Garden Update 5-21-2023

The super rainy, colder-than-usual weather has brought very mixed results thus far in my garden. In my survey a few minutes ago, the first thing was that I need to do some serious weeding in my veggie garden.

This is one of the head lettuce plants. It’s doing GREAT. I should be able to harvest very soon and give my friends a nice addition to their salads or sandwiches.

The spinach is looking ‘pale,’ not the deep green I think it should. I’m not sure if fertilizing it at this point would do any good, but I’ll try that. I’m also not sure if the paleness will affect the taste. I’ll see what information I can find.

Here’s the large tomato planter. The plants have exploded and there are lots of yellow blossoms showing. At this point, I’m not sure if I can handle the branches much, and may just need to try to contain them a bit, giving them as much support as I can.

This is the second tomato planter. You can barely see the green metal supports at the top of the plants now. I was going to try to tie the branches to the supports, but they have exploded now, so I’ll just try to do what I can to keep the plant inside the boundaries of the planter.

The bad news is that after several years now, one of the wooden bottoms to the veggie planters has given way. We knew it would happen one day, but it’s sad anyway. I hadn’t planted this planter yet, so we can leave it and decide how we’ll tackle making a new bottom for the planter, save as much of the Mel’s Mix as possible, and rebuild it.

Here is the part of the bottom that completely gave way and fell down.

To round out our tour of the yard, here is one of the healthier weeds I encountered. I’m not sure right now if I’ll pull it or celebrate its health…

And finally, here is some clematis that we have growing in a pot behind the large tomato planter. The picture doesn’t show how glorious the color is. It’s a real explosion of dark purple. Makes my heart happy.

Veggies, Tomatoes, and Flowers, Oh My!

VEGGIES

The veggies are doing great, except that they really need to have the weeds around them taken out. As soon as I feel 100%, it’s on my list.

TOMATOES

The tomato plants seem to be doing fine, too. I’m scheduled to add the worm castings fertilizer to them Thursday (I’m doing this once a month) I just made it around the yard, taking quick pictures before my energy left, but I’ll look more carefully in the next day or two.

FLOWERS

ROSES

STELLA DE ORO LILIES

Husband’s PERIWINKLES by the shop door

You can’t tell it much in this picture, but the group on the left has a slight pink cast and the ones on the right are plain white.

How Does My Garden Grow?

These photos are from yesterday. Things are going quite well so far. The plants seem to be thriving, and there are not a whole lot of weeds right now.

If you look closely, there are leaves toward the center of the plant curling up together. The ‘head’ lettuce will form in there.

My spinach leaves are being eaten by ‘something,’ but I can’t find any bugs. I’ll go ahead and spray with Eight to see if I can discourage whatever is chomping down.

The tomato plants are growing a lot each day. We’re trying to get the irrigation system for the flower planters (which includes the tomato planters) to work.

The plants are almost covering the whole surface of the planter now. I only have one plant, though, that has yellow blossoms at this point.

I haven’t planted anything else in the main square foot garden. We’re going one day at a time around here lately, so I haven’t pushed seeing what other plants are available in town.

I’ll be working to see if I can get the two timers in the well house working today. We’ll have a test run later today, though starting Wednesday of next week, we’re supposed to get a LOT of rain.

Do you have a garden this year?

Garden Love 1 – 4-30-2023 – Tomatoes

Little Pine Learners

The tomatoes seem to be doing fine. We have this square planter with 4 plants and then a 2nd, 8-foot-long brick planter of tomatoes this year.

This is the same planter as above, farther away so you can see how much taller the plants are than the last pics I took.

This is the 8 foot planter. There are 6 plants in this one.

This close up shows we have some blossoms on one plant!

Checking the Garden 4-19-2023

1st tomato blossom

Spinach and Lettuce

Head Lettuce

Spinach

I’ll try to get out in the next few days and get the weeds under control and the wilted/dead parts pruned, but things are looking good so far.

I think the severe weather is JUST supposed to be wind and rain tomorrow. One can hope.

Oh, GREAT!

Health Shots

We have a cold front coming through this afternoon, with accompanying strong wind gusts and large hail.

The colorful blogs on the far left are zeroing in on us, the threat lasting from about 2pm to 8pm tonight.

I’m really delighted because I JUST finished putting in an entire flat of head lettuce, another flat of spinach, and 10 beautiful tomato plants. Even regular hail is deadly to new plants, and LARGE hail will be hard to deal with.

My plan is to cover my two planters of tomato plants with sheets. I have support things around the tomato plants, so hopefully those plus the sheets will keep the hail from battering them.

In the square foot garden, I have four of six boxes full of plants. I’m planning to find something to put on top of the sprinkler at the center of each of the boxes and then to put tarps over each box, held down by bungee cords. Not sure of the details of all this.

I’ll go out after lunch and see what I can do. One of the things I read talked about ‘baseball-sized hail.’ If THAT happens, NOTHING will help. I hope whoever said that is wrong, wrong, WRONG!

Fingers crossed.

123RF

Tomatoes

I found some really nice “Super Girl” tomato plants yesterday. I planted them yesterday afternoon. There are six plants in this brick planter.

Here’s a closer look at some of these.

There are 4 plants in this planter. I’m going to try to keep an eye on these and keep them as tied up as possible. They tend to be calm for awhile and then they ‘spurt’ in growth, seemingly all of a sudden spreading out over everything with the limbs too large to move without breaking them, yet really needing more support. I’ll try to do a better job of getting outside each day or so and giving them as much support as I can this year.

We also got the irrigation system controller installed on the faucet that goes to the garden. It’s set to start at 3pm today. I have a timer set so I can get out there and make sure the sprinklers are working and that the flow of water is good for watering my sweet plants well in the 10 minutes I have the controller set to now.

Later on, we’ll set the irrigation system for the yard. For now, I’ll just water the tomatoes with a hand held hose.

I’ll try to check next week to see what other plants I can add to the main garden.

We’ve started!

Thursday Thoughts 8-11-2022

inkspiredmusings.blogspot.com-photograph not credited

Good morning! A more ‘regular’ summer day here. A definite relief from the record-breaking intense heat warnings or flooding downpours. Downright boring!!!!! :0)

Kidadl

Since I felt good yesterday afternoon, I started making the Christmas cards my dear friend asked me to make so she could send them to her friends. She liked the ones that I just finished, but she understands that I can’t make the same thing twice, so I’ll try to come up with something similar.

Lawford Mead Primary School

I’m still jubilant that our trash is GONE. I HOPE that one day I can almost take the trash being picked up on trash day for granted, but that certainly is not yet. I’m hoping that this was an awful glitch in the system and that it won’t be repeated anytime soon. Meanwhile, I don’t have to drive down, armed with another leaf bag, prepared to spend half an hour gathering the trash that has been strewn all over the place by animals overnight. Hooray!

40 Aprons

I told my husband that my plan was to make a huge tuna casserole for tonight – enough we can enjoy it tonight and have several individual serving meals for other nights. He liked the idea. :0)

House Beautiful

I checked to see if we had any ripe tomatoes. I told you earlier that the large planter of tomato plants was done. We still have a couple of plants in the ‘niche’ planter tucked in beside the house and porch. There are green tomatoes, but nothing ripe now.

Tenor

Today is DAY 27 of my daily yoga practice.

The Spruce Eats

A shout-out to Susy and Bobby. I hope they enjoyed every bite of their steak breakfast this morning. You’re both in my thoughts.

Wonderful Wednesday

PBS – Shutterstock

I say, “Wonderful Wednesday” because I’m leaving in less than an hour to get a haircut. I look like a dandelion gone to seed right now and saying that I can’t wait to be ‘healed’ is a vast understatement.

It’s going to be hot today (102 degrees F.) with unknown heat index – SURPRISE! – but we might get RAIN tomorrow, so I have hope.

I’m looking forward to playing in my art room this afternoon. The jury is still out on whether the cards I’m trying to paint will be ‘keepers’ or not, but I’m having a great time experimenting with different ideas and techniques. One of the reasons I start making presents and cards for Christmas so early is that what I’m ABLE to do doesn’t match what I would LIKE to do, and so several false starts are inevitably involved.

Our tomatoes are mostly gone now. I have a few that may ripen, so I check the plants every few days for treasure. I will soon pull up the sweet red onions from the garden to start them drying.

I’m on DAY 19 of my yoga. I’m determined to keep on keepin’ on until this practice becomes as ingrained as brushing my teeth in the morning. This practice, I think, is one of the keys to my health, my ability to do what I want without a lot of pain. I want to live a long time so I can continue to annoy my husband. (53 years and counting…)

I hope you have something fun planned for today, or if not – you have a pleasant, happy Wednesday.

Thoughts on a Wednesday 7-27-2022

Svenja M

I hope your Wednesday is starting out nicely.

Amber and I are having a recurring ‘discussion’ about whether or not I have dog biscuits in my jeans pocket. Since I usually do, Amber is convinced I’m lying when I tell her I don’t have anything. She is doing a combination of lying down just to the left of my office chair, staring at me, moving every few seconds so I don’t ‘forget’ she’s there. If I make eye contact, she is up and climbing up into my chair with me before I can get out the words, “Get Down!” She has had breakfast, but she thinks she should get cookies on demand. I’ve decided to fill my pocket with dog cookies when I go to refill my coffee cup…

Heat index of 111 today. Wonderful, right? We may get some rain toward the end of the week. I won’t believe it until I see it, but there is hope. I’ll check for tomatoes in a minute, but I think the plants are simply giving up with the heat.

The big planter of tomato plants is almost completely done now. The niche planter (in the corner formed by the back of the house and the deck) is still okay, and produced these two tomatoes. The top side of each has deep grooves, again pointing to water issues, but the plants ARE producing slowly.

No big plans for us today. I couldn’t sleep, so I’m happy we have a quiet day. I did the finishing touches on the last two Christmas presents this morning. As soon as they are dry, the next step is spraying all of them with a protective spray to prevent stains as much as possible. Next, tissue paper, gift bags and the making of handmade Christmas cards – (I have an idea for them) then pack them away until the holiday.

Enjoy your day. Stay safe and cool.

Thoughts on a Friday 7-15-2022

kanderdoodle.blogspot.com

I just love this photo. I WANT this sweet animal!

As far as I know, everyone will be at Lunch Bunch today. It’ll be a nice reunion. We have a few errands to do, but won’t be out long.

DepositPhotos.com

I’m having a lot of fun in my art room, working on the presents I’m painting for my friends for Christmas. I’m making 8 things, and I’m almost finished with some of the first sides. Apparently I smile while I’m painting – I’m finding my cheeks are hurting a bit in the evenings. :0)

Lucia Heffernan – MyModernMet

I’m going to do an extra-long session of yoga this afternoon. I missed it yesterday and my body is reminding me about it today. You would THINK that after so many RE-learnings of this lesson, the message would stick. All I can say is I’m fighting sloth, stubbornness, and stupidity – a pretty lethal combination.

This morning’s harvest. We went into withdrawal yesterday because we didn’t have any ripe tomatoes from our garden to eat. Today makes up for yesterday, with more coming, probably tomorrow. YUM.

Hoping for a safe, quiet day for all of us.

Tuesday 7-12-2022

Holly Kildreth Photography-Juan Carlos Rodri On Twitter

We’re about to leave for lots of errands this morning. Our news and weather website reported that we should expect it to be 2 degrees cooler today due to a ‘cold front.’ Oh, the relief!!!! Only 101 plus heat index today. Be still, my heart!

I’m hoping we’ll have more ripe tomatoes for me to gather when we get back. We ate the last one yesterday and may go into withdrawal if we don’t have more…

I’m having a truly wonderful time working in my art room on the Christmas presents I’m making for friends. Each day brings a bit more progress. Yesterday my husband came up to say, “Hi,” and remarked that I was smiling while I was painting. YEP.

No exciting news today – just deep down happiness that things are going nicely here.

Take care and have a wonderful day.

Feeling Lazy Sunday 7-10-2022

Reddit.com

I slept well – in fact, we even slept late – but I’m feeling lazy this morning. I have no excuses. I’ll have to push myself to get something done today.

I did go out a minute ago to get a pic of our elephant ear plants and to see if any tomatoes were ready to harvest. It’s warm, but cooler than yesterday.

The poor elephant ears have had a tough time this season. The main problem was that we needed to have our well house set up modified so we could have TWO irrigation systems, one for the back and the 2nd for the front. The one in the back was working, thank goodness, because the two tomato planters are on that one. We just got the 2nd one – the one for the front – Friday morning. The elephant ears are starting to perk up, and they look better since I cut off the dead stuff and cleaned up the planter. Hopefully, they’ll have an easier time now.

We had two tomatoes ready to come in this morning, and they’re beautiful. We’re becoming totally spoiled, enjoying ripe tomatoes for lunch and dinner each day. :0)

YouTube – Suda the painting elephant – uploaded by F. Schleyhahn

I spent a good amount of time in my art room playing yesterday. The presents I’m making are starting to come together now. I really get into the zone when I’m up there, listening to wonderful music, playing in my paint, enjoying when our dog or cat come up to visit. Having some ‘alone’ time is what my soul needs sometimes. I’m lucky I have a place I can get it.

MyRecipes

I don’t have to cook this evening! We’re having “Main Meal Salad” tonight with leftover chicken from the Lunch Bunch. We both enjoy this every once in awhile. I’m even able to sneak in a couple of extra veggies without my husband complaining…

We’re looking at what I hope will be a quiet day. I hope yours is enjoyable, too.

Thoughts on Saturday, July 9, 2022

Free Spirited-Kathy Richard

I’m feeling more hopeful this morning.

The Monticello News

Yesterday our plumber came and put in the 2nd line for irrigation in the well house. My husband helped him figure out the ‘plan’ on all the pvc pipe in the well house, and they finished the job in just under the hour we had before we needed to leave for Lunch Bunch. We thanked him profusely for working us into his over-busy schedule.

When we got home, my husband got the timer programmed and ran the system manually. The poor plants in the front yard have only had the rain, and not any of THAT lately, for far too long. I’ve been dumping water into the elephant ear planter, but that’s all. Today I got out and cut the dead stuff out of that planter. I’m hoping we can save the plants we have in the front yard. I’ll try to work on things early in the morning or just before dark, trying to get things taken care of again.

I also harvested 2 more ripe tomatoes today – with 4 more probably ready tomorrow! My husband said he noticed some ripening when he was outside yesterday. I’m back inside now. It’s too hot to stay outside very long, but I can get what I need to accomplished if I just get off my duff and get out there at a reasonable time.

I finished listing some new products on my Etsy website late yesterday afternoon. Things are in good shape there now, I think, and I’m hoping to get some sales.

Today I’m planning to play in my art room. The website took all my time yesterday, and I didn’t go up to my art room at all. I look forward to making some progress today. (I was painting in my dreams last night. :0) )

Chef Dennis

Yesterday I made the tuna casserole we’ve loved for years, but haven’t eaten, due to the carbs. Now that we’re on the Mediterranean eating plan, I updated it to include a BUNCH of veggies. The casserole included tuna, macaroni, cream of chicken-mushroom soup, onions, mushrooms, carrots, green beans, broccoli, some fresh Parmesan cheese and some Mozzarella cheese. My husband said, “This is GOOD!” He didn’t mention the veggies, so neither did I. :0)

We got a big boom of thunder right before we went to bed, but I didn’t see any rain when I looked. Later, when my husband took Amber out for the last time of the night, he said he could see it rained, but it wasn’t when they were out. We must have gotten 3 drops of rain. I’m reminding myself it’s better than none.

I hope your Saturday is a fun one.

Sunday 7-3-2022

Ulla T.

Right now we have our front and back doors open and ceiling fans on, enjoying a nice breeze airing out the house before it gets too hot and we have to close up and turn on the a/c.

123RF.com

I got a good start yesterday on the Christmas presents I’m making for my friends this year. I’m painting themed tote bags, personalizing them for each of my friends.

Yesterday I brought them downstairs and ironed them. I decided I would leave them on my desk down here so that I can work on them in-between other things, doing a bit at a time. There is a LOT of sketching to do on each of them. I don’t want to run the a/c upstairs in CASE I find time to work up there, and my life is such that good session times are harder and harder to find. Having them down here in the office will allow me to make some progress without disrupting our routine a lot. I wrote down notes on what I want to do on each one, and printed some reference pics from the net. I’ll work on them down here until it’s time to paint.

Unsplash

I didn’t SEE anything last night, but our down-in-the-valley-behind-us neighbors were setting something off, with a lot of popping and banging. Amber woofed some, but didn’t freak out.

We shared a tomato at lunch and another one at dinner yesterday. YUM! We could get used to this! :0)

My friends, Kay and Bud, are enjoying a visit from their son this weekend. My friend Linda is in Tennessee, enjoying visiting with one of her daughters and her family. It’s just my husband, our animals and me here, but I had a nice online chat with our son this morning. We’re all so lucky to have family.

I hope you’re enjoying your Sunday.

Garden Update

QuoteMaster.org

The zucchini are growing, but very slowly. I’ve never grown these before, so I’m not sure what to expect. The red onions seem fine. All else is gone, with the exception of my two tomato planters on the other side of the house.

The elephant ears are doing well, in spite of our having to water them manually.

The FIRST ripe tomato of the season!!!!!

The tomato plants were looking dry, so we ran the watering system for the back manually to make sure all was working as it is supposed to.

Garden Update 6-21-2022

My zucchini are doing fine, though they are growing a little more slowly than I expected. The only things left in my raised bed, square foot garden now are sweet red onions and zucchini.

Our tomatoes seem to be doing fine. No sign of disease or bugs or worms yet.

“Niche” planter

I’ll spray the tomatoes and the zucchini today with EIGHT to protect them from pests. Otherwise, I’ll try to do some weed whacking. I didn’t do anything after the last time my husband mowed, so maybe I can say I’m AHEAD of him THIS time… Weed whack, and then spray with KILLZALL to try to at least keep up with things, if not get a little bit ahead of them…

SayingImages.com

Thoughts on Sunday 5-29-2022

cali7-4GIFs.com

This puppy is a genius – eating AND getting in exercise at the same time! I’m not sure what that yoga position is called, but I’m impressed :0) I’m going to make beef stew for our dinner tonight. Less stew beef, many more veggies. I’ll freeze the leftovers into individual serving containers and put them in the freezer.

I finished cleaning out and weeding the square foot garden yesterday. It took a total of three sessions and about 4 hours to get things cleaned out the way they should be, but I feel good that it looks like someone cares again. I’ll research summer crops and then see what is available locally. The tomatoes are doing fine so far, too.

If you look really carefully, above the lowermost leaves on the bottom left of the plant, you can see a small green tomato!

And finally, this has nothing whatsoever with my ‘garden,’ but I’m delighted to see that all three elephant ear plants are now coming up. You have to look carefully at the center of the planter, but you can see the first sprout of a leaf breaking through now.

Today’s project will be attacking things with my loppers. I’ll be clearing up areas that are giving my husband trouble on the riding mower, and then trying to cut down weed trees around our burn barrel between the house and the shop. It’s supposed to get to the 90s today (50s two days ago) with strong sun, so I’ll have to be careful.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Garden – Initial Assessment

After a week or so of not being able to work in the garden, things are pretty out of hand. My tomato plants are looking healthy, but I’ll need to get serious about pruning this week. I’ll concentrate on trying to be outside early in the morning, or before dark in the evening, or both, until I get things under control. I’ll try to carefully prune, then anchor the plants to the supports.

The veggie garden has exploded. The onion stalks are now over a foot tall. The zucchini plants are huge and blossoming. The record heat has almost done-in the broccoli before it really had a chance to get started. It’s starting to bolt, so I’ll harvest what I can today. Weeds are rampant. The lettuce leaves are huge.

Here’s a close up of a broccoli plant. You can see that the broccoli isn’t nice and compact. It’s growing tall. I need to harvest today to have anything from these at all. :0(

Aside from the gazillion tiny weeds, you can see how TALL this lettuce plant is. That’s not a good sign. Lettuce, broccoli, spinach and cauliflower are early spring plants, needing the cooler weather. I hope that the lettuce leaves are not already bitter. I’ll bite one and see.

I’ll be doing a lot of careful harvesting this weekend, one thing at a time, between rain storms. You would THINK with all this rain the temperature would be cooler, rather than like a sauna…

How Does Your Garden Grow?

etsy.com

I’ve only had to cover up my veggie plants once for a freeze since I put the plants in the ground, and for that I’m thankful. I’m watching the weather forecasts like a hawk, but so far, things are going well.

leaf lettuce

Spinach

Broccoli

Cauliflower

You can see the red onion sprouts, too.

You can also see some of the neon-pink surveyor’s tape I put on the fence so the deer won’t run into the fence.

Next up, I plan to put in radishes, bell pepper, and celery.

Today’s plan is to start prepping the two brick planters on the far side of the house that we converted to square foot garden planters, preparing to add some tomato plants, probably next week, depending on the weather. I need to get the weeds out, and then add a bunch of Mel’s Mix (a mixture of peat moss, Vermiculite, and at least 3 different types of compost) to each of the planters. Who knows where this stuff GOES?

Thoughts on a Wednesday 8-11-2021

onlyinyourstate.com

Isn’t this guy beautiful? – and the photograph is awe-inspiring.

We don’t have any outside errands today, so we’ll get our mail later and consider it done. :0)

Audrey Hepburn – Katiedaisy.com

As soon as I finish this, I’m going to fill up my two-gallon spray container with EIGHT and go out to the garden to spray it in the garden boxes, murdering any bugs there. (I’m still having to treat the ONE sting/bite a fire ant gave me the other day, though my arm is finally not swollen anymore). If the heat is not yet lethal (it’s supposed to FEEL LIKE 110 this afternoon) I’ll fill my other container with KillzAll and spray the boxes for weed roots I missed while cleaning out the boxes. Fingers crossed.

Clipart

I had an idea of what I would like to make for my friends for Christmas this year! I ordered some things and received them a couple of days ago. I started work on them yesterday in the shop and will turn on the a/c while I’m out spraying so I can continue working today on them – plus a dragonfly I’m refurbishing.

agirlandagluegun.com

We’re getting to the very last of the tomatoes now. We were delighted to find these yesterday right before dark.

Have a great Wednesday.

Garden Update 7-30-2021

The sum total of my ‘harvest’ today. With the over 100 degree F. heat, even with our irrigation system, the tomatoes are boiling right on the vines. I’m afraid we’re almost finished for the year.

I do have some tomatoes from the last harvest in the fridge. They are getting soft, though, so I’ll cut them up and freeze them for stews later on.

I told you before that I still need to harvest our sweet onions from our raised bed, square foot garden so they can start drying. “I” tend to “boil right on the vine” in this heat, too, so I’ve been putting the task off.

We’re supposed to have a cold front moving through this Sunday, so hopefully I can do this, plus start to clean up the garden for the season. Right now it looks like no one cares. :0(

On a happier note, here are the some of the elephant ear plants –

Good/Bad News in the Garden

The grocery store was selling lettuce plants yesterday! I bought two, having little hope that they would do anything this time of year, since they are a cool-weather plant. One of them has already croaked :0( – but this one is still alive as of this minute. I’ll probably have to go ahead and clear out the garden for the season, since my yellow crookneck squash plants are producing lots of huge leaves by very little else. I’ll go ahead and pull everything out, unless this sweet plant is still alive. I’ll pull the onions and start drying them out. We have possibly severe storms coming in this evening-into-tomorrow, so this will wait until next week. It was a fun thing to try, though.

Meanwhile, though my tomato plants don’t look pretty, they are producing. This is what I brought in this morning. There are more to come tomorrow. This is the time of year we feel super rich. We have lots of ripe tomatoes to each for both lunch and dinner. :0)

I’ll take pics of the onions when I get them onto the trailer screen to start drying.

Love and Tomatoes 7-7-2021

countrydoor.com

We hit the lottery on tomatoes today!

Usually, I have the better crop from the two plants in what we call the ‘nook’ planter – a brick planter we converted to a square foot garden planter that is square and is in a niche beside our back porch and in back of the house. It is protected from a lot of the wind that whips through here and doesn’t get the unrelenting sun the other planter gets.

This year it’s the opposite. The eight foot planter – also converted to a square foot planter – getting full sun and unprotected from the wind – is giving us the better yield.

We are very grateful to have ANY tomatoes because I’ve heard from others that this is a ‘hard year’ for tomatoes. People are getting plants, but they aren’t blossoming or growing tomatoes. We have sharing one larger tomato or two smaller tomatoes as part of our dinners this past week – the first of the crop – and enjoying every bite. When I told my husband that we had hit the lottery today, he wanted to have some – RIGHT NOW.

You can’t get fresher than right off the vine and still warm from the sun. Love and tomatoes! :0)

Friday’s Harvest

We had a good harvest yesterday. My spinach output is dwindling with the warmer weather and soon will be finished, so I’m getting as much as I can and freezing it so none will be wasted.

I’ve never actually done much with yellow crookneck squash before, so this is a lot of fun. I have a lot of little bitty squashes coming on. I decided that the ones above were large enough to harvest. I have a spiralizer tool that will make them nice for sauteing this evening to serve with some pork chops. :0)

It looks like I might have a good sweet onion crop this year. I won’t actually know until much later, but things look good right now. I also have some celery that I grew from cutting off the bottoms of celery I bought at the store. The stalks are ‘spread out’ rather than like the ones you see at the store in the tight groups, but they taste fine, so I’ll take them.

We have small green tomatoes and lots of blossoms on our tomato plants. We have two brick planters that we converted to square foot garden planters. I’m hopeful we’ll have lots of ripe tomatoes to slice and enjoy soon.

I need to do some weeding, but it’s getting dark outside, looking like it’s going to storm. Maybe I can get something done between raindrops…

Garden Progress

Raised bed square foot garden May 13th

This is cabbage. I’ve never tried to grow this before and I’m like a kid at Christmas. The center portion is where the head of cabbage is forming. I’m going to find as much information as I can. It’s FUN!

One kind of lettuce.

2nd kind of lettuce

Can you see the cute yellow crookneck squash?

I have blossoms on the tomato plants, although none show in this picture.

The forecast is for thunderstorms EVERY DAY between the 17th and the 27th. I’m going to try to get a nice harvest in, either today or tomorrow, before all the rain starts.

Garden Progress

Pinterest

Butter Crunch Lettuce

Spinach

Zucchini

I’ve been covering my veggie plants and tomato planters with sheets for 4 nights now, and so far, things seem to have come through the freezes all right. The Zucchini has had the most reaction. I’ve had to cut off several leaves from the plants. They blackened with the frosts and freezes. There is enough left of the plants that still looks good I think they will make it.

According to the weather website we are now past the freezes. This is really unusual here. Usually, our last frosts are April 5th, and that is even pretty late since I have been trying to grow things. We are supposed to get rain tonight and all day tomorrow.

I have the sheets spread out on the fencing around the garden, trying to dry it out during the day today so I can bag them up and put them away.

I HOPING that things will get back to normal for gardening soon.

Although the veggies seem to be doing all right, my elephant ear bulbs did not make it over wintered in the garage. I have finally given up on them and ordered more bulbs. I am hoping those will arrive soon so that I can get them into the ground.

I gathered my first harvest of the year recently, and we enjoyed a main meal salad last night, featuring our own spinach and lettuce! It’s been quite awhile since we were able to do that. I loved it!

Garden Progress 4-7-2021

broccoli

celery

leaf lettuce

spinach

tomatoes

Yellow Crookneck Squash

Zucchini

Things are looking very happy right now. We are under a possibly severe storms warning most of the day, so I’m HOPING that the storms are just rain and wind, rather than hail.

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Today’s Haul

Roses and Tomatoes

I just came in from about 20 chilly minutes outside. It’s not really that ‘cold,’ (52 degrees), but it’s raw-feeling and quite overcast and the wind is whipping around, making it FEEL a lot chillier.

I am planning to have several short sessions outside while it’s not actually raining, since we’re supposed to have rain tonight through Thursday.

This first time I gathered the few ripe tomatoes on the vines and then was caught up by some pretty blooms on our Rio Samba rose bushes. We also have a couple of twice-blooming iris, but I haven’t decided it I’ll bring them in or not. :0)

Even at mid-week, I was having to put on a sweat band to work outside very long. Not so today! I wore a much-used down vest and still got cold.

I will fix us some lunch and then see if I can get the irrigation system controller off the agricultural faucet next.

Rain

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I’m getting ready to leave for a much-needed massage. It looks like I’ll get a second shower, too, as it’s dark outside with thunderstorms predicted. I’m not water-soluble, so I’ll be happy if there is no hail associated with the storm.

I’ve been working hard lately cleaning, so I’m hoping to reward myself with time in the art room this afternoon. I have a new design for earrings in my head, and I would like to see how it goes. :0)

Our irrigation system brains in the well house keep getting zapped by the various short power outages we’ve been experiencing lately. We ordered a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) lately and my husband put it out there and hooked it up. Hopefully, now we won’t have to reset the thing over and over again. Fingers crossed.

I gathered some tomatoes yesterday. Most were the size of cherry tomatoes, but I will happily use them in salads. Nothing else from the main garden at this time, except some good-looking weeds.

I hope that your day is filled with fun.

 

 

Good Morning

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My husband is out mowing now – even though it’s too wet – because the rain has been such that there is NEVER a good time to do the job. It will have to be enough. Since the heat index today will be in the area of 110 degrees F., I’m glad he is out there getting the job over with now. (The weather people says it will get REALLY hot this coming week!) Right now, though, it is still cool enough to have the doors open and the ceiling fans on.

My zucchini and yellow crookneck squash plants are still looking healthy, but no actual veggies growing yet. The celery I planted is still alive and I have two more celery bottoms in water in the house. The onions continue to look good. I’ll go out later to see if we have more ripe tomatoes.

I worked on painting a new design of wooden earrings yesterday in my art room. I’ll post pics later.

I am hoping for a quiet day today.

I hope that YOUR Sunday is a nice one, too.