The corn is almost ready to pick and eat! YUMMMY...I'm gonna roast these ears on the bbq grill. I've learned alot this year about gardening, and as usual the lessons come from making mistakes. One lesson this year is that corn likes to be planted in a square or circular plot so that it can germinate (is that the right word?) each other properly. I just planted 4 in a row which I've been told is wrong and why only a couple of the plants are succeeding.
The hops are doing quite well and have lovely wee lil flowers. I discovered yesterday that the cascade plant has spider mites and got to educate Joe on the matter. Per my organic pest control book we'll need to use some insecticidal soap to rectify the matter.
The zucchini is still producing like mad. It's a strange success story. Half the fruit is misshapen, round and small with yellow tip. According to my in-laws its for a similar reason to the corn...you're supposed to plant more then one zucchnini plant for them to really grow properly. But the fruit that is healthy is phoenominal. Here's a big boy for you:
It's okay though, as I've said before, I usually learn the most from gardening mistakes - and next year some new beds will give us more room in the sun. And as my father-in-law says "the yard will teach you what it wants". My In-law's garden is amazing. They planted all their small plants less then a month ago, and the plants are doing better then mine already...and I planted mine in March and April! They told me not to feel bad, because they said they've been working on their soil for 15 years. Also their back yard gets more then 10 hours of direct sunlight a day. But still...it's like the freakin' garden of eden they got going on over there!!
Enough coveting of my neighbor's garden, then. Here's some before and after shots of the removal of a nasty rotten bush that was in the front yard. We still need to pull the stump, and then once it's gone we're probably going to replace it with some Ceanothus, which is a california native...aka wild california lilac.
Well kids, that's all for now. We had a lovely long weekend although it wasn't long enough. And now it's time to work again.
I pulled all the lettuce that had bolted and added some peppers. I'm going to plant more lettuce seed too though I think I'll wait til later in the week when the heat wave is over. The zucchini is doing well, but I can't really say the same for the peppers. They seem stunted. And the tomatoes look lovely, but it seems to me that by this time last year I had red tomatoes, and so far I have only green ones. Likewise the sunflowers and echinacea seem stunted. I am realizing that the main beds simply don't get enough sun for certain specimans. I suppose the tomatoes will be okay, if late. But I'm not so sure about the peppers.
It's okay though, as I've said before, I usually learn the most from gardening mistakes - and next year some new beds will give us more room in the sun. And as my father-in-law says "the yard will teach you what it wants". My In-law's garden is amazing. They planted all their small plants less then a month ago, and the plants are doing better then mine already...and I planted mine in March and April! They told me not to feel bad, because they said they've been working on their soil for 15 years. Also their back yard gets more then 10 hours of direct sunlight a day. But still...it's like the freakin' garden of eden they got going on over there!!
Enough coveting of my neighbor's garden, then. Here's some before and after shots of the removal of a nasty rotten bush that was in the front yard. We still need to pull the stump, and then once it's gone we're probably going to replace it with some Ceanothus, which is a california native...aka wild california lilac.
Well kids, that's all for now. We had a lovely long weekend although it wasn't long enough. And now it's time to work again.
2 comments:
Are your corn plants short with regular sized ears on them or is the camera angle making them look shorter than they are?
The shrub removal was a good call. Being that it's next to your window, that spot would be ideal for a plant/bush that attracts butterflies and or hummingbirds.
Might be the camera angle...the two corn plants that are bearing healthy fruit are about 6-7 feet tall. The other two are shorter and the ears they have are wee.
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