Why didn't I think of this sooner?

Here's my last ditch effort to keep what's left of my garden from frying.  Nothing is really producing except for the jalapenos, but last year the tomato plants had a lot of new growth and fruit in the fall, so maybe they're worth saving.  Even when it's blazing hot out there, the umbrella makes it sort of nice.  If I could find some that I could hook a hose up to and have them serve as a sprinkler too, they might be a permanent fixture.

Looks like things are going to be cooling down!!

Mothers Day Meals

I wrote a nice long post about my lovely Mother's Day, but it has disappeared somehow.  I heard of this happening to someone else recently, so I may need to start looking for a more stable blog program and one that's easier to edit.  This newest version is sooooo glitchy. 

Anyway, hopefully you read what I wrote before, because there's no way I can recreate that magic again, but here's a short version:

Mother's Day brunch prepared by Bob and Parker.  Below that is dinner - Parker and Bob had spinach from the garden.

 

New garden bed that Bob and Parker made while I napped.  It's going to be for cantelope, pumpkins and sunflowers.  I obviously haven't learned my lesson about over planting.

It lives!

I thought for sure that my asparagus, which I have been waiting 2 seasons to be able to harvest, had frozen.  All the fronds were totally dead, like dry sticks.  I was shocked to go out and see 3 shoots poking up!  Yay!!  I think there are a few more ready to shoot up too. I picked it and had it for dinner that night....Bob and Parker won't touch asparagus, so I didn't have to worry about sharing. 

So after that unexpected success, I was motivated to get the beds prepped for the spring and summer planting.  Parker and I are hoping that Bob will make us one more garden box so we don't have to plant the melon in between the boxwoods in the flowerbeds again.

Garden question

How do you know when a cantelope is ready to pick?

Attack of the Armenian cucumbers

Make them stop!

These looked like a great idea when I saw them on someone elses's blog last year, but they have TAKEN OVER my garden world. About every other day I look underneath the vines and find a zeppelin. They are like normal cucumbers and look like flowers when you slice them because of the ridges. They are much less watery than normal cucumbers, and milder...I've read they're a melon relative, which makes sense. Too bad most of them are potentially mulch.

patio planter

It turned out really pretty this year. The Mandevilla is going crazy and will hopefully have blooms all along the top of the trellis. I also added a scented begonia this year (the light green) and it adds a pretty texture.

First harvest

Here is the first garden harvest. a zucchini, a squash and a radish. We picked them after swim lessons this evening, hence the wet hair and swimsuit coverup. They probably could have gone another day, but I'm trying to stay ahead of the production.

Busy busy weeks lately. It is for kids and parents and teachers this time of year. We had an event at the school last night until 8, another thing tomorrow at 8am and swimming lessons after school for the next week and a half. So if you don't hear much from us until June 5th, you'll know why.

Garden grows

"a caterpillar! Another caterpillar! They must like blackberries!"

I don't have much time for writing, but I want to get this picture posted quickly before it changes again. My squash and zucchini plants seem to double in size every day. I love the beginning of spring when everything in the garden grows and grows.....before heat or bugs or multi-day rains happen.

I have 4 tomato plants, swiss chard, asparagus, blackberries, eggplant, radishes, 2 varieties of squash, a zucchini, a jalapeno and 3 each of experimental varieties of beans and cucumbers. Way more than we can consume, but I be shocked if it all makes it. I also have about 1,000 serrano plants that reseeded themselves from last year. i'm hoping the beans and cukes like growing up the bamboo teepees, but if not I just enjoy seeing them out there.

And in other neighborhood news, we got this email yesterday:

FYI----a full-grown bobcat was in our backyard Thursday morning from 7AM until
crows scared him off.

I expect that sort of thing in this area, but not from 3 doors down!

Garden update

Here's a quick garden update. It's so hard to update the garden progress....by the time I get the pictures taken, uploaded and the post written, we've eaten the stuff in the pictures, and something new has started growing.

This isn't in the garden, but in one of the new flower beds. It's one of last year's angel trumpets....or maybe it's a moon flower. It popped up on it's own....I guess the seeds found their way across the yard last year. The stems are a super pretty dark purple, and the flowers are light purple on the inside, dark on the outside. It's a very striking plant.

Fall yellow squash (from seed) is starting to produce. It's 3 times that big now....I'm picking it tomorrow.

The Japanese eggplant is still hanging in there, along with the beautiful giant zinnias. We ate the eggplant on tuesday in a pasta-veggie stir fry.

The cucumbers are still totally insane. It covers my entire bamboo teepee. Next year I need to plant a LESS PROLIFIC cucumber. I bet I have 5 out there that will be ready tomorrow, and no end in site. Would a bush-type plant be a better choice for next year I wonder? My bush canteloupes did not do well, so I'm hesitant to try it.

I also noticed 3 tiny (golf ball sized) pumpkins today....no pictures yet. The plant is supposed to be 'compact', but we'll see. I'm pretty sure I'll have fall tomatoes and string beans, possibly kale, maybe jalapeno and doubtfully zucchini. why can I never grow zucchini? Oh, and about 100 poblano peppers, all ready for harvest at the same time.