Sophie is the real harvester in our family and she bravely jumps right inside the cucumber teepee to grab these monster fruits. Our patty pan squash yield seems to be dwindling which is fine as we just planted another type of squash.
Holy Mother of Cantaloupe
This cantaloupe trellis is comprised of six cantaloupe plants and holy crap, they are fruiting. We use mesh bags to support the fruit on the upright trellis to avoid it breaking from the vine and have, so far, bagged 15 cantaloupe big enough to pull the vines. The earliest fruits are ripening and getting so very close.
Once, not so long ago, this was the one white fuzzy ball
Tomato-stravaganza
Well so it was all fun and games planting 47 tomato plants but now they’re all making fruit (well except the Cherokee purple and Arkansas traveler who are not quite in flowering stage yet. Same with the Quarter Century). We trimmed the tomatoes down to three leads each and fertilized them and now (nearly) everyone is getting in on the little green ball game.
Hello little Brandywine!Welcome baby San Marzanos!Hi hi hi Black Krim!
Our corn is still here, likely maturing, but struggling to keep its roots in the ground. We are hoping it can make this last month of maturity for harvest in the middle of July!
On Monday, we got the green light to take over the three plots surrounding ours – #21, #23, and #28. This means we now have 6 plots at 15×20 feet each or 1800 sqft of garden real estate. We have plotted out the new sections and the July crop rotation for a few crops that will complete their growing cycle by mid-July (corn, cucumbers, cantaloupe, poppies). We are itching to get the garden into form but also itching because every time we break ground we unleash chiggers. Like many of our cucumbers in the coming days, we are in a pickle.
Our new plotlandiaLet’s see how much of this ends up as it is drawn and how much of it has to change due to our planning naiveté.
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!
110 days. It was 110 days since we sat at the kitchen table and fumbled through planting Parisian carrots and cherry tomatoes. 110 days since we had ice on the ground. 110 days since we began this crazy journey. On May 23, 2023, we harvested our first harvest.
The feeling when she picked that cucumber was wild. After so much time, to pick fruit from our lovely once-seedling was exhilarating and emotional.
But cucumbers weren’t the only things ready for harvest.
Beans were ready to be picked as well! Charlie picked about 15 beans from the three sisters too. Sophie went around and found three patty pan squash that were ready, too.
Don’t mind our sweet Little Caesars pizza. Gardeners have to eat, too.
In addition to harvesting, Jeromey ran 200 feet of drip irrigation emitter tubing which drips water onto our whole garden. Now, we can water while we work. How today’s garden adventure started:
and how it ended:
What a beautiful night.
BUT…even though we were covered in permethrin, DEET, long sleeves and pants, tilled all of our plots, changed clothes as soon as we got home, and scrubbed ourselves in hot water immediately we still got covered in chigger bites. Jeromey has at least fifty right now on his body (two days later). He went and watered last night and STILL got new bites. What are we going to do? Like…if all of that doesn’t work, what will?
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