06/01/2014

First vegetable harvest of the season!  :)  One little summer squash and two cherry tomatoes.

05/26/2014

The blackberries are starting to ripen.  :)

05/24/2014

Just checking in.  The butternut squash has a tiny little squash on it!

I have also been enjoying a couple of fresh strawberries every week.

The blackberries are THIS close to being ripe!!

My grapevine that tries to come back every year and that gets whacked by chickens EVERY year.  It is trying again, and I'm thinking about building a little trellis for it.

Summer patty pan squash also making an appearance.  :)

The sunflower patch is coming along nicely.

Hollyhocks are blooming like mad now!

And one little renegade zucchini squash plant growing from last year's fallen fruit.

05/18/2014

I planted some sunflower seeds about two days ago, and was surprised at how fast they sprouted!

This little dude was guarding my butternut squash.  Good bug!!

My hollyhocks are finally in bloom!!  This is last year's plant that somehow survived the snow.

The butterfly bush is also doing very well.  :)

And this little succulent surprised me.  I didn't even know it was a flowering plant until I stumbled upon it the other day, full of blooms!

Last but not least, my new toy:  a hydroponic tower garden.  It holds twenty plants and promises that you can even grow larger plants, like tomatoes and squash in it.  I have a couple of squash plants on the bottom, and the rest is lettuces and flowers.  We'll see if it was worth the cost.

05/10/2014

First bloom in the garden:  patty pan squash

May 3, 2014

Well, it has been a busy month in the garden!

I planted these tomatoes inside in winter, and they spent too much time in the house, so they got spindly, but they are starting to become more robust now that they are out in the garden.  No idea what kind they are.  They sprouted up when I planted other plants, and I didn't have the heart to kill them.

This little plant is an heirloom cherry tomato.  It is the only one I've been able to find, as most cherry tomatoes are hybrids.  I had TWO, but one was eaten, so this little guy is now under a cage, to keep it safe until it is old enough to not be tasty anymore.

 Butternut squash

 Summer patty pan squash

 I've dedicated two beds to flowers.  This is a little chrysanthemum.  The twiggy things behind it are poinsettias that are just starting to come back from being abused between Christmas and now.

 Transplanted geranium (pre-grooming)

Hollyhocks growing from last year.  This plant somehow survived the snow this winter and is showing promise.  I don't know if the blooms will be the same as last year, so I am curiously waiting for them to show!

Spearmint growing wild by my in-ground bird bath.

Melons.  Don't remember if these are cantaloupe or watermelon, since I planted both and neglected to label them!

Baby kale plant

 Pepper plant.

Cucumber plants

 Japanese eggplant

Watermelon

One of my two flower gardens.  This one is cone flowers, lavender, and dianthus (carnations).  The cone flowers and lavender are for the bees.  The dianthus is a tribute to my father, who always had some growing near the house.  (I also have a seed packet of portulaca that I intend to plant, same reason, but haven't gotten to it yet.)

Potatoes.  Another surprise from last year.  This is in the bed that I had designated for compost.

Peppermint growing wild

This is a decoy plant I set up just outside the garden.  It is a great delicacy to the aphids, who are attacking it and leaving my veggie plants alone.

And the aphids, in their turn, are on the buffet menu for the beneficials.  (Same plant, just a little lower on the stem.)

Potted blackberry plant doing well.

I have harvested about a dozen strawberries so far, this year, from my potted strawberry plant.  I noticed that someone was stealing some, and I thought a bird was visiting, until I one day caught Polly very delicately pulling off a ripe berry and eating it.

What can I say?  The goofy dog likes strawberries.

Olla pot.  I am testing it out in the flower garden before I subject my veggies to it.  So far, I am pretty happy with it.  It is a porous clay pot that you bury underground and fill with water.  The water leaches out very slowly, feeding the roots of your plants.

Cinnamon basil

 Plain old basil.  :)

Chocolate mint

April 13, 2014

Lots going on in the garden!

Butternut squash plant

Geranium plant that I transplanted out of the pot it has been living in for years.  I hope I don't kill it the first year it is in the garden!  I am trying to set up one bed that is just for perennial flowers.

A chrysanthemum that I bought in winter and had potted and in the house.

A volunteer potato plant that came up from a seed potato that I obviously forgot to harvest last year.  This one is coming up from the bed that I had decided to devote to  compost. So now I guess it is devoted to compost and a potato plant.

 My three-year-old asparagus plants.

Summer patty pan squash.

Last year's rhubarb making a comeback (also in the bed designated for compost).












I also have an eggplant and a pepper plant that I haven't put in yet, as well as a number of seeds planted that I'll transplant out after they germinate and are big enough to withstand being outside, including some melon plants and some cucumbers.

The fruit trees are all in bloom and/or starting to fruit, so it looks like all is in order!