2023 Garden - Update 1
June 23, 2023
I'm sorry that it's been almost a month, but everything other than the tomatoes and potatoes are growing slower than normal this year, and I didn't really want to post an update when nothing much had changed. There's finally enough to look at now, though.
The potatoes have been going gangbusters.
The reds are flowering here and there.
Kohlrabi and beets are just above the potatoes.
Then there's some red and green romaine. I'll rotate more through here as the summer goes on.
The green beans. Just a small batch for the summer. I'll plant more later for the fall.
Here are the first two zucchinis. I made a mistake by leaving the shade wood on the ground next to them when they came up, and squash bugs moved in under it, damn near killing the plants before I figured out what was going on. As you can see, one has recovered better than the other, but they should be all right now. I have two more started next to them as well.
Here's a cucumber plant. I don't understand why it's growing so slowly, but like I said it's certainly not the only thing.
On the other side we have the tomatoes and peppers. I'm pruning the tomatoes to five vines per plant this year. The wood between them is for marigold seeds. I had marigolds between them last year and they seemed to keep aphids away, so I thought I'd do it again. I should have started them earlier, but it slipped my mind.
The first tomato is a cherry, the other two are regular. That's a row of carrots on the right. Not very visible yet.
Some green cherry tomatoes. I can't remember the variety. A bird must have stolen the plant ID marker I had in the ground next to it, because it is certainly missing. Probably part of a nest somewhere.
And some green regulars. I think these are Best Boys.
I had more seed potatoes from last year than I needed for what was planted earlier, and because I had less corn seed than normal, I planted another row of potatoes. They're under the line on the right of the image.
They were getting pretty old and dry, but they seem to be coming up just fine. I'll rake soil up on them as they grow. I didn't have any extra soil amendments for them, so I'm considering this an experiment.
The second corn is coming up in the no-longer-empty area next to the first corn.
Here's the first corn. Another thing growing slower than expected, and rather unevenly. I don't know why. I hope it works out.
The peas are done and dying off now.
Here's what they looked like shelled.
Here's 3 of about 10 quarts I got from them, so about 2 1/2 gallons.
Here are the cantaloupes, another slow grower this year.
Flowering already, too. Go figure.
The okra. Still small, but it'll probably explode before long.
The blackberries.
There definitely won't be many this year, but some are coming on.
The butternuts.
One of the blueberry bushes.
Starting to ripen.
And yet another slow grower – the watermelons in the backyard side plot. They should be much bigger than this. I think this was actually bad seed. I've planted maybe 15 seeds on the right so far, and none of them have come up. I've reseeded it again, but I may have to settle for those two plants on the left.
Here's a birdhouse in the apple tree, with a couple of small apples in the upper right. Wrens are in the birdhouse.
If you noticed the lack of apples and the dead leaves in the image above, this may be why – Yellow-bellied Sapsucker woodpecker damage. I think the tree is sick. I hope it recovers.
I have two new ones planted, though. They went in the ground last year. Red Delicious and Enterprise varieties.
Here's another look at their placement in the yard from a different angle. They're in the lower right, down by the little frog and turtle pond.
Speaking of turtles...
I think this one is a Red-eared Slider, but I'm not positive.
They lay eggs in the yard. Snapping turtles do it, too.
Some kind of Dahlia. I can't remember which.
Purple Clematis, growing up a couple of twine lines on one side of the porch.
A hummingbird, with a hanging begonia in the background.
Honeybees like hummingbird nectar, too.
A Blue jay making off with a whole peanut.
I haven't been lucky enough to catch any wren chicks fledging from their birdhouses this year, but they were all over the place for a few days. I think this was the first morning out of the nest for these two.
Their parents were still feeding them.
A gray squirrel.
A chipmunk.
A hungry bunny.
Polly and her daily back-scratching-in-the-sun thing.
And introducing... Buddy McFussypants!
He was dumped here on the night of the 6th, and was so tiny. This was taken that first morning, and he only weighed about a pound.
He's growing faster than the garden, though. He's up to about three pounds now. Here's a short video.
That's all for now. Thanks for dropping by again.
Post shots of your own stuff if you want to.
your garden is huge. full time job huge. it didn't look that big when it was bare dirt. your new kitten looks like he has assumed full household authority with his personality. hopefully he hasn't been too hard on the poor dog.
I dunno. It's not that big. 48 x 48.
The kitten is a little bundle of joy. No problems with him and Polly so far.
Great entertainment. I'll have to watch the video first thing in the morning. Had a nice meal of corn from my wife's garden yesterday.
Lucky you. Mine's still quite a ways off.
Yours is looking neat and organized
No pictures now. My Garden has befitted from several days of much needed rain.
It's getting dry here again, with near record heat today.
I'm between crops. The lettuce has bolted, and the strawberries stopped blooming. My cucumbers and squash are growing, but haven't bloomed yet.
And as charger said, it's been raining here, quite a bit. I need to weed the garden and flower beds, but it's muddy. The creek at the back of my yard is still really low, though.
I'll gladly take that rain off your hands.
We need every drop. Sorry it's dry your way.
This has been a weird June for us. Dry early, but now it's wet and cool. Our first day of summer, I think the high temp was 62. I've been leaving the windows open at night when I can, and waking up cold in the morning.
Sounds enjoyable. I suppose June has actually been rather mild here. There were a few hot days, but it's only now getting hot regularly. I think it's blowing up from Texas. The news says they're having quite the heat wave down there. I had some rain, but not nearly as much as usual.
Buddy is a cutie pie.
Oh, he is. And he's so, like, normal. I mean he's not standoffish or skittish or anything. Super friendly. He must have received lots of attention wherever he was from.
If he was dumped when he was that tiny, I'd say his experience of humans has probably been mostly with you, and his normalness is to your credit.
Those blackberry things grow wild around here.
Here too. They're all over the place. The ones in the garden are thornless, and the berries are usually bigger than the wild ones.
Same here, plus raspberries and blueberries at higher elevations. My neighbor who lives above me doesn't mind if I pick berries on his land.
I had a red tabby named Bud. E. (short for Budweiser E. Cat). He was 26lbs of love. I hope your little guy will give you that kind of joy that I got from mine.
Thanks. Me, too.
The garden is looking great, Dig. Buddy is the cutest. If he and Polly get along, that's wonderful.
Thanks. Yeah, Polly was already used to cats, but the ones she knew are all gone now. And then this little guy shows up. It's as if the universe knew it was time for another one, lol.
polly needed another kitty pal.
Evening..your garden looks fantastic..
We also ended up with a tiny kitten that was dumped in the bush..my SIL found her and brought her home..they already have two cats and couldn't find a home for her. So they now have three cats.
This is Cheetah...and she has landed on her paws now..🐾🐾
She's adorable!
She's quite the looker. Really pretty striping. I'd almost forgotten how much fun kittens can be. Trouble, too, but worth it.
One good thing about working so hard to get the irrigation going is, now we don't need it. It has rained and the fields to the SE of us still have water sitting in them after 2 days. We received just about what we needed here and it looks that the rains maybe coming at regular intervals into the future (knock on wood).
Right now we are getting a NE wind and it has brought back the smoke from Canada with a vengeance, 1/2 mile visibility and there is no sun.
I do hope that what is in the sky, other than smoke, are clouds that could produce rain and bring some of the free fertilized down with it.
Well this ain't good, since it is summer, we have been leaving the doors open at the shop, I just stepped out of the office and the whole shop is hazy with smoke, we are a welding and machine shop, but no one has been welding yet this morning. I just went around and closed all the doors, which I am sure won't help because any air filtering through the shop from outside will still be filled with smoke.
I hadn't heard anything since last month about those fires, until just a couple of days ago. I guess I'd kind of assumed they were out.
It's great that you've been getting rain. Any idea if it's been raining at all where the fires are?
It seems that the high pressure ridge that was blocking the precipitation from reaching us earlier has weakened and moved on, but there still remains a high pressure ridge in Canada pushing the systems down towards us but keeping them dry. There is another seed explaining this about the jet stream. We're still under a smoke particulate advisory here so the fires are still going, but today we have had rain while the smoke is in the atmosphere so we are getting some of that fertilizer from the sky now. It is still quite hazy and smells of smoke yet today.