posting this just a *little* late. A week and a half later things are already so much bigger. The tomato plants have doubled in size and the pumpkins are about three times as big. Also most of the broccoli has since been harvested.
But for now. let's flash back to June 20th, Wayne's World style.
*dootlelootleloot dootledootleloot dootledoolteloot*
I love this view of the garden as you approach from the side yard.
Lots of stuff happening.
First off… we have broccoli!
This is my first time attempting broccoli. Last year they were
growing it in the teaching garden where I volunteer, and it did really
well there. It seems to be an easy vegetable and is ever-bearing all
summer. When you chop off the head, more grow in its place (sounds like a
creepy space alien!). I love anything that produces all summer, so I
knew I had to try it.
Here’s that whole bed. It’s mostly broccoli with a few cabbages thrown in and lettuce at the end.
Next we have what is supposed to be three hills of cucumbers surrounded
by circles of radishes. The radishes are thriving. The cucumbers not so
much. I have a grand total of
two cuke plants. I did have 4 but
two were chomped down by cutworms (remember those gross things from
last year?), which is why my remaining two have cardboard collars.
Last night I went out and planted all of my leftover cucumber seeds
on top of the hills as a last ditch effort. I always have problems with
cukes and was really hoping for an actual harvest this year. They like
hot weather for germination, and also need very fertile soil… so I
fertilized and am crossing my fingers we have a heat wave sometime soon!
I have two beds of tomatoes. Here’s one of ‘em.
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| 'scuse the psychedelic camera angle |
The cherry tomatoes are forming! I think these are Sungolds.
My crazy bed of snow peas, finally starting to flower:
These are Oregon Sugar Pod, which is advertised as not needing a
trellis because they only grow to be two feet tall. As you can see
though, they still get tangled and out of control without supports. I
still like the crazy, fill up an entire bed method. You get
lots of peas in a small space, even if you have to search through the jumble to find all of them.
Oh, there’s arugula in the pea bed too! I was growing it there last
year and let it go to seed, and had lots of volunteers pop up.
The fava beans are flowering!
The flowers basically look like pea flowers with a black patch. They’re
prettier when the flower is open, but this was early morning and most of
them were closed up (from what I can tell they close at night and open
in the sunlight).
Here’s a shot of that whole area. Tomatoes, pumpkins, favas:
At the end of the pumpkin bed I tucked in some lavender and on the other side, a stevia plant.
Lavender:
Stevia:
I have two lavender plants and want to go back to the nursery to get a
lot more and plant them everywhere I can find room, then make lavender
flavored cookies and ice cream all summer (and maybe see if I can
sweeten it all with stevia!).
So far my habanero peppers are still pretty small and aren’t doing much, but I have high hopes for them.
On the other side of the house, away from the rest of the garden we have raspberries!
I attempted to stake them for the first time a few days ago, because
their canes were out of control and the berries were on the ground.
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| Berries! |
I planted them three years ago, and this looks like the first year we may
get a decent harvest. There are a couple smaller plants next to these
that have berries and could use staking too.
And speaking of fruit, back in the main garden area we have lots of mini grapes forming!
That’s about it! I just realized I didn’t take pictures of the
strawberry bed, but they’re mostly getting eaten by the birds… must buy
netting. I also have a blueberry bush in the front yard with berries
that are starting to ripen.
Berries make me so happy.
I’ll leave with with a pic of the neighbor’s cat hanging out in the garden, after I went inside:
She’s super friendly and if she sees me out there always comes over to say hello.
