7.20.10

7.16.10 Tomatoes

Harvested my first handful of grape tomatoes of the season!


They are bigger than any grapes I have ever eaten. They made a yummy snack.


My heirloom Persimmon tomatoes were so heavy that the stem broke, so I had to bring them inside. I want to weigh them to see just how much they weigh.

Here they are pre-harvest. On the left is a lemon cucumber plant that I planted there so it can climb up the tomato plant.

South side of the house - The zinnias have really filled in which look great! They look so nice next to my squash plants.

They are so purty.

Zinnia Centerpiece

We hosted a dinner party last night and made a beautiful centerpiece for the dinner table. What bright colors!



These zinnias from Renee's Garden Seeds (Berry Basket). I was surprised how tall and bushy they were. I googled some images of 'berry basket zinnia' and pictured a much shorter mature plant. As you can see, each one is different. Different color, size, and petal count. My favorite is the deep fuschia one (lower left). It reminds me of one of the talking flowers from Alice in Wonderland.

7.08.10 Cucumber Bed

Planted in this bed are 2 tomato plants (back), pickling cucumbers, zinnias and patty pan squash (front). The cucumbers have been so profilic. I will definitely grow these again next year.


The squash is overflowing out of the bed. I knew this would happen, but next year I won't plant them in the raised bed.


The zinnias are awesome! They come in various sizes and petal count.

6.15.10

June

Wow, is it June already? Things are taking off so fast that I can't even post about it in time. I took these pictures today. The ones I took a few days ago are already outdated and I have yet to post them.


Here's the bed with the cucumbers, zinnias and squash. I'm having a bug problem eating away at my zinnia leaves. I don't know what it is, but at least it's the zinnias they are eating and not my vegetables. Although it's a shame that there are holes in leaves for such a beautiful flower.


I staked the tomato plants, pruned the leaves back, harvested the remaining two heads of celery and planted the rest of my pepper plants. I'm tempted to purchase a pepper plant from the nursery. They seem to do better than the ones I started at home. The pole beans have really taken off too. I trimmed the side shoots back to promote vertical growth. It's good for air circulation too.


Last year, I talked about how I extended this garden bed to put shade plants in the back and sun in the front. It has grown in so beautifully that it's my best looking bed. It's the most settled in. I don't need to do anything to it. I could definitely divide the hostas a little and spread it out more, but it's so much work so why ruin a good thing, right?


Another view: The purple flowers are hollyhock mallow. It was a great buy. I purchased one the first year and each year I'm getting new plants from the seeds that fell from the previous year. It's one of my husband's favorite and it's quite the show stopper in the garden.

This weekend, I trimmed the spent Iris stems back. They get all brown and they die back, so I might as well cut them. The balls of Irises look better once the brown parts are trimmed back. I've also been doing a ton of weeding and hopefully my husband is going to mulch this week.

Zinnias

I sowed some zinnias on Sunday and they started to pop up yesterday. I'm looking forward to seeing what these look like. They are supposed to be really big and beautiful with bright colors. I hope I have enough room to place them all in the garden.

Also, the fairytale eggplant seeds have finally germinated and popped up. It only took 4 weeks! They need 80s to germinate. The chard I sowed has also germinated. All the peppers are doing well