I cannot believe this cantaloupe is thriving, internet void. Like, it really seems unlikely that we haven’t failed this plant but here it is, just killing it, being pregnant with an awesome little fruit. 😍
Sophie’s huge watermelon pinwheel
An update on our beauties is in order.
Cucumbers
We have eaten THREE cucumbers already and one is ready to be picked!This one was thick!
3 Sisters
The silks are fading and we are now on corn watch 👀
Our patty pan squash continues to flourish and we are probably several days behind on harvesting beans.
Okra
We went and saw these beauties’ sister plants out at NP Ranch last night and THEY ARE BEARING FRUIT. Meanwhile, our little survivors are starting to grow.
These 3 pretty okras are taking!
Oh my god, Becky, look at these pumpkins
Our Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin seedlings are ready to be thinned, Jeromey
Seedlings @ home
Our little seedlings are doing so well at home.
Columns, left to right: First two columns are poblano peppers, next two columns are “Born to be Mild”, fifth column is jalapeños, sixth column is “Mad Hatter Hybrid”, seventh column is “Hot Lemon”, and the furthest column on the right is “Fish”
These babies are ready to go into 3-4 inch pots (or maybe, if we’re feeling frisky/risky, the earth).
Sophie’s seedling eggplants (white and purple) and sweet peppers are popping up! The left half of the tray is sweet peppers and on the right half, the top 3 rows are white eggplants and the bottom 3 rows are dark purple eggplants.
Herbs & Strawberries
ThymeBasilCulinary SageLavenderChivesWhite Sage aka Witch Sage is sprouting!Oregano re-plant is sprouting if you look closely!Parsley seems to be reaching the end of its grow here. I wonder if we re-plant or start anew if we can get it to flourish indoors for the summer?We are on dill seeding watch!Strawberries are doing excellent after we sprayed neem oil. Chamomile seems to be dying because it is too crowded. We need to get this into the soil or a larger pot post haste.Pretty sure this arugula has been a boltThe ghost of spinach past
Fruiting Trees & Bushes
This coral honeysuckle is insane and beautifulOkay, sweet little Arbequina, maybe next year you’ll fruit.While this Blueberry is hanging in there, we have absolutely no sign of flowers. Maybe I need to research fertilizer for it again. Or just, honestly, commit to fertilizing it more regularly. I think this is a user failure.Our new Meyer Lemon tree is already flowering! Micah mashed its flowers together so maybe it will fruit? We’ll see!Oh well…that’s still not in the ground. But hey, somehow the old stick got broken off so now there won’t be two dead sticks with Gooseberry root systems in the same spot. Perk.
Cut Flowers
These are doing so very wellWhile we had some little bitty mites on the leaves, the Neem oil killed them all and a couple spiders showed up and ate the dead bugs so the flowers are looking really good.
As I’m writing this, I’ve listened to my little singing bird (working on a puzzle) sing the following songs to herself: ABDCEFU, Happier, Don’t Stop Me, and a made up song she has titled “Let me ask you one singular thing”
Misc.
Ready for the baby toads which are hopping about
I’ve been considering about seedling-ing a Southern Magnolia tree. It would outlive us all. Feels like a deep undertaking and every time I think about it I get chills. We’re off to work on the garden today. Plans are to plant the little pumpkins, get some chigger-killer at Ace Hardware along with more deet and mushroom compost. Then, to till the rest of plot 22 and maybe put in the baby peppers. We need to find more plant markers also because these peppers are hard to keep straight! Wish us luck!
Apparently hemlock is a BFD. Five or six leaves, ingested, will kill an adult. The roots and seeds are even more poisonous than the leaves. Even when dry and dead, the plant will remain highly toxic for THREE YEARS. So…here’s the question…are the weeds at the garden hemlock or some mimic?
Both google and our plant identification app indicate that this is Santa Maria, also known as Parthenium hysterophorus, and while it causes horrible things like a lack of tomato yield and contact dermatitis, it is not going to kill us. 🏅
It just takes one rain to make everything leap ahead in growth. Also, it just takes one rain to make the weeds in unoccupied plots go from ~12 inches high to 4 feet. I wish I had taken pictures but we harvested a cucumber and patty pan squash today, not out of desire, but out of necessity. That’s a first! Also Sophie installed a huge pinwheel.
Still waiting on the city to tell us whether we can have the 3 plots full of weeds to turn into our root garden and also to tell us what they can do to help with the scourge of chiggers. We haven’t been able to bask in our garden since the chiggers arrived. It’s hard on all of us, but especially Jeromey who reacts harshest to the bites.
Today and yesterday, Jeromey sprayed the garden with two products from Earth’s Ally (links below) to try to rid our garden of chiggers, squash bugs, and the adorable but terrible harlequin bugs. We’re avoiding using any chemicals that we don’t have to so these products are made with ingredients like rosemary and peppermint oil. Their support people say the sprays should kill these bugs. We’re going to find out and let you know!
Squash bugs are horrible little buggers that kill the leaves and fruit of squash plants. They start out like this:
And grow into this:
And eventually look like this:
Lots of people call them stink bugs but they really aren’t. They’re squash murderers and deserve to die. We’re just trying to fulfill our karmic destiny here by ridding our plot of these heinous vegetation thieves.
Jeromey attempted to follow the instructions on the bottle by spraying the entire plant including the tops and bottoms of the leaves. With all of the plants we now have and how big they already are, it took hours to do this for our garden. He followed this treatment by spending several more hours spraying the ground to try to get rid of the chiggers and harlequin bugs. The chiggers have been completely horrible in a way that would steal our love from gardening if we can’t eradicate them, so we’re on a crusade to KILL THEM ALL (or at least get them away from our plant babies so we can care for them).
I mean, seriously, if you had plants that you raised from seeds that you cared for by hand like this, wouldn’t you do the same?
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