garden stuff

Time to tell more about the garden! We ate our first heirloom Tomato yesterday, and a few cherry ones- delicious! I need to buy more tomato cages next year- all the extra plants got staked with sticks and the poles from my compost bin- now the bin is floppy, and so are the staked plants. The ones in cages are so much more neat and tidy.

I pulled up the second planting of Peas- it was too hot for them. Try again when fall comes. The Green Beans are almost ready. Zucchini plants are getting huge. The Pepper plant among the beans has tiny peppers where the flowers were- and the second lot I planted where the early peas came out are sprouting! I don't know if they'll grow fast enough to make fruit, though. Cut the last of the Chard for pasta dish tonight. I'm gathering the last of Lettuce seed today, and then will turn the bed over with compost for a fall planting.

The cutting of Sunflowers to make the plants spread more didn't really work. One that got chopped off by accident when young made a few tall stems with small flowers and looks nice- the ones I cut off on purpose at fence level branched thickly and with the flower heads on droop heavily. One fell over so hard it cracked and split itself- I cut it down and tossed on the compost pile. Next year I'll leave them alone to grow straight and tall- and plant a different variety, I think. It turns out no one wants to eat sunflower seeds, so I just want to grow them for the pretty flowers, and natural screen it makes. Nobody wanted to eat Radish, either, so I won't plant those again- although their flowers were pretty, too. And the Potatoes have all nearly died- I don't know what I did wrong there- but I don't mind as A is not crazy about potatoes.

I've gotten pretty good at picking cucumber beetles off- no more plants have sickened since I lost the Cucumbers. Every morning I go out with tweezers and check all the blossoms of Zucchini, Pumpkin and Cantaloupe where they like to hide. I don't get them all- a few fly up and away each time- but enough to keep their damage in check.