Dangercat Family

Tag: garden

  • Cucumber Madness

    We have been harvesting a LOT of cucumbers.

    Time to learn how to pickle

    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!

    Pretty ladies

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  • The Front Plot

    The Front Plot

    After much work this weekend on plot 21, we got a phone call from The City of Denton around 12pm yesterday and they said YES, we can have the front four plots (8, 9, 10, 11). So, we gave up plots 23 & 28 and are the new owners of four front plots (in addition to our four back plots). Let me explain:

    These were our plots until the change.
    These are now our plots! Front plot: 8, 9, 10, 11. Back plot: 21, 22, 29, 30.

    Fortunately, the front plots were recently mowed down by The City, so they weren’t filled with six foot monster sunflowers but, they still had stems that were incongruent with planting a garden.

    Plots 8, 9, 10, and 11 with the bottom of a myriad of large weed stems but otherwise mowed and ready for us.

    Yesterday, the weather was significantly cooler than the previous two weeks and the foreseeable future. We hopped to it and camped out at the garden all evening while Jeromey tilled the front garden plots.

    It looks a lot like vacuuming but it is much harder.

    Our plot plan also needed reconceptualization as it could no longer be executed in the plots we gave up. So, Micah began work to imagine our new 1080 square feet at the front of the community garden.

    Our front garden plan.

    I’ll update on our plants a bit later with some glamour shots. Today’s tasks are (1) deep tilling and contour work on the front plots, (2) marking the plot lines so it matches the map, (3) irrigation to plots 21 and 22 (we’re still hand-watering these babies), (4) replacing the peppers who didn’t make it (8 of 24 pepper seedlings died during their initial jump into the garden), (5) straw between and around plants in plots 21 and 22 to protect from the incredible heat coming, (6) fertilize the tomatoes, (7) go to tractor supply for seeds for Charlie’s flower garden, (8) plant peas, and (9) buy the supplies for canning (as we have 10 monster cucumbers right now at home and many to be picked).

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  • Tilling and Tilling and Planting

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  • Expanding

    Expanding

    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 plotlandia
    Let’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.

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  • one white fuzzy ball

    one white fuzzy ball
    BABY CANTALOUPE

    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

    Thyme
    Basil
    Culinary Sage
    Lavender
    Chives
    White 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 bolt
    The ghost of spinach past

    Fruiting Trees & Bushes

    This coral honeysuckle is insane and beautiful
    Okay, 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 well
    While 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!

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