Hello there!
It's only been a month since my last garden update, but things have been springing up and growing by leaps and bounds! Maybe it's the heat that brings it out. :) There's so much to see, I thought I'd take you for a little stroll and show you what's new.
Preface. I love having it all on the drip system! First of all, it would be way too much to water by hand. But secondly, it is pretty self sustaining at this point. Every morning, I just go out and check on things really quickly. Make sure there's no new bugs or any large catastrophes to take care of. And then I let it alone to work it's magic. My favorite thing lately has been to walk through and find these new surprises that I'm about to share. It's like going for a treasure hunt!
And here it is now!
The zucchini plants have completely taken over! They are HUUUUGE. If I knew how big they were going to get, I would've given them a lot more room, but as it is now, they are crowding out the other plants in the bed: cucumbers and beans. Oh well. We'll see how they all produce anyway...
The pole beans in the back there are getting a little out of control. At one point a couple weeks ago, I didn't have time to trellis them but they were like 4 feet tall, so in a moment of panic, I pulled some large branches from the brush pile in our yard and stuck them in the ground for them to climb. Now I need to figure out a way to turn the branches into a trellis. I'm thinking I might rig something like this but on a smaller scale.
Here is a photo of both beds this evening:
Speaking of zucchinis, I was pleasantly surprised to find these blossoms on the plants today:
And many more on the way:
I was a little worried about my garbanzo. It started yellowing and I thought I might have lost it. But it has new flowers on it, which is a good sign and I found this yesterday: my first pod!
Here is another fun surprise I found yesterday as well.
I think I'll let it get a little bigger before I pick it. :)
Caleb's pumpkins seem to be doing well:
These are my POTATO plants! They are kind of an experiment. Usually I reserach a new thing a little bit before try it, but in this case, I'm trying it first. It was all kinda thrown together last minute. My neighbor threw some potato cuts over the fence. First, I let them rot a little by accident before I planted them. Now, I have trouble keeping them as "mounded" as I think they probably should be, but... I dunno. If there's anything edible, it will just be a nice surprise. :)
DON'T EAT GREEN POTATOES.
It seemed my kale had "plateaued" so to speak. I left it alone a little too long, the outer leaves were getting too old to eat probably and it had kinda stopped producing. So I finally pruned it one night and harvested some of the inner leaves and it thanked me by giving me more! :)
Even though I'm majorly running out of room at this point, I transplanted my artichoke out of the pot, and it seems to be loving life right now. I was wondering if it would produce anything this year. I had heard it takes two years before they flower. But I kept hoping for something exciting to happen. Well, then I happen to catch a segment of Lidia Bastianich's show where she goes out into an artichoke field and I realized how BIG the plants get before they start to produce.
We have a long way to go, I think! 
These are the tomatoes last month:
And the tomatoes now:
They need some support big time. (But who doesn't? hahaha).
I have some aerial wire I'm thinking of making my own cages with.
Just because I like doing things the hard way, you know.
Tomatoes are kinda funny. When they're green, they blend right in
and you can hardly see them unless you look very closely
I have FIFTEEN tomato plants this year. Who's idea was that??
Over 9 varieties of tomato! I will be excited to see how they all compare.
This one is called simply "Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato" and it is the first one to start ripening!
This is one of three thornless blackberry plants my neighbor gifted me (maybe you're starting to notice I have a very generous neighbor, don't I?) I haven't transplanted it yet because I know it will get pretty big so I want to make sure I figure out a good place for it. Also, my number one spot choice is occupied by junk that needs to be cleared first.
But who has time for THAT?! So it says in the pot for now...
Blueberry plant. Waiting for me to get some Mycor from the feed store.
Gnome. Tending my garden.
Silhouette. Me and the baby taking pictures.
Oh, you thought I was alone? I'm a breastfeeding mama, I'm never alone. ;)
Papa gnome, watching over the wildflowers, which are just starting to bloom.
Isn't he cute? I got him for mother's day, along with a 6 foot tall apricot tree,
who has also asked very politely if it may be added to the waiting list for transplanting.
And here is a lovely Gardenia that I just got a couple days ago. It looks pretty mellow now, but I have high hopes.
And the blooms smell SO NICE!
And the blooms smell SO NICE!
Well, it's late. And tomorrow is Monday. So I better get to bed.
Thanks for visiting! :D
