Snake

It's just a black racer, not a water moccasin this time!!! Thank goodness. They have been everywhere lately, this is just one of about 4 snakes that have been in our yard at the same time! They are pretty. But I have to canvas the whole yard each day before the little boys go out to play just to check for snakes. I don't kill them, I just make sure they go somewhere else with the help of my broom.

tomato support

I had to create some "fencing" around the tomatoes for support. Two had broken their stakes, and the rest were taller than the stakes I had put in. I read in Organic Gardening to put supports around and then string, rope, or clothesline to help hold up the branches. I choose the clothes line. I didn't want to use those tomatoe cages since they are rather ugly and tall, and would have looked odd in the planter boxes. But I knew something had to be done to aid in support. I must have 30-40 tomatoes already! With the support stakes and the line it was about $30. far cheaper than some other already made supports.

Calendula flower... I seem to have more leaves than flowers though. It is a very pretty little yellow flower. It's right next to the tomoato, the leaves in the picture are tomato plant leaves, with the calendula leaves below.
eggplant blooms, they are really a very pretty shade of purple, maybe lavendar, light purple. this picture the color is a little washed out. But there are more buds ready to emerge!

Backyard garden update

Here is one of the planter areas in the back yard. It has yellow squash, cucumber, radishes, and parsley. The cucumber was supposed to grow towards the fence, and I haven't gotten out to train it in time. Oh well, the radishes are almost ready for plucking... I guess they should be ready in about a week. they are hot hot hot! Baby cantaloupe... it's so cute, small and fuzzy....
Cantaloupe vines all around. They have plenty of room. The zuchinni is about done. Acelin kept attacking the zuchinni for some reason, and many of the blossoms were pulled off by him before they could produce. Zuchinni is quite the delicate plant. But then Acelin has no delicate qualities about him.
This is kind of a mess, needs weeding, but to the very bottom right hand corner is Stevia, that I planted last year, and then a gladolia behind it, carrots to the bottom left, and then beans behind along the fence. The beans are absolutely delicious.... they don't make it into the house though, we just can't seem to not eat them raw, freshly picked, and off the vine. Acelin and Cameron love them like this... good, it's best for them. There is a sad rogue tomato staked at the end. It just started coming up, so I let it grow. It has a few tomatos on it, but it's the tallest thinnest tomato plant I've ever seen, it must be 4 feet tall! I have no idea what variety it is.
This is a little rose I have at the end of the screened porch. I transplanted it last year to this area, and it was just one long branch, and one short branch... sad little rose. It is obviously doing much better now. I also need to weed this area, but there is rosemary, thyme and watermelon growing in the same planter area, and gladolias...

Garden update

It has been requested that I do an update on my garden. It's growing fast, and big, and have found some mistakes, especially when it comes to crowding. Those little plants look like they will have ample room, but as they grow, the problem of more needed room arises.


So later in the year I will do a little better with planning. I have had a battle with some bugs and fungus, and hopefully have it under control now. Picking bugs off the crowded plants proved to be difficult, but capable. I also took one tomato plant out, it just never seemed to do well, it was in one of those "peat pots" that you are supposed to be able to just plant in the ground and it adds "compost" to around your plant... umm nope, it just kept the plant's roots from expanding like they needed. However, the Eggplant that was in the peat pot is doing just fine.

This is my small corn patch, the weeds are growing good around it from all the watering.

Cameron hanging out under the sunflowers, they have grown a bit more since then. A neighbor has a few sunflower plants that are close to 8 feet tall! I don't think ours will get that tall, but they are close to 5 ft, some are at least. Tomato, Tomato, Tomato...... I have quite a few bunches of Tomatos. The one plant that got devoured by bugs is recooping and now has new buds, the other plant I took out had a few, but they were all cracked and wonky... due to the peat pot not allowing adequate moisture.
I also have bell pepper buds, and Eggplant flowers. The medicinal herbs are finally coming up, and I have mint and lavendar growing pretty well! I also planted green beans, zuchinni, cucumbers, and cantalope in the front yard, but they are just mere seedlings now.

I started thinking about how planting "fruiting" anuals in the front yard makes perfect sense.... they are big green, quick growing, flowering plants that look nice, but also provide you with food. Why doesn't everyone do it???