Friday, August 13, 2010

Pics of the Jungle

Everything is over-grown, but it looks kinda cool being wild and yet productive. :)


Coming up from the driveway, Mamoth Sunflowers greet you.



Closeup of the multiple flowers on the sunflower head.


One of the 5 cantaloupes up close.


Tomatoes in one of the cages. I wonder if I should prune them?


Jalapenos though the fence. I pick it and eat it.


Sunflower. Never realized how "Day of the Triffids" these guys look.


Squash. Everywhere.


Ye Olde Pumpkin Patch marches on.


The biggest of the 4 baby pumpkins. This one is on a piece of wood to prevent rot from all the rain we have been getting lately.


Had to seal off the rain barrels for the rest of the season. Mosquitoes again. Its really bad, take the lid off and 30 of those buggers come flying out ready to bite and mate. They got in when I took the lids off to water with the pump. Next year I am going to have to stick the power cord and hose though the openings and seal them up with caulk.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Eight Nine Ten

I wish I was counting the amount of pumpkins I have. That was the date that I saw the first two though. :) Yay! Finally! Its supposed to be 100 the next two days though, so I hope those babies don't abort. *crosses fingers*. Of course they are both on the same vine, and it is the secondary shoot, which apparently the pumpkin plants don't really rely on, but I will take what I can get at this point. From what I have read, this is about the time they set fruit in my area. Well, at least when its a normal year, not the hottest year ever. *sigh* Thanks Al Gore. ;)

I did not take pictures of them, but I will today and post them here.

Until now, the Giant has been on vacation with the rest of the Clan. The Littlest Giant is now a confirmed water baby, just like her old man.

Before I left for the trip, I decided to harvest what I could of the corn before the Squirrel Squadron got to the rest. I didn't realize that harvesting the ears killed the whole stalk but this whole thing is a learning process right? Another thing I learned is that gardens actually should be pruned. In the fight for supremacy among the 3 sisters, once the corn died the beans and squash went insane. I have more squash than I can shake a stick at and the beans, although not fruiting, have grown everywhere. Almost as bad as all the kudzu in the area. I did have to prune the tomato plants which were out of control, and I had to cull some of the jalapenos that were just too small and sucking resources. All the sunflowers are now so big that the heads are tipped over. One actually fell after a rainstorm and I decided to chop off the head and see if the seeds will mature on my porch. The finches (which I never see except when they are going after sunflowers) were already picking that one apart. I ate a seed, but it is not ready yet. Very watery and not tasty at all. The cantaloupe have a few fruits, but the vines have all but wilted. I' not sure if its borers or the fact that the sandy soil holds no water at all. Obviously I'm keeping an eye on them. The watermelon are going nowhere. Maybe its a soil thing again. The bush beans have pods, and I am waiting for them. The potatoes are ready I think, just need to dig some up. The carrots still need time, really small.

I harvested 8 ears of corn. Man did it taste good, you didn't even need to cook it, but I did for about 10 minutes. So sweet. I can see why the natives didn't like it, its almost too sweet. But I'm not going to plant field corn as I don't have the time or inclination to make masa



So, thoughts at this point:

4 sisters: no mounds. only plant 1 bean per group. 1 squash/pumpkin per 2 rows. 1 sunflower per row. Succession plant the corn so that I can have a lot. I harvested in July, so no fresh corn in aug, sept and oct? What a waste.

pumpkins: wait to plant until june, that way I don't have to spend an extra two months fertilizing the vines and anguishing over fruit.

Need mix some more of my clay soil into the front bed which is mostly sand at this point. It doesn't hold much water and the sunflowers all tipped over because there is nothing for the roots to hang onto.

Seedlings really need to be culled. Things just get too crowded. I know I am anxious to have plants, but in the end it kills productivity when its a jungle and I can't reach in for the tomatoes.

Need to build space into the beds so I can walk around the sisters after they get big. The closest row to the house should be kept open. Right now I have to jump squash to get in.

More photos to come.