I treated myself to an aloe, a new-to-me succulent and a hibiscus for my warm-weather pot.
Seeds for sunflowers, zinnia, cosmos, etc. will join them shortly.
I bet this will look amazing when you are done!
I belong to our local garden club and I’ve been going around taking photos of the gardens that will be on our garden tour fundraiser next year (we take the photos now because the tour will be at this time next year and we want the photos we use for promotion to show what those gardens will look like at this time).
It’s great way to feel completely inadequate myself, lol.
Time to pull more rocks out of the bed and do a deep weeding and then put down cardboard as a barrier before putting the rocks back on. I should have some help with this today at least.
So we’re about half way done now. It looks much better, but have to see how well it worked as the weeks go by. As usual, click to expand pictures.
We’ve had a long, dry spell, complete with crispy lawns everywhere. But, my one bright spot has been a volunteer butternut squash plant that grew in my yard, over in the spot where I toss my fruit and veggie scraps to feed the local critters.
So far, I have five squash growing, and the vine itself has grown to monstrous proportions. It’s taken over my back steps, and is now making it’s way down my sidewalk. I’ve been trying to keep it off the lawn, so my robotic mower won’t give it an unexpected trim.
I’ve become a little obsessed with this plant, since I’ve never grown one before, and have never seen anything grow this huge out of nowhere.
I’m looking forward to harvest time!
One of the cool things about growing zucchini/squash/eggplant is being able to harvest various sized fruits for specific purposes. I’ll harvest very small squash for use in salads, slightly larger ones for stir-fries, larger still for stuffing, and then there’s always the flowers which are great with a delicate batter and frying.
My Mom used to batter and fry up the male blossoms. So delicious! I might have to recreate her technique and do a batch.
Tomato harvesting has been in its early stages for the last couple weeks, and now the eggplant crop is coming in. Some eggplant is over three feet high, the best growth I’ve seen in several years.
Crepe myrtles are starting to flower.
Need rain.
We took out the beans after getting about 10 pounds of them. We’re getting two zucchini a day, or more, from one plant. We had an excellent snow pea harvest, but they are long over. And we’ve harvested close to 100 onions (red, yellow and white) which are drying outside now.
Our eggplant is healthier than ever, and are just about ready, though we’ve already had one meal from them. We’re about to start on menu items taking two cups of cherry tomatoes, and I think I can do my first BLT of the season with bigger tomatoes on Sunday.
The cool and rainy weather has brought me a …
Whole snow peas were being harvested, I shared a bowl of them with Rocco every day.
I found a few ancient seed packages in the house over the winter. I started Asparagus and tomatoes in yogurt cups. Had a pretty good result. I made an elaborate planter for the Asparagus, and transplanted the tomatoes outside when the crazy weather allowed. Everything is doing okay so far, but…
I realized the tomatoes are these crappy little ones. Not even cherry! So I went out and bought a variety that makes real tomatoes yesterday. It even had about 10 already going and two that were ready for tacos last night!
I’m gonna not let it die, and bring it inside and keep it alive over the winter. My new best friend. Paid a lot for him, actually.
Also seeded 100’s of locust trees. Got an impressive yield of about 1/4 a percent (Hey, sometimes you get ZERO!) and have transplanted about 10 so far this season. The 8 from last year are doing great. One is going off the charts! Almost 3 feet tall so far. I got extra-heavy-duty rabbit protection these days…
Someone very sweet sent me some fast-growing willows, and after soaking them for a few weeks, grew huge bunch’s of roots and sprouts on top. Got them out in the yard last week. Very interested to see how fast they take off in the ground.
But worried about the record setting heat wave sitting on us…
“Life was a Willow, it bent right into your hands,
But keeps coming back faster than a 90s trend”
Heh, at work today I received two gift bags from clients. One contained zucchini and a few squash, the other home-made scented soap and cucumbers. (They do this every year. I am blessed)
Willows are fun to propagate. ( Indolebutyric acid (IBA) is a plant hormone that stimulates root growth. It is present in high concentrations in the growing tips of willow branches.). If you buy “rooting hormone” it’s a powdered form of IBA.
My little brother was attempting to root a bunch of different plants. I pointed out all the willows he had, and suggested trimming the willows, smashing up the trimmings, and adding it to his propagation material. He did this and his success skyrocketed.
Nice gifts @kayaker . I know what’s for supper at your house.
Thankfully we’re out of the squashes, this year.
The tomatoes are about done. Good grief we had a crop this year. I am so done peeling tomatoes, I can’t tell you.
Okra is coming on. Will have some picked by Monday. I hate okra. It itches me in ways, frankly, you would not believe.
But the family loves it.
I LOVE it! Bring on that slime, gotta have that slime.
Our neighbors have a large commercial apple orchard, and a small peach orchard. The peaches are just beginning to be harvested, so we will be having grilled peaches for dessert every night for a sadly short time.
We planted three haskaps two years ago. We’ve just gotten our first batch of berries, and I’ve been snacking on them daily. We’ve also got some currant bushes, a blueberry bush, and a gooseberry bush, but those haven’t ripened yet. Also, a ton of herbs and nasturtium, but none of those have gotten big yet (we just got our first warm week here in central Alberta, so things have been going slowly).
I didn’t plant any food this year, but all or most of my flowers and grasses and ground covers are doing well. My yard still gets a lot of compliments by the neighborhood walkers. I have a couple of things that I’m going to need to put somewhere else, they’re getting too big for their pots.
I could fill a pretty good book with what I don’t know about gardening, but I’ve learned a lot by just watching the plant and moving it if it doesn’t seem to like where it’s at. I have a harder time with figuring out what some of them need water wise, they send confusing signals sometimes, but I’m learning that too. One of the best things I’ve learned in my three or so years of gardening is that you should almost never give up on a plant. I can’t tell you how many plants have come back after I thought they’d never do so. I’m really enjoying all my flowers.
This 112 degree weather is not helping though. ugh.