Flowering Tomatoes

Little yellow flowers mean tomatoes are on their way! This is a Pink Brandywine, a late season tomato and it may be September before I actually get anything from this variety, but there are plenty of others that should come earlier!

Weeds Taking Over...

Visitors from out of town meant I abandoned the garden for 5 days. And wouldn't you know, it rained almost every day! Fantastic for the veggies, but also for the weeds... which sprang up all over. Thankfully rain makes the ground soft and easy for pulling weeds.

Here's a before and after of the beans, which now have plenty of breathing room!

Babies!

First of the tiny veggies I get to see grow up. Sauteed yellow squash and zucchini are not too far away!

Turnips!

Turnips are practically exploding out of the ground. Here's Bibs, one of the friendly barn cats, checking out the progress.

Curious Cucumbers

Like many of the plants in the garden, I started cucumbers from seed indoors (May 9) and transplanted the young plants (May 22). The main reason is to get a head start on the growing season and to avoid loss from freezing temps at night. It also helps me distinguish plants from weeds if they are a little bigger to start with (though I suppose with time I'll get better at that on my own).

Doesn't seem like it's always the best route, though. I transplanted six cucumbers and all but this brave survivor shriveled up after about a week.

So I sowed more cucumber seeds (same variety) directly in the ground on May 30. The direct-seeded ones now are several weeks younger, but significantly larger in size. There are also two plants here, spaced about 6" apart from each other, which makes it look even more prolific.

Why is the first one so stunted? One guess is that I did not harden them off as well as I should have. Another is that this one in particular might be partially root bound... it was started in a peat pellet that has netting around it. Should be able to grow through, but the clay soil may have made that more difficult.

Either way, I know I won't be bothering to start cucumbers indoors again!

Last year's attempt at growing corn was an abysmal failure. I maintain that birds were lying in wait as I planted each kernel, and the second the door slammed and I went inside, they were out shoving their beaks into the dirt and gobbling them up. Less than 25 percent of the holes I poked sprouted plants; about half of which grew enough to even resemble corn... and even those were stunted, pitiful looking stalks. The few that somehow attracted pollinators and began to grow ears became dinner for deer within a matter of days.

I had the same lousy rate of germination this year after I direct-sowed some sweet corn, so I decided I would try starting from seed. Yes, it was late, but there's always a chance! I got them going in my straw-bale cold frame, and they were off to a great start.

It didn't take long for the little sprouts to grow big enough to transplant. In they went, spaced about a foot apart in trench-like rows with dirt mounded around the edges to hold in the water. Straw along the sides to keep down the weeds. Never has corn been babied so much!

One meal of home grown sweet corn, that's all I ask!

Potato Flowers

Last year's potato plants all had sweet little white flowers, so imagine my surprise when I saw these! Red Pontiac is the variety, obviously one we haven't used before.

Pole Beans Doing What They Do

Here's my favorite thing about pole beans: when they are big enough to finally latch onto the pole and start winding around it!

Feeding the Wildlife

Well, so much for the flowers on my sugar snap peas. It seems the deer have dined well.

Root Vegetables Make an Appearance

After a few days of rain soaking the garden, root vegetables are starting to emerge. First came the beets with their pretty dark red veins, they push up quickly and leaf out to make themselves known. 

The parsnips unfortunately got planted in a big spot of clay, so I'm not expecting great things from them.

Here are the carrots, which are so small for so long, and I have a terrible time distinguishing from some of the weeds. Can you see why?

Tomatoes Growing Strong

This one of 110 tomato plants happily growing in the garden.

It's an indeterminate heirloom variety, Pink Brandywine, which means it's a vine that will keep growing all season and will need support - more than just the wire cages you get at the garden store. I plan to use a variation of the "Florida weave" method, which I'll talk about in a future post!

Flowering Peas

Hooray! The first flowers have bloomed on the sugar snap peas.

Fruits... er, Vegetables... of My Labor

The first bunch of radishes has been harvested..  and consumed! There weren't many. Pictured are Rover (the round red ones), French Breakfast, and Ping Pong. There are still more in the ground since these got a slow start, and another round is coming up fast.