May 22, 2011 - Garden Progress



I took the camera with me as I wandered through the garden tonight. It was late, so only the north and west gardens got photographed before it got too dark. That's probably a good thing, since I still ended up with twenty-one pictures!


My Sunsweet Cherry tomato has its first blossoms. This is my only store bought plant. My Sungolds failed to germinate, and this was the closest to it that I could find.


Two Cherokee Purple tomatoes, an Early Jalapeno pepper, and a pot of flowers among the strawberries in the west bed.


Two more Cherokee Purple tomatoes and more flowers at the other end of this west bed. The Cherokee Purples are healthy and green now, after looking a bit sickly early on, and all four of them have buds forming.


Next to the garden shed are a Bloody Butcher (green bucket) and two Coastal Pride Orange tomatoes in the containers. Some dwarf zinnias have been planted in front of the bucket.


The Bloody Butcher will bear the first ripe tomatoes of the year.


This is a pot of compact dill. I love this plant, as it stays quite short and stocky. It also self seeds prolifically. I had some planted next to the fence in the east garden last year, and now I see it is growing all over the neighbor's bed along the fence line. It's the only thing green growing over there, besides the Bermuda grass and some invasive weeds. :-(


Another Bloody Butcher (blue bucket), the Meyer Lemon tree, a pot of oregano and more dwarf zinnias live in this corner by the shed.


I pruned back the lemon tree a couple weeks ago, and it's beginning to branch out with new leaves. It's also getting ready to bloom again. It has been in bloom several times, and developed little green nubbins of fruit, but none have yet survived. Last month I repotted it with new soil and fed it some citrus fertilizer, but it's still not looking real great. I think it needs some warm days and sunshine.


The lettuce in the bed behind the shed is flourishing. It seems to get the perfect amount of shade and sunshine in its own cool little micro-climate.


It is still protected by the plastic netting, so the birds haven't been able to feast on it. I've already harvested the back two rows of Little Gem and Buttercrunch, and they have been replaced with seedlings from the whiskey barrel. Those were leftover seeds, all mixed together, but it looks like most of them are Romaine, probably Parris Island Cos.


I had to add some bird protection to the whiskey barrel lettuce nursery. This lettuce is growing so quickly, I'll soon have to begin snipping the leaves for salads.


Three hills of Bush Butternut squash.


It looks like the slugs have already found the seedlings.


The north brassica bed continues to put on tremendous growth. I grew all of these plants from seed, and was extremely careful with my labeling. So how did that broccoli end up in the cabbage bed? I know it had a "Golden Acre Cabbage" label.


The broccoli are beginning to form heads.


The cabbages are also beginning to head up.


The Royal Burgundy bush beans are beginning to grow. Soon their foliage will hide the ugly green tomato buckets.


Unfortunately, the slugs (possibly) found the Fortex pole beans, and they will have to be replanted. Last week there were also carrots coming up in this bed, and now they are all gone. They too will have to be replanted. I think the quail wiped out the carrots, but maybe the slugs were extra hungry. I put out slug traps and got nothing, so who knows which culprits did the dirty deeds.


I have never planted turnips, as nobody in the family will touch them with a ten foot pole. I happen to like them, so I decided to plant a couple of rows this spring. I didn't know they got so huge! That's a 5-gallon bucket behind two (yes TWO) turnips. These are Purple Top White Globe turnips. I felt around the base of those leaves, and I don't think bulbs are forming.


The raspberries are absolutely loaded with blossoms, and I've seen many, many honey bees each day. Oh, I wish they would hurry and ripen!


One nosy little Otto dog followed me through the garden tonight. The Annie dog was too lazy sleepy to bother.

24 comments:

  1. Your garden is so exiciting! Everything looks wonderful. I'm not happy you're having a slug problem, tho...those nasty critters need to leave your beautiful garden alone! I love seeing you plant flowers among the veggies, too...I just think that is such a nice touch.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lynda, the blossoms are just beginning to open on the Sweet Williams, the lilies have a bunch of huge buds, and I saw some flowers forming on the dwarf cosmos. In the next couple of weeks, there might actually be something besides the color green in the garden!

    I think the second planting of beans should survive. They just had too much to fight, with cold weather and slugs and birds. Some warm weather will do wonders.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have serious Tomato Envy. My gosh, I STILL have 10 days until my plants can go out.

    Otto is such a sweet boy. Maybe he's not "nosy"....maybe he's PROTECTIVE.
    LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Everything is looking great as usual. I always look forward to seeing the progess in your garden. I'm always amazed at how fast things grow at this time of year.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love, love, love fortex beans. There's noting like them!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Granny, you may be on to something if you continue to plant self seeding varieties on the fence row!! Everything looks wonderful! We did turnips and parsnip last year for the first time. Didn't get a great load but they made good in soup stock since no one here eats them...or knows they eat them ;)

    Cute little doggie!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm going to have to resow a lot of my beans. The really cold temps paired with the cold weather wiped a lot of them out. They just damped off. I don't usually have problems with that in the big seeded plants, but this soil is just filled with nasty fungi and it has been a real issue.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your garden is lovely. You tomatoes look great and a bloom to boot. I just love the last picture the best. Just too cute. Oh, and I love the idea of growing dill in a pot. It shoots up everywhere in my herb garden. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. And what progress you have made. Thanks for sharing the idea of dill in a pot. Mine just pops up everywhere in the herb garden. That last pic is the best. Just too cute!

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a cutie! The garden looks good, I somehow manage to screw up labeling as well on occasion, no matter how mindful I am being of my work.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Granny, your garden is looking great! I also really like the picture of Otto, he looks adorable....

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your tomatoes are looking great! This was my first year growing from seed, and unfortunately they are no where near as far along as any other bloggers'. I suppose I started them a little late.

    Sorry to hear about your slug problem. We had one here at our rental house, which made gardening last year a pain in the butt. However, the property we just bought has a pond, and thus toads and frogs! They'll surely keep the slug population down.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Your garden always amazes me :) I hope the slugs leaves the plants alone and we all get some sunshine.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I haven't commented before, but want to let you know how much I enjoy your writing and your fabulous garden. What an inspiration you are!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Those turnip greens look so good, I'd have to pop a couple of leaves pretty darn quick before I gained composure :o)
    Every thing is looking real good. My poor cabbages in the side garden are being eaten up as fast as I replant.
    I bought some Seven, the Diatrimetrios Earth didn't do a thing. I'm hoping to do better with the fall cabbage.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sue, about the biggest thing Otto could/would protect me from would be a SLUG!! He's my gentle, sweet little one. He's only vicious with the chihuahua that lives behind the wooden fence, which is so comical.

    ********
    Ed, except the carrots. I've never had my carrots grow so slowly as they have this year. I have pictures to prove it ;-)

    ********
    Ribbit, me too! I saved a to of seed last year, I never want to be without them.

    ********
    APG, that's what I keep hoping. I know there were heirloom tomatoes, squash and beans rotting on the vines last October, and possibly some of my cucumbers that found there way into that bed. So far all I see is dill.

    I love parsnips, but when I grew them they got so huge, I just don't have enough room in this small garden.

    ********
    Daphne, all my beans, except the Royal Burgundy, had damping off and slug problems. I have a lot of replanting to do, and now it is back down in the 60s again!

    ********
    Lorie, I suppose the dill will be all over that shed garden next year, as will the California poppies. That's fine though, it's a good place for both.

    ********
    Kelly, I used Sharpies to write on the small clear plastic cups, and it faded out completely on them! It never fades on the red plastic. Thankfully the tomatoes and peppers had been up-potted to the red cups before the fading took place!

    ********
    Otto said "Thank you, Mr. EG". That dog has good manners ;-)

    ********
    Prairie Cat, my seedlings this year looked rather sickly early on, not strong and dark green like they had in past years. I was sure happy to see them perk up once they were in the garden. Oh, I wish I had toads in my garden! I do have several, but they aren't real, LOL.

    ********
    Sarada, "sunshine" and "warmth" are the magic words.

    ********
    Thank you, Barbara! I'm happy you spoke up!

    ********
    Ginny, I wish I could send you those greens. I don't like them, but my rabbit sure does.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Looks great! I grew the compact dill "Bouquet" last year and you are right, I didn't even have to sow any this year, it's all over the place LOL. That's good though, since I have to share it with the butterfly larvae.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Erin, I wish the volunteer tomato plants were earlier, I wouldn't have to worry about them, either. Heck, I wish everything (except weeds) would just volunteer, and I wouldn't have to do anything but harvest!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Walking through the garden at dusk is such a pleasure! Thank you for sharing - Everything looks good, The cabbage from seed! - I have so much to learn...

    ReplyDelete
  20. David, I put that photo of the turnips in for you! Those two turnips take up more than a square foot of space, and unfortunately it looks like they are all top and no root. I put some 10-10-10 fertilizer in that bed for the spinach, so it must have been too high in nitrogen for the turnips.

    ReplyDelete
  21. so very cool!
    Do your 5 gallon buckets open into the ground so the roots can grow out of the bucket or do the plants stay within the bucket?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Charmcity, all of the 5-gallon buckets are open bottomed (see my sidebar link for Bottomless Tomato Buckets). The black pots just have a lot of drainage holes drilled in the bottoms, so they usually only hold herbs, flowers or peppers. I do have one dwarf tomato plant in a black pot, I might regret it.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Otter is so adorable.:) Everytime I see him I think of our little wirehaired Dachshund "Sunny" we had years ago.

    So, I think you will really like the Coastal Pride tomatoes, the plants are a little funky looking but we really like the fruits. If you post pictures of the ripened tomatoes I am going to send a link to the gentlman in Canada that sent me the seeds, he would like seeing them growing in another persons garden. Dan and his recently departed wife worked on stabilizing this cross between two hybrids many, many years ago when they lived along the BC coast and worked in a litehouse.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Mr. H., Otter isn't only adorable, he's a gentle little sweetheart and my shadow.

    I hope the Coastal Prides do well in those pots. I ran out of the 5-gallon buckets, and since the CPOs are the smallest variety I'm growing I decided to put them in the largest pots I could find.

    I can't believe those Bloody Butchers already have tomatoes! The largest is about the size of a half dollar now. If only we could get some warm weather, they'd ripen soon.

    ReplyDelete