Mr. Pea, I presume...

I'm not watering for another three months, at least.

I'm amazed at how well the SFG kept up with the constant barrage of water. You never saw puddling or much of a disturbance of the soil. The ants, however, are another story. The little tiny red ants have found the soil. I'm half convinced that if I dug up a section of the beds I'd realize the whole thing was one big ant mound. They're crawling on the boxes, around and in the soil and worst of all, climbing on the fledgling plants. So far I can't tell if they're doing any damage.

I would not have thought after how many fierce storms we've had and a week without sun that the garden would have done much of anything this week. How very wrong I was. Just take a look at this and compare it with the pictures below taken last week.

Okra in a pot WAY too small.
Bush tom

Inside that bush tom
I didn't know eggplant flowers were so beautiful!
Pepper plants in pots
Side bed of bush beans, radishes and cucumbers

And here is what it's really all about:

Mr. Pea, I presume?

I don't know if I'm more happy that I didn't rip out the plants a month ago or if I'm frustrated that they took since January to bloom. Needless to say, I'm very, very anxious to get a few pods out of them. The plants have got to go in a few weeks to make room for something else. They've bought themselves a little time since I can't decide what to plant in the pot. I might stick some more okra in it. I still have several seedlings that need repotting, but I may be looking for something more exciting for that pot....Any ideas?

The morning comes early...even on a weekend. Sweet gardening dreams.

Gardening? What's that?

Not much gardening has been going on around here the last two days, I'm afraid. I pulled another few ounces of salad greens and two more black radishes the other day. The squash and zucchini are doing very well and the replacement beans are looking to root. The peas are blooming (and to think I almost ripped them out), and I'm attacking each pepper flower with a q-tip since none has been appropriately pollinated yet, and all this between rain bursts.

**addendum, I just sneaked out after writing this initially and saw that more pepper blossoms that I had hand pollinated had fallen off at the stem. Any ideas why? My soybeans are emerging, my eggplant flower is opening and my empty square of bush cucumbers that had so long refused to sprout, did so today. At least there isn't a blank...EG, you feeling me?


It's been raining on and off here, as in seemingly most of the country, since last Friday. Seems as though every storm has dropped tons of rain, mass amounts of hail and kicked off a few tornadoes. The toads are floating...seriously. We have another storm going outside right now and the news reports some places may get up to 5 inches. Gibson, our Great Dane, is doing his best Chicken Little impression pacing around as if the world is coming to an end. Occasionally he'll stick his nose in the children's faces and plead for them to heed his warning only to continue his rounds when they don't give him his required response.

The boy brought home one of those preschool fill in the blank Mother's Day cards for which he dictated the answers for the blanks to his teacher to complete. It's about time someone realized that I truly am 6 feet tall and 38 pounds. It's good to know that his misconceptions about my height and weight are just as solidly grounded in improbability as my own.

On that note, I think I'll polish off that piece of cheesecake in the fridge before I go to bed. I hear I don't need to feel guilty about it.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Thoughts and Transformations

Yesterday, the town next to us was holding what they billed as a "master gardeners' fair". I was very excited and brought a sample of my compost hoping someone could identify the creepy crawlies in it. I was so disappointed. The fair consisted of four booths, one guy selling raised beds seemingly made from rough pallet wood who yelped in pain each time he touched his work without gloves, another with spindly tomatoes, one selling marginally living flowers and shrubs and a lady with a big hat...none of which were master gardeners. I asked around which wasn't hard to do since I was the only patron of the "fair" and heard the lady with the hat was my best bet at the compost answer. She didn't want to look at my sample, but I politely pushed the issue. She eventually took a side glance at the container and said they were worm eggs; I replied with sarcasm that I had no idea that worm eggs had multiple legs and could run that fast. She waved her hand around and said something to the effect that compost was a living organism and that if I didn't have bugs, then I had problems.

*sigh*

What I did learn is that the town is setting up a community garden where you can purchase a 4x8 raised bed plot for $35 a year. The first year is going to be volunteer work and construction. Next year, hypothetically, will be the first year you can plant. She kept flip flopping if it was going to be a community garden where you'd have your own space, or a teaching garden where you'd plant your own stuff for schools and churches to come in and learn from, meaning they'd be in and around your veggies doing who knows what to your beds which doesn't thrill me. I can't decide if it's something I want to take part in or not. I'd love it because it is full sun and would allow me to plant more of the things I can't put in my sun challenged back yard. However, walking into a community garden run by a group that is shaky on their own dedication to the project has me nervous. I may, more likely, keep it in mind and check on their progress next year, which is a shame since I'd love to be involved in starting something like this, but I don't want to get all involved physically and emotionally and have them drop the ball which seems likely at this point. Maybe I can volunteer over the summer and see where the project is when I go back to school. That way I can form an educated and not simply judgemental opinion.

Otherwise, the transformation from a spring garden to a summer garden is taking place this month. The red radishes, lettuce and broccoli did phenomenally this spring. I think I may limit the spring crops to this next year and leave more blanks to plant summer crops after Easter. Here are the way things are shaping up now. I'll start from the front left and move across and then back.
On the end of the first large bed there is a zucchini peaking it's head out. Next to that are black radishes in front and carrots behind. Radishes are about the size of a golf ball and I pulled another today that rivaled a tennis ball, but they need to get much bigger. I don't know if I'll leave them in to maturity, but thin them to one or two left to mature. The carrots are irritatingly languid. I'm planning on putting sweet potatoes there in the next month so they may not make it. To the right of the bed I have three cantaloupe plants which are more than likely too close together. The small box with the bolting onions (why can't I grow onions? I've tried multiple times) will hold SB watermelon. I figured they can run in with the cantaloupe. I've heard that peppers and melons shouldn't be near each other, so what do I do? Plant peppers on the right of the second box as close to the melons as I can get them. Oh well. live and learn. On the left of the second bed is another zucchini plant just put in today.

The first 3x3 box still has carrots in front and lettuce in back. I put a squash in the middle to mature while the others finish out. The back 3x3 has four bush tomatoes in the corners. They won't bush out so much with the limited sun, so things should be fine having them in that tight space. I left a bucket out there, I now notice. Sorry about that.


You can see how sporadically my larger bed has filled in. On the back row you have four of cucumber, one tomato and three squares of pole beans. Working in the front by the cucumbers, you can see how spotty the bush beans filled in. Something is eating them as they emerge from the ground (I'm thinking the little creepy crawlies, but whatever) I just replanted, so we'll see if I'm luckier the second go around. There are six squares of bush cukes, and the hanging pot with the pole beans I'm hopeful will climb up to the deck railing is blocking a view of the six okra that may or may not make it with the limited sun. I put an okra in the blank spot at the end of the pepper bed and some in a pot so hopefully I can get something out of them one way or another. I also put some soybean seeds in pots in front and in back. If I opt out of the watermelon, the soybeans will also go in the small onion bed.

The peas in the front pot are blooming! Amazing...it's only taken since early January. They're pale and slowly dying from the bottom up, but they're flowering like mad. I'm glad I left them...we'll see if anything comes of them. I'll be pleasantly surprised if they do.

Granny and EG have calmed my fears about the limited sun in the back yard. Things may not grow as large or produce as much, but if anything I'm hopeful it will do the plants some good in the fierce GA heat of July.

The fierce thunderstorms are here and the morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

Reflections and Realizations

I could do my best Sally Field impersonation right about now, but I'd alienate any past readers and certainly discourage any new ones from continuing. Granny, from Annie's Kitchen Garden (http://annieskitchengarden.blogspot.com) has gifted me with the nicest blogging award which I put on the side here. It's rather significant to me because it was from reading Granny's blog that I found out what blogging was all about; yes, I'm late to the embracing technology game. My students are still shocked that all my cell phone does is dial numbers which apparently puts me in the category of those still unable to program a VCR. I came upon Granny's blog and was inspired. She encouraged me along through my fall garden and I try to emulate her in my blog.
Thank you, Granny.

Today is the first day I've been home during the day to actually see the length of daylight I have left after the nefarious oak tree has filled out. It is worse than I thought. I've been cut from 6.5 hours to just around 5. This is going to seriously inhibit my attempts to grow most of anything back there and it's my largest bed with the trellis. I could have sworn that the sun was there longer, but obviously I was mistaken. Lesson learned build any new beds during the summer. I'm disappointed because this is where I've put my beans, all my cucumbers and my okra. I think the beans may do okay, but the cucumbers and okra will suffer.

The rain that fell yesterday and should continue through the weekend is much needed, but it also inhibits any pictures in this post. The pots all in the front are amazing. The black radishes in the back are really looking good as well. I pulled the broccoli out of the SFG this afternoon. It wasn't as bad as I thought. I brought the shovel, intending to sever the roots along the square, but started off just ripping the ones out only bordered by the other broccoli. When I realized how small the root ball was that came with it, I pulled out the ones near the peppers with no problems. Tomorrow I'll try to get a break in the rain and transplant my squash that I have in small containers. I'm trying to think if I want to try some SBwatermelon as well. I have a small box they could fit in and then merge in with the cantaloupe. I'm going to also try to start some soybeans in the new hole left by the broccoli over by the peppers.

OOOhh!!! My SSPeas in the front, besides being totally brown and a pale green have sent out flowers. I may just get two or three pods out of it after all.

I'm obviously going to have to rethink my garden plan now that I know for sure how much sun is lost in the SFG. Any idea what I could plant that would get the strong sun for only 5 or so hours a day? I'm afraid I'm going to be terribly limited.

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.