My Nemesis

Everyone needs a nemesis. I just wish mine were more of the fun-loving, adventure seeking sort. No, mine is a very large canopied oak tree. It's a beautiful tree, but it blocks out all of the sun from after 3:00 or so on. I haven't been home during the day since all of the leaves came in, but I'm worried it's going to be more around 2:00 and after. I'll have to watch it on Saturday.
The extra shade back there is keeping my lettuce in the SFG alive...this tells me it may not bode well for the things that need a lot of sun during the summer. Then again, the afternoon shade in the brutal heat may keep things happier...we'll have to see.

Look below...do you see what I see? This is my eggplant in the pots out front. They're just loving life out there. I hope that the pots are big enough. Isn't that color amazing!?

The Cayenne peppers are flowering like mad. After they flower and wither, the stems get rather brown and fall off very, very easily. Is this normal or poor polination? I've never grown peppers before. I'll do some research and see what I can find out.
Here are the blueberries. I'm thrilled that we may actually get some blueberries this year!

Not many pics of the actual SFG today...things are looking sad out there now that I severed the broccoli's heads and the beans and cucks on the trellised beds are coming in spotty, but my zucchini sprouted, so that's a good thing. Here's the royal burgundy beans in the side bed. They've grown a lot in a week.

Below is one of the toms in pots on the front walk. It's looking fantastic!!
I'm about to rip out the broccoli and plant squash this weeekend, but can anyone tell me how I'm supposed to get those roots out without disturbing the things around it? Most won't be a problem, but I have two planted next to some peppers that I'd rather not loose if I can help it. Any advice would be well appreciated.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

For all you conspiracy theorists out there

I'm not starting out here to be a naysayer. I firmly believe conspiracy theories have their place in our knowledge and blame seeking society. There are some conspiracy theories, which everyone knows, that shriek of lunatics in suits of tin foil and duct tape; there are also theories no one wants to admit that they, themselves, are a subscriber of.

As the man and I sat down to dinner last night, in front of the salad I picked out of the garden that evening, I realized how loosely I had to use the term "salad." Why is it that when your lettuce is in full regalia, your tomatoes and cucumbers aren't even at the starting block. It works the other way as well. Now that my tomatoes are flowering and setting fruit and the first true leaves of the cucumbers are emerging, I come home to see that my lettuce has been next to incinerated by a traveling death-ray. Wilted might have described it's condition for merely the hour after sunrise. This, my friends, was an annihilation.

It's a full blown garden conspiracy. There is someone out there, I tell you, who is determined to prevent us from commingling our homegrown vegetables. I feel like a traitor to my summer garden when I handle the produce at the grocery, and yet I want a fully integrated salad.

So it's off to the grocery I go.

In other garden goings on, the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in pots are just LOVING the warm, sunny weather and cool nights. The toms are dark green and as bushy as can be, the cayenne pepper has more open blooms than I can count, and the eggplants are a rich purple and sprouting new leaves each day. They're only being outdone on the flowering point by the ones in hanging pots. I've never seen so many flower clusters on one plant before, but you know they're going to get root bound soon, so the glory days may not last. The toms in the back yard SFG are struggling a bit because they don't get as much sun, but still doing well. The peppers in the SFG also have blooms on them.

The carrots must have taken my threats to heart. They're making progress. Most of the pole beans and cucumbers (bush and vine) have sprouted, but the germination on the bush beans leaves something to be desired. I'm wondering if the little buggies that are still crawling in the compost are affecting the germination of the seeds. I've never seen them on the plants, but they sure are running around in the soil something fierce.

The SSpeas, however, are not taking the warm weather too well. They never grew much when it was cooler, but now that it's warm, they're growing upwards, but also loosing their verdure and becoming more of a very light mint green. There are no signs of blooms yet, either. Looks like those are going on the "try in the fall" list.

As much as we all love and devour broccoli, six heads pulled within two days are a bit much. I'm hoping some will keep in the fridge for a while. I had to take them off since they were beginning to loosen. I wonder if that's the garden gnome in charge of the salad conspiracy's way of making you forget you're missing half of the ingredients to your salad....

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Homecoming

I've come to the understanding that "Home, Sweet Home" is not just a cliche. It's an accurate portrayal of life.

The weekend was more than I could have hoped for it to be. I reconnected with friends and family, some of which I haven't seen in more than a decade. The wedding was beautiful. The food delectable, the bride stunning, and the groom dutifully captivated by her. None could have asked for more, but weekend getaways end, and one returns home with memories to treasure.

I took a gamble this morning and went to the airport early in hopes of catching an earlier flight. My children were needing me, or rather, I was needing them, and there's something about going to a wedding without your own husband that makes you appreciate him even more than you already did, and encourages that mad dash through the terminal as if flames were hurrying you along.

The masterful broccoli head, almost perfect for picking upon my departure started to separate, and many radishes sent up stalks, but everything was still edible and sweet. My beans broke the surface, the cucumbers aren't far behind, and I see the start of my zucchini poking it's leaves through the dirt. Most of all, in spite of a few pin-prick holes, the bugs stayed away....they must have heard of my unmerciful dispatchment of their friend on Thursday.

However, with all the triumphs, there will be some setbacks. Because of my early flight, I thought I had bought some time. I was wrong. It only took being gone for two and a half days, but it happened.

My daughter forgot who I was.

I met them at the park where they were playing after dinner. I walked toward the girl with my arms out; she in turn stomped her little feet, scrinched up her face, and said, "NO! NO!" while waving her hand beside her face as if she were chasing the daemons away. When the boy caught wind of me and called my name, the light went on for the girl and she and he both stayed connected to my leg, and my husband held my hand as we walked to the car.

Home is sweet, indeed.

I've greeted the garden and schnuffled the children, and now it's time for me to remember the events of this weekend, sit down next to my husband and let him know how lucky I am to be his bride.

Sweet gardening dreams. The morning comes early, but hopefully not too early - at least for this one night.

Garden Separation Anxiety

Why is it that when you know you're going to be away from your garden for any period of time you feel such separation anxiety. My greatest inclination right now is to fall to my knees, hold on to my boxes, and reassure them I'll come back. I want to whisper to my broccoli they'll be just fine for four days, kiss my half sprouted beans goodbye, love on the okra with thoughts of true leaves emerging while I'm gone, and encourage my cucumbers to climb with all their might so I'll be proud of them.

It's also at this point that I begin looking for a 12 step program to suit my needs.

Yes, I'm being neurotic, but it's all (okay, mostly) warranted. Things are at a precarious stage. Most plants are just emerging and my broccoli is almost ready to come off. I'd pull a head probably Saturday and I'm worried that two more days out there will start letting the head loosen. I just pulled a green caterpillar off of my broccoli that had built himself a cocoon. He was not in the least bit happy and made a run for it. I caught him, but you know his buddies will come looking for him soon.

But how exciting is it going to be to come back and see how things are going now that the temperatures are where they should be for this time of year. Imagine the mass upsurge of growth from things that have been next to stagnant unto this point...carrots, I'm talking about you. You can't continue to drain me of my space and give nothing in return. Where's your sense of responsibility. It's time you think about maturing...

It will be fun to see family, I'm going to a wedding in St. Louis. The man, the boy and the girl are staying home, and I'll truly miss them more than my garden. To keep them close to my heart, I'll most likely take pictures of them to show the rest of the family and delight in their oohs and ahhs at how much they've grown. And...I might just throw some pictures of my garden in the mix as well for good measure. I wouldn't want the little, fuzzy tomatoes to get jealous, you understand.

:)

The morning comes early.
Sweet gardening dreams.

Hold on t'yer butts!

One more dip to low temperatures tonight and we should be clear sailing through spring to summer. You can tell everything out there is really responding to the warmer temperatures. My beans in pots are starting to sprout and I think there are a few threatening to come up in the larger box during the next day or two. The okra is out of the ground (six squares and one pot), waiting for their first true leaves and the one over achieving broccoli head has doubled in size and is sending off side shoots that are as large as the main heads of the other plants. There are multiple, multiple flower clusters on my tom in the hanging pot. I'm really rather shocked at how many there are with it still being so cool and how many are already producing small tomatoes, but I'm afraid with its growth it's going to get root bound fairly quickly. I'm interested to see what impact the warm weather has on it and everything else in the garden. I think the eggplants will be thrilled. It's too early for me to have them out as it is, but they seem to be holding their own. I'm headed to a wedding this weekend in St. Louis (anyone know what the weather's like there?), and I'm a little bit nervous about leaving the garden without daily bug picking, but I bet it will look like a different place when I get back one way or the other!

I put in three more red peppers for a total of 5, two tam jalapenos (4 jalapenos total) and one more yellow pepper (total 3) for the man. I decided to put more pepper plants instead of the soybeans I was planning on. I may move the soybeans to pots or try to sow them once the bush beans are done if there's time. There are multiple flowers on the peppers out front, but none yet on the SSPeas. They've been in the pot since January, so I'm starting to wonder if they'll flower at all, but there's nothing else needing to go there, so they can have all of the time they want.

One zucchini and a squash were started inside today to replace the black radishes and broccoli when they're done. The boy also requested watermelon, so some sugar baby was started inside as well. I don't have room to trellis the cantaloupe or watermelon, and I know it's going to overrun the garden, but we'll see how it goes. I'll most likely remove the onions since they're not bulbing and many are inclined to send up flower stalks. Onions and I don't seem to get along. I couldn't grow them in the fall, either. It's a 2x3 box which is small, yes, but I'm hoping I can keep one watermelon plant contained there. If it spills to the other box with the cantaloupe it shouldn't be too bad. I'll need to evaluate the summer sun again and see if there's room for another trellised box in the back, but it's not looking likely.

The morning comes early. Y'all have a good evening.
Sweet gardening dreams.

The Corner Yard....LIVE!

Well I just sat down to load up a film of the garden I took this afternoon when I logged on to blogger and saw that EG had just posted one of his own! Go check his out if you haven't. He's got an awesome SWC set up that's amazing.

I went to a local landscape company this weekend with a girlfriend. They were amazing. I can really see the difference between you big-box stores and the local ones. They had a little Jack Russel out there running around and my boy squealed like a pig while enacting his evasive maneuvers. You'd have thought the boy had never seen a dog before. For goodness sake! We have a Great Dane! I honestly don't think he understands Gibson's a dog.

We got a lot of planting done this weekend. This is the time of year where old things come out and new things go in. I decided to go ahead and pull those peas. I'll have plenty of room for them in the fall since I don't expect my squash to make it past the squash bugs in June/July. I bought some marigold, geraniums and mint. I read somewhere that mint/catnip helps to repel squash bugs. We'll see. I decided to put the flowers in those unreachable center squares in the larger bed.

Zucchini went in the place of the peas, but it hasn't sprouted yet. I pulled the spinach on the other side of the bed and put in some cantaloupe which will most likely overrun the entire bed since I can't trellis it. It says one foot apart for planting, and I've planted 3 per 9 feet, so I'm hoping it will do okay. I'm planning on moving the onion bed shortly when the onions are done, but I think it will be sooner than later because the onions keep sending up flower stalks one after one and I hear they're pretty unusable after that point.

The tomatoes in the hanging pots are setting fruit and the cucumbers in the hanging pots are emerging from the soil.

So here's the film. No laughing, please. Or at least be kind enough to laugh behind my back. :) There's a brief shot of the neighbor's yard. The film doesn't do it justice, but the weeds are so tall my two yr old thought she was lost when she walked down the sidewalk yesterday.

The Sick Humor of the Vegetable Gods

Seriously. It's not funny.

I spent two days agonizing about just pulling my shelling peas and going ahead and planting my squash. The SVB and squash bug emerge in GA in June. Once they come, kiss everything goodbye. I got one, count them, one, zucchini last year out of two plants. I got a half a squash from another. The squash bugs and pickleworms got me every single time. I was determined to beat them at their game. I'm scrappy and I have more experience...(only because I don't think their lifetimes are as long as mine has been).

So I went to the garden. I steeled myself to uproot those bugger peas and curse them for not maturing fast enough. I thrust my hand into the square...and found the beginnings of the first flower.

Don't laugh. It's not funny. It's a conspiracy, I tell you. I'm thinking about holding a grudge. I'm a woman. I can do that really well. :)

So I acquiesced and let the little peas live for at least two to three weeks more. Maybe I'll get three or four peas out of the deal. I did, however, start the squash and zucks in little containers outside in the sun and not under lights so I can transplant them immediately after I get the nerve to pull the peas.

I also planted all of my heavyweight bush beans and my KW beans in my hanging baskets. I'm going to try to grow those to trellis around my deck railing. My cucumbers in the hanging baskets are just about to sprout, and my peppers have a flower.

My experiment with the tomatoes in the hanging basket seems to be working okay for now. I took some smaller Juliet Roma toms and I think Sweet 100's and planted them at 45 degree angles in hanging pots. Yes, they're growing toward the sun a bit, but I'm hoping as they grow larger and fruit starts to ripen, they'll dangle down. it's the easiest way to get them away from the serial tomato killer (Gibson, the dog).

Other than that, the eggplant is looking good.

The SS peas are starting to climb back up after being cut down by the winds last week.

The blueberries have tons of flowers. Some flowers got knocked off in the winds last week. I suppose those bushes are done for this year, right?

I had to pull two incredibly small red onions this week because they started to bolt. Who would have thought! Then I went to the black radishes and found one of those had bolted as well. Most of the carrots aren't doing much of anything, but what's really odd is that there are two shaded by the black radishes and those are growing with a purpose.

I'm really thinking about only growing broccoli, lettuce and radishes next spring. Broccoli is looking great....

However, everything else doesn't seem to have the stamina to mature in time. That's a heck of a lot of broccoli. I'll have to do some soul searching to see if I can stand empty squares until mid April.

Speaking of squares, here's how I strung the beds the other day. You can see it's only one piece of string . I still need to get out there and bend over the nails if I'm going to leave the grid up.
Well, sports fans, that's it for me. 4:30 AM comes pretty early and I'm about to turn into a pumpkin (one unmolested by SVB if it's all the same to you).

Y'all have a good evening. Sweet gardening dreams.