Mid-June Update

I was going to put the photos up last week, but I didn't get a chance. I have taken a whole bunch over the weekend and this is the result. I did finally get my bird poo, so I think that might have helped everything getting much bigger. In fact, everything is bigger than they are in the photos except the sunflowers. I think the Bambi Brigade took them last night. All the heads have been chewed off completely. Not cut (as if by humans) or raided (as if by Squirrel Squadron) just gone. Like what happened in the Great Raid of '08 to my corn. I didn't like those sunflowers anyway since they were hybrid and not mammoth, but it would have been nice if I could have gotten some of the seeds. Everyone in the cave heard it apparently. The Littlest Giant thought there was a baby outside. The Wife couldn't tell either but though she heard people or talking. I head it too, and thought it was maybe another owl or coyotes or something. Whatever it was all the heads were taken the same way. I didn't look for prints (which I should have) but I presume it was some deer and their fawns that took them. So, I'll replant some Mammoths there. Anyway, on with the pics!

Cherry tomato plant before I added the fertilizer. Plants are a little yellow, testing the soil this weekend. I think I need some lime.

The potted Bell Pepper plant now planted in the ground. It almost died in its pot. When I took it out it was very pot bound. Doing much better where it is, although no flowers at the moment.

The first of hopefully many baby pumpkins. I'm amazed, this orb has gotten twice as big since I took this photo only 5 days ago.

The flint corn. See the yellowing there too? Must be acid.

The tomato plants as a group. Yellowing there too.

The bell and cayenne plants. Doing very well, still no flowers though.

The peanuts in they spot that was the parsnips. These guys sprouted a whole 4 days after I planted the seeds.

The driveway bed looking up toward the house.

'Watermellion' as The Littlest Giant calls it. This was a replant as the first round didn't take. I think it was soil temp. As warm as March was, the soil was barely in the 60's when I planted these. Its routinely in the 70's now.

Cherokee beans learning to climb up their poles.

Alas, one of the lost heads. This one was almost ripe too. See the yellowing on the leaves? That's originally what made me think it was acid. Or lack of iron.

These are the only Mammoths I had planted. In the main bed. They are doing very well for themselves. I don't expect heads until sometime in mid July. Note how they are turning toward the sun even now.

Honeydew planted from the seeds of a melon bought at Whole Foods.

A family portrait of the now headless sunflowers.

Second planting of cucumbers. Doing well.

One of my other pumpkins sporting some nice flowers. You can't see it, but there are some baby pumpkins beneath. Hoping they last. I still have not decided what to do with the water barrels since I had to move them away from the house. Its not supposed to rain all week, so I think I will just drain them in the bed, and store them at the back there.

Finally, some tomatoes on one of the many plants I have. These are slightly bigger now, but not ripe yet.

June 1 update

Interesting proceedings in the garden over the past month. Watermelon, cucumbers, and eggplant did not come up, even though it appeared they were. Either I was mistaken, or they just didn't make it, because what I thought was the actual plants did not continue their existence. One of the cayenne plants that I planted didn't make it either. I also harvested all of the parsnips, which yielded quite a lot of tubers. They were, after all, in the Main Bed 'sweet spot'.

I have mixed emotions about the peat pots that I used. They worked to get the plants up and running, but have not decomposed in the ground despite the tomatoes, sunflowers, and pumpkins all reaching large sizes. However, all the plants have already flowered (except the peppers), so they are all 'dwarf.' I have fertilized twice since planting, but they are all mini plants. The sunflowers (non Mammoth as I wanted, but a smaller variety) already even have seeds that the finches have promptly attacked. So is it the pots? The fertilizer? or did getting them out early make them produce early? I don't know. I need my bird poo to tell.

All the plants that did survive the transplants are doing very well though. My potatoes are outgrowing the patch, the corn is almost knee-high, and the cherry tomato plant is producing, but small tomatoes. Hmm, why is every thing dwarfed? Potassium since they are already fruiting? I'll have to re-test the soil.

I have planted peanuts in the parsnip section. Replanted the watermelons. Planted honeydew in place of the cucumbers and finally planted ...something where the eggplants were. I can't remember what it was.

I do have some red delicious apples growing on their tree. Nothing on the fuji though, they didn't even flower this year, but I know they are an every other year thing. And I do have pics of that. Ill try to get more pics up this weekend when I do some weed and feed and prune the trees around the garden. Stay tuned.