Photo post

Grape patch

Autumn Olive,  growing like the weed that it is.

The healthier of the two Carmine Jewel cherry plants

Blueberries and Lingonberries

Lingonberry flowers

Blueberries in fruit

Side bed all filled up

The less impressive Carmine Jewel cherry,  i hope it survives winter

The Yard

Wild kitty in my garden,  digging in the bean row

Other end of the Yard

Autumn Olive a few weeks later-- even bigger than before

Goldbeere Elderberry

York (left) and Nova (right) Elderberries

Caerulea Blue elderberry

Grape row

Full garden shot

Photo shortly after getting most everything planted in.

I've enjoyed things so far this year.  I have managed to keep up with the weeds at this point- using my scuffle hoe.  Keeping my 3-year-old and feral kitties out of the garden has been the main challenge.  I lost a cucumber plant the other day to one of the two. At this point, its too late to do anything about it.

Next year i definitely have to get an earlier start with seeds,  i held myself too tight this time and then ran out of time.  The older my little one gets,  the easier it should be,  i'll be able to direct her away from things more easily. 

Its been a cool couple of weeks,  its been in the 60's during the day,  40-50's overnight.  We are expecting 90 degree weather in the next few days,  the cool air does not seem to have damaged anything,  but things like the beans are growing slowly.  The tomatoes are about to bloom though and the grapes are in full flush right now.  The cukes and squashes have just kind of sat there.

We'll see what a few days in the 90's can do to get things going.

Finished planting

I weeded everything with my old garden weasel, then dug the last two rows.  Then i planted the squashes and cucumbers and the three Job's tears seedlings.  I also planted a third row of green beans.  The ones i planted a week ago still haven't come up,  its been a bit cool out so hopefully its just that.

I've had not-so-good germination this year.

  None of the 3 Beit Alpha seeds sprouted,  only one of the 3 Delicata squash sprouted,  out of 4 Spacemaster cukes, only 2 came up.  The Banana Legs tomatoes sprouted 2 out of four.  Happiness came from the Golden Zebra summer squash.  Every seed came up,  i actually had to thin them.

I managed to get everything done just before some thunderstorms blew up,  so everything is being watered in naturally.

Its  supposed to be sunny and warm through next week once the storms clear out tonight.

Cats in the garden.

Not my cat,  hes a 100% indoor gentleman.  Its the neighborhood cats that get me.  They like my garden as a litter box and they scamper across the rows.  They also use it as their own fighting arena.  One night a tomato plant got broken due to a squabble.  I mounded the soil up around the broken part of the stem,  it has recovered  nicely,  but it still was annoying.

Its still better than woodchucks (which i haven't seen yet).  There's a rumor of a fisher in the area. So i think its likely that it may have been hunting them.  They also go after cats, so though the cats bother me, i hope they won't be killed like that.

Drenched

We got some good rain this weekend,  its been a steady downpour since Saturday evening.

My hubby wanted me to try those Jobe's fertilizer spikes for tomatoes since our soil is so sandy we suspect much of the fertilizers get washed away rather quickly.  I poked them in the other day,  i expect them to make a difference.

My squash and cuke seeds and seedlings are still in the flat,  they are going slow and some are not germinating at all.  I'll be lucky if i get one Delicata plant.  The butternut are large though and almost ready to go in.

I really started them too late,  but the germination  percent is quite disappointing. I planted two seeds in each pot.

The rain has overflowed the flats so i'll need to drain them...again.  So much rain,  its been steady for almost 3 days now.  I expect my green bean seeds have been well watered by now, lol

Stanley will have to be staked again,  the water on his leaves has him bending down  alarmingly once more.  I'm still not understanding this pruning thing,  i simply don't know what needs to be cut.  I let my grapes go this year,  it warmed up way too fast for me to get in and winter prune,  so i'm letting them go just to see what it "looks like" when they grow on their own.  I think i have enough of a handle on how to prune grapes that i can make repairs next spring.

I need also to make name plates for my plants.  I'm not sure how i'll do this.  They are outgrowing their nursery tags and they'll have to be removed .....  and i'm forgetful. I want to know who is who.  I am very disorganised at the same time i like to be precise.  I'll spend hours charting and graphing,  but in the end i just wing it.   Like this year.   I mapped and plotted with my Grow Veg subscription,  but when it got  down to it,  i didn't print it off,  i just dug in and planted.  This year i didn't even label varieties,  some of the tomatoes i recognise by sight this year (pruden's purple, san marzanos and aunt molly's ground cherries) and the kales (red russian and kai lan queen),  i know where the beans are.  The squashes i'll know by the time they grow and the cukes will sort themselves out.  Once the rain stops and i can start digging again,  i'll plant them out.

I did find my camera cable (yay!)   but no pics because of the rain.  I plan to do a picture post soon. Maybe i'll do one of those "Wordless Wednesday" posts i see other bloggers doing.

Beans

I planted two rows of Provider bush beans today. Time will tell if i have set myself up for inundation or not.  But then i usually plant double the seeds in the same area of row, so this may actually be the right    way to go.

Oh,  i found the first firefly on my hubby's shoulder  this evening,  i was pretty cool.  We were out having a cigar  and there it was. Brilliant!