Warm and dry.

I hate to complain though,  its actually too dry.  We have had no rain for over a month if i remember correctly. Its been windy also...  not breezy...windy.  Anyway,  its so dry that authorities have asked people to not even use gas grills for outdoor cooking.  Unfortunately,  this weather just screams out for grilled food...  luckily we don't have  a water shortage,  its just the old grass and dry brush in the woods that have them worried. Once things leaf out  and green up, it won't be so risky.  We have a 50% chance of rain for Thursday and a 10% for Friday.  I hope we get some.  Luckily the majority of my plants are drought tolerant.

As far as the plants go,  things are looking great.  They are pushing out leaves and sizing up.  The goji already have tiny flower buds about the size of this o.
The rough looking blueberry at least looks like it will recover.  The others are getting ready to bloom.  I think i'll cover them with something this winter.

The Sparkle strawberries came in on Saturday and were planted in the big terracotta looking pot.  I ordered 10 but got 11,  so that was nice.



The Ancient sweet peppers on the right look so good compared to the ones i sowed weeks before.  Basil and borage on the left:


Older peppers, eggplant and parsley:




Tomatoes


Tea hibiscus and green shiso.  the red never came up.


Small asparagus harvest


Still having to bring the seedlings in at night.


Its supposed to stay in the 40's tonight so maybe i won't have to take them in.  Supposed to be in the 70's today,  yay!

I got the cukes, squash and melons planted on Sunday

Getting ready to finish starting seeds and using the greenhouse.

I have put my seedlings into the greenhouse to acclimate to outdoor conditions...mainly the cool nights.   It sure heats up in there and i have an old sleeping blanket covering the top to shade the seedlings from the strongest sunlight.  In a few days i'll be able to take the blanket off and only use it to try and keep heat in if  we get a really cold night.  So far for the long term forecast the night temps are expected to stay in the high 30's and lower 40's.  So its time to go for sink or swim.  Of course if frost is expect, the plants will spend the night in the house.





So far the plants are all leafing out and the lilacs are showing flower buds.  They usually bloom about Memorial Weekend,  which is in about 3 weeks.





Everything is really leafing out nicely,  looks so far like everything made it through winter,  two of the blueberry plants took it hard though.  They got some sort of frost bite and the tips of their branches are dead,  but they are resilient and should recover even if they bloom a little later than their buddies.

The beach plum that got broken from heavy snow seems to have survived the break and is getting leaf buds,  though it was also later than the other beach plum.I can't wait until things are fully leafed out.  I' was hoping the Stanley plum would flower this year- its third year here,  but it does not look like it has flower buds on it so far.

Still no strawberries in the mail....  i wonder if they are coming at all at this point.  No big deal either way,  there is always next year.

I need to get the seeds started for the cukes and Minnesota melons.  I also need to replant some of the pots where nothing came up with nasturtiums.

I was thinking about something when our mail carrier went by.  I'm hoping planting flowers near the mail box won't cause a problem.  I have heard of mail carriers getting stung by bees while delivering because the homeowner planted something like morning glories to grow up the mail box post.  My flower box is about 4 feet away,  so i hope it won't be a problem.  I usually have a smaller  pot out there where i would plant petunias,  but the pot was small and didn't attract much.  The bigger pot should have way more flowers,  so its something to keep in mind.

There. Got the nasturtium seeds put in.  It was easy since i didn't have to fill pots with soil.

I just got done talking to the Nice Neighbors and she's going to give me two pots like my large terracotta looking one.  Yay!  Looks like i'll have a place to put more things soon...  i just need the soil for it.

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.

Tomatoes, finally.

We did get to pick one tomato on the 5th of August.  It was a Siberia.  The Siberia have given us about 6 more since then. Hubby says they are good, one the small size (like a really big cherry tomato) not very sweet but very tomatoey.

The rest of the plants are finally going from green/white to a yellowy color and many are becoming very red.

I took photos a few days apart over the last week or so that i haven't made any entries:

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These i picked on the 12th

I got to have the little pear tomato, it was a bit mealy, but it has been dry. The flavor was nice.

I have gotten a few more tomatoes since then

(edit in that picture)

The corn is continuing to be motivated

Some slender ears, they have gotten a bit fatter since this picture was taken

.The purple tomatillos have put out a number of berries

The ornamental eggplant is looking interesting

The big pumpkin is getting very orange.  Not bd for my first pumpkin...and the accidental one that it is. The other two are looking fine, the middle sized one is beginning to ripen as well.

I discovered that i do have a big birdhouse gourd. It is buried in a tangle of vines and has to be close to 2' tall

The squashes are looking nice and it looks like i will have a plentiful harvest of them. The Carnival (pictured) has at least 6 that i can see and the Long Island Cheese is working on at least 4.

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I didn't photo any cucumbers, but we are averaging at least one a day. Not enough to do anything with, but perfect for an occasional snack.  I will plant more next year, even though the production level is not overwhelming- i want to try some cucumber recipes with the extras.

The watermelon has been a toss-up.  I had some nice Pony Yellow forming but they got to Candlepin bowling ball size and then cracked in half.  I do have one round melon still going strong, its almost standard bowling ball size now, but i'm not sure which variety it belongs to.  The oval watermelon is still growing nice. I checked them for cracking yesterday and all seems well so far.
I wonder if i will be able to figure out when they are ripe enough to pick.

oval

Shiso

Purple podded green beans in flower

The purple beans are taking their sweet time, but the Provider beans are still going,  slowly but i can get about a pound every 4 days.

I think my "Venous Orange" is trying to flower.  No scent so far,  which is  disappointing.

Back view of garden.  The weeds are taking over.  I simply can't keep up at this point.

Oh, and this is what Job's Tears plant looks like as its going to work on making seeds

I hope i get enough seed to replant next year and get some for beading projects.

I saw one sweet pepper forming, its not tiny anymore.  I saw some of the hot peppers flowering,  no eggplant yet.  The summer squashes are still going, the herbs are doing great. I pulled a few more beets but i'm leaving the carrots a little longer.  The melon leaves are turning a bit yellow, not sure if this is disease or dryness. 

So that is the rundown to catch up.

Melons and cukes

I planted them around 6pm.  Overnight temps forecast to be in the upper 40's and lower 50's through next Friday.
They sleep outside in the seed flats as it is, the ground was and stays warmer overnight. Plus i put row cover over them. So they should be cozy.
The soil felt quite warm, the cover on the melon row definitely helped with the soil temperature.

The only melon i did not plant were the Banana. They are late starters and have not sprouted yet.

I plan to direct sow the green beans, and rutabagas ....maybe the beets tomorrow.

I'm sort of throwing caution to the wind at this point.

I doubt i'll  be able to next year, this has been an exceptionally mild spring.  I hope this bit of apparent risk is  going to be worth it. If we have no frosts in the next 14 days, i will be glad i did it.


Under cover, i think the plants can stand a light frost.