How the garden does grow...

Wow, the end of July already.  I've given up planting anything more this year.  Only finished a bit of the fence and it appears that nothing is growing.  Guess the seeds were too old.  I'm planning on transplanting a few more things in the flower garden.  Right after I put the seeds in, we had one of those torrential downpours and some of the seeds migrated to new and different places.  They need to move.
And I didn't expect things to get so big.
I'm counting this as a learning year.  There are a lot of plants out there that I have never tried before.  The seed packets were all mixed and I have no idea what's what.
And things are getting big.  The cherry tomatoes are about the size of plums and haven't even started to turn yet.  The yellow tomatoes are getting huge

And so are the Big Boys.

The tomatoes plants are getting out of hand.  I need to figure some other way of keeping them off the ground.  The stakes I started out with won't hold all the weight.

This volunteer:  Has the distinction of being the farthest flung tomato plant.  It's growing next the fence on the side of the yard. 








And the garden is all the way over there.

I'm leaving it right where it's at.  Maybe it will distract the dogs.

Though, I'm happy to say, Dusty has been staying out of the garden, at least for the time being.

The banana peppers are really going to town

 

I just picked a whole bunch Sunday and there are more to harvest.  I've been eating them on sandwiches, in salads, and just plain.  I'm gonna hafta get some jars and start putting them up.
If ya all want some just stop on by...

The bell peppers seem to be getting off to a slow start, but there are a couple of them with peppers.

The large bottle gourds are an impressive plant.

I'm fairly certain they are making their way up the tree, I just can't tell.

They're mixed in with the grape vine and it's impossible to tell where one stops and the other starts.
and They are starting to mix in with the cucumbers too.

If I had known how aggressive these two were gonna be I would have left more room between them... 

The lone small bottle gourd is holding it's own.

It's latched onto the old cloths line post.  I was hoping something would.

The herb garden is still looking good.

My two potted plants are looking healthy and happy.  I think the oregano in the pot looks healthier than the two I planted in the garden.  I'll have to remember that net year.

The basil has little flowers on it now.  I had no idea that it would do that.  This is the first time I've grown basil.

I've been working on the flower beds the last couple of days.  They were all in need of serious weeding.  I've weeded the two smaller ones.

But the big one still needs work.

There's another trumpet vine on the back fence.

I'm gonna leave it alone.  If I can't have morning glories then a trumpet vine is a good substitute.

All in all things are going OK.

But there's always more work to do.

Yard Visitors

Last Thursday we had a dragon fly.

 

He's fuzzy cuz he wouldn't sit still.

Friday there was a moth.

I'm not sure what today's visitor is.  It was difficult getting a clear picture.

It was some sorta shiny gold beetle.  I got one really good shot.

 

Time to head over to What's That Bug to figure out what this is and weather or not I'm gonna be sorry I left it in the garden...

Moving right along

Let's see...
Friday and Saturday I did some, rip it out by the roots weeding.
Sunday was all about mowing the yard.  I've got a double lot and it was time to mow it all.  I got everything but the alley done.
Monday I went out and mowed the alley and dealt with the grape vine, as much of it as I could reach.  There's still some bits of it clinging to the tree.  But it's dying and it's off the wires.

 
I did some spot weeding and picked a bunch of radishes.

That's all I did Monday.  It was one of those days were the heat index was over 100 and it was just too hot to work outside.
Yesterday was another hot day and there was no breeze.  I went out and shored up some of the tomato plants, added a couple of extra stakes and retied a few plants.  I picked some hot banana peppers 

 
Late in the afternoon a storm rolled in.

It poured, so that's about all that got done yesterday.

Today I've been weeding.  So what looked like this:

 Now looks like this:

I'm getting a handle on it.

Things are growing well.  There are tomatoes:     

And bell peppers:  

A couple of the lettuce plants came up:

The cucumbers are holding their own.

 

But the bottle gourds are amazing...

 On the 4th. they were getting a good toe hold on the fence:

On the 8th. they were hitting the top of the fence:

Today they're heading into the tree:

I don't know that I want them going for the tree.  I may try to reposition them...

The small bottle gourd is starting to catch up.  I think the added sun is helping.

The herb garden is doing very well.  I'm entertaining the idea of actually using some of them...

The bad news for the day is the flower garden.  I weeded it last Thursday.

But now you can't really tell that.

There are some flowers in there, but it's kinda hard to tell which is which...

So, in the coming days I will be weeding the flower garden, very carefully.

And, since I mowed the lawn, even though it already needs to be mowed again, I get to start playing with the wood chipper.

I really need the mulch.

Another fungus among us...

Taking the trash out early this morning I saw these:   

There were growing on a pile of mulch.

It's difficult to tell from the picture, but these were almost translucent.

They were very fragile.  About an hour after I took the pictures they were gone.

I did pull out the book, The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms, for these.  But catching them this late in the game, it's kinda hard to get a positive identification.  They could be Japanese Umbrella Inky, or Non-inky Coprinus or even Blue Mycena.  I'll have to see if I can spot them earlier,

Base Line...

Alright, it's time to knuckle down and make this blog what it was intended to be, namely my gardening diary.  Keeping one has been suggested by several sources and it sounds like a good idea.
So this is the first actual diary entry.
I was all set to do this Sunday, but I had to wait for the camera to charge and then it was raining too hard.  So I got out Monday and took some pictures.

I can't say it's pretty.  The storm was kinda hard on the tomato plants.  I need to go and tie them up again.

And even though I weeded last week, it's twice as bad this week.
But things are growing well.

Especially the large bottle gourds.  These things are fast.  I can see daily growth in the runners.

Large bottle gourds

Large bottle gourds

They went straight for the fence.  All on their own.  I think we stand a good chance of establishing a strong perimeter and muscling out the sucker footed crap next door.

Large bottle gourd

Large bottle gourd

That's the best shot I got of the ends of the vine.  It's got a sorta soft spiny, feathery look.

And the 2 surviving cucumbers are doing well.

Cucumber: straight 8

They headed for the fence all on their own too.

Cucumber: Straight 8

Dealing with the sucker footed crap, the grape vine, and the large bottle gourds, I can see where the idea of killer plants comes form.  Watching the bottle gourds grow is cool, but it doesn't take much imagination to twist that around.

The herb bed is looking good:

I need to get the mulch down.  But I'm fighting the battle of the weeds right now.  And I still have tomato plants to move.

Even though the first ones almost didn't survive, cuz I forgot to water them.  Command oversight.  But it looks like they are going to pull through.  When they tell you to water after planting, they mean it.

The hydrangea bush is bouncing back.  I need to make a final decision on where to move it.

Another example of poor leadership.

This one was not a fault in planning.  The spot I picked out was nice and shady.  But there was a big root tree root in the way.  I moved a few feet and dug again.  It was shady then.

Problem was, it didn't stay shady.  I managed to pick the only spot with full afternoon sun.  1/2 foot in any of 3 directions and everything would have been hunky dunky.

The week of 90+ degree temps right after I planted it didn't help.  The poor thing fried.

I built a make do sun screen and it worked.  Now I need to move it.

I have a new plant:

Sunfire Coreopsis

 to plant.  So I have to be moving other things too.  I'll cover the flower garden later.

And soon we will have the adventures with the wood chipper.

But first I have to mow the yard, again.