Quick Mid-July Squash Update!

Although it has been just a few weeks since I posted about growing butternut squash in my garden, it's already time for an update!

My three little squash plants had blossomed everywhere, and within a few days, I was seeing this:

 And even some bigger ones, like this:

Then I went back to taking some pictures of the gorgeous, huge yellow blossoms.

And here is my July 18 squash overview:

Who knew three little plants could take up so much room?  Not I.  But it makes me happy.  :)


Back to life,
Christine

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Early July in My Garden

Time for a Veggie Garden Update!

Early July

My garden chores consist mostly of weeding--pretty easy now that the pathways are mulched and the weeds are staying away--and looking for anything to harvest.

These Early Girl tomatoes were almost ready to pick!  I had never tried growing these before, but I'm so glad I chose to plant them this year.  There's such a great sense of satisfaction in being able to pick tomatoes in early July--in the Midwest, anyway!

I've already picked several sweet peppers (below).  These are Giant Marconi, and have the same taste as green bell peppers.  They're just longer, like a California pepper, with thinner skins.  They're decent, although I'd really like to grow a good green pepper.  Maybe I'll try again next year--green peppers and I needed a break for a while.  I just don't know what they need to grow better.  :/

Sweet pepper -- Giant Marconi, turning red on the vine.

Tomatoes -- Rutgers variety, which the lady at The Growing Place (nursery) convinced me to try.

A quick check of my garlic showed that the stems are browning and the flowers are turning from scapes (pre-bloom) to full heads of tiny little garlic cloves.  I'll harvest these probably next month, dry these little flower-cloves, then plant them in the autumn for next year's crop.

Here's my tomato bed.  They're looking great, and have reached the height of their four-foot stakes.  I'll have to invest in some taller ones next year!

Here is my herb corner, with rosemary, basil, and parsley.  Every plant is growing like there's no tomorrow.  The middle of the bed below has my peppers--sweet and jalapeno, and the strawberries are fading out in the back.

Below are my onions.  I planted them late, so they're pretty small.  Again, I wish I could grow big onions.  I'll take what I can get, though.  These are purple onions.

Finally, here's the overview of my early July garden.  I still marvel at those mulched walkways, and smile with satisfaction at a job started and finished and beautiful.  I love walking around my garden this year.

Back to life,
Christine

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My Late June Garden

Looking at my photo library, I realized I have taken a ton of images.  Yeah, I know, they don't weigh anything, except on my heart to get them into blog posts! 

Here what's going on in my late June garden.

I had to pause for a moment, admire my new mulched pathways around the garden, and of course take a picture of one of the pathways that had been the most weedy and yuckiest to walk through and work in.  No matter that the mulch was patchworked with red, brown, cedar, and other colors (whatever was on sale and in recovery bags and half price at Lowe's!).  I think it's a beautiful thing!

The herbs--basil, parsley, and rosemary--seemed to be picking up in growth. 

 Rosemary.

There were several yellowish leaves on the basil, so I picked off the worst ones in hopes that they'd grow strong (they're huge now!).

The rhubarb was looking good!  I think I'll be able to harvest some this year.  I have two plants--one given to me by my friend Debbie, and one given to me by my mom when she and Dad moved last spring.

Below, my squash was growing rapidly and expanding beyond the initial cheesecloth covering.  I've got a whole post about my butternut squash if you're curious--click here!

The garlic scapes were growing and curling, and I ended up leaving them alone.  Maybe next year I'll harvest some of them and cook up something wonderful.  The Lord knows I definitely have enough "seeds" that replant each year!  We're still working on using up the garlic from last year--I have about a pint of peeled garlic cloves in my freezer.

I planted my onions (below) late, so they're pretty small.  I'm hoping to have at least a few decent-sized purple onions for salads later this summer.

As soon as I see little green tomatoes appearing, I go on Tomato Watch.  Here's what I found on this late June day:

Plus, lots of flowers mean lots of future tomatoes to enjoy!

A check on my strawberry plants revealed that it's pretty much the end of the season.  The below image shows how I keep birds away from my strawberry patch:  I attach used pie tins to a wooden stake with string, then plant them around the patch.  I plant the high enough so that when they swing around in the wind, they don't shear off any of the plants' leaves.  Supposedly, the shiny aluminum and the tins swinging around deter the birds.  It seems to work--I had only 4-5 strawberries that got eaten by something, a bird or squirrel maybe.

 A strawberry blossom at the end of the season.

I have never been great at growing sweet peppers, and this year I tried Giant Marconi, a variety of sweet green pepper that is longer like a California pepper, and thinner-skinned.  They grow to a smaller size, but they produce more peppers per plant, so I figured I'd try them.  They're decent, though I really do love green peppers, and their thick, crunchy skin.

Also, in the above image you'll see that I use Velcro garden tape to hold up my plants.  It works very well, and since friends and neighbors have given it to me the past few years, I use it!  I'm going to end up breaking down and purchasing it next year; I love it that much.

Ha--you thought I wouldn't get away with a flower picture in here, but here is one of my day lilies, pretty much the only flower that is currently growing in my back yard.  :)

I have beautiful jalapeños this year!  I planted only two plants, but they're producing prolifically.

Okay, that's pretty much it for the update.  I never did take an "overview" shot from our pool deck like I usually do.  You'll have to be satisfied with all the individual and close-up images for now.  Trust me, there are more updates to come and I have the images to prove it!


Back to life,
Christine

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My Late May Garden, Step Two

Earlier in the day, we worked in the garden preparing the beds for planting the vegetables I purchased.  Then came the really fun part:  actually planting my vegetables.  Woo-hoo!

Below, Thomas and Danny have already planted my peppers--the sweet Giant Marconi and the jalapeños.  Here, they're working on the tomato plants.  One thing that I did new this year--as I planted each plant, I first dug the hole, then mixed three tablespoons of organic plant food into the soil in the hole.  Then, I separated the plant's roots a bit (to prevent it from getting root-bound), and planted it in the hole.  (July update:  my plants are doing fantastic, so I'm guessing the plant food helped!)

Peggy from The Growing Place recommended that I put cheesecloth over my butternut squash plants.  She said this would prevent moths from laying eggs at the base, thus killing the entire plant.  I figured it couldn't hurt, so I draped cheesecloth over the three plants and anchored the cloth with some bricks from our garage.  The cheesecloth should be removed when the plant blossoms, so that bees can pollinate them.

An update on the squash/cheesecloth situation to come soon.  :)

Here is the basil I planted the previous week:

The sweet peppers were planted and staked.  I used metal stakes, the same type I used for anchoring the chicken wire around my garden.  They're what I had, and they were free.

I also used garden tape to anchor the plants to the pole.  This is green tape, with Velcro on one side and soft, fuzzy material on the other.  The plant stems are kept safe, and the plant stays anchored on the pole.  I haven't had to purchase this tape yet, as a friend gave me some to use last year, and another friend gave me more this year.  *big smile of thanks*

A quick check of my strawberry plants and I saw lots of blossoms!  Maybe I'll get strawberries this year!  My neighbor Lorraine gave me the plants two autumns ago, so this is their second growing season.  Can't wait!  (Update on that soon, too!)

Looks like I'll have strawberries this year!!

I bought three types of tomatoes this year, and totally forgot about getting cherry tomatoes.  Oh, well.

 Tomato variety -- Early Girl.

 Tomato variety -- Better Boy.

 Tomato variety -- Rutgers.

 

All of the plants have lots of blossoms--a good sign!

That was it for the first day of planting.  We started the next day nice and sunny, ready all over again to plant the onions.  Below, you can see the empty bed waiting.  Well, there is a clump of garlic there in the back left which grew up from last year.  I just let that grow.

I spaced the onions about four inches apart, with the root part down and the stem part up.  Makes sense, huh?

After I worked some plant food between the rows of onions, Danny used my watering wand to water them.

The Overview

This is what the garden looked like at the end (before we planted the onions in the far back):

Back to life,
Christine

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