May-July

01 May

I did a bit of planting today. I popped a few extra spinach seeds in with the others, and added a couple more of the sunshine carrots in A9. They didn't seem to have been doing much germinating overall - plenty missing.

What else... oh, yeah. I popped two tricolour pole beans into a pot to pre-sprout, since the first two beans are now real little plants and there's no sign of the others. I have five globe onions now, too. Two more left to rise up and become acquainted with the air.

I think we can kiss one of the orange bell peppers sianara - it never got past the seedling/weedy stage.

02 May

I did tidying up today - dead-headed a lot of the little yellow flowers, swept stuff up, that kind of thing. I also "managed" (humph!) another infestation of cabbage caterpillars. They had really gone to town on some of the brussels sprouts.

I also went to Home Depot and bought another dozen flagstones, plus a bag of chicken manure. I spent a fairly strenuous afternoon laying down eight of the flagstones before giving up in tiredness. But, I'm making good progress, and figure I can fit thirty-odd pots at the back once it's down.

It's looking much more neat! I need to get the pots off the deck so that I can keep a closer eye out for bugs...

03 May

To my surprise, and pleasure, I found out that some of the marigolds I drowned are actually growing in the hanging basket...

I spent a good while today laying path. I lay all but one stone, because I had got to that "can't do it for another minute" stage. I also need two more stones to complete it... I set out the pots at the back, much nicer! I'm rather pleased with my handiwork.

The first of the second lot of Dutch beets has germinated and put out its little four-leaf-clover type leaves. The nasturtiums are flowering with vivid orange blooms...

Went round the garden and fertilised everything with chicken poo. ;-)

04 May

Waaaaaaaah! I went out this morning and found a stump where one of my tricolour bush beans had been happily putting forth! A rotten snail had eaten both its leaves, left the stalk sticking up from the earth and then proceeded to eat half of the other one's leaves... Needless to say, much disgusted, I spent more time with copper tape today.

The musica beans are growing quite happily around their tripod support - it's rather neat how they "know" to vine. The two later tricolour bush beans I planted are about ready to push above ground, though. Maybe I'll hang on to this lot a tad longer!

It was a nice, warm day today. About 70°F/22° C in the shade. I remembered to look out for when the shade forms next to the carport. Seems that the afternoon is shady, so it wouldn't really be suitable for hot vining plants. Maybe I'd get away with cucumbers, but I'm not having a great deal of success getting those to even germinate...

I dumped the remainder of the marigold seeds in the garden bed behind the shed. I had been planning to use it for some crop or other, but it is rapidly becoming overgrown with other, pretty things. I figured, why not. They don't seem to be that hard to grow - I can even drown them ;-)

06 May

Onion number six of seven has sprouted. Various beans are coming up too, as well as a few more of the Dutch baby beets. I harvested two really rather nice-sized Nantes carrots today. Don was suitably impressed.

The raab has bolted, so I pulled it up and replaced it with a bunch of sunshine carrots. Everything else seems to be growing at a rate of knots, though the container brussels sprouts are struggling under a combined assault of aphids and snails. They look quite scraggy, but all of them do seem to have those little buddy things that presage sprouts... I hope!

10 May

The snail-eaten bean has died. However, the three cucumber seeds did sprout, so I planted them in a small pot to try and nurture them into real plants. The ill-fated hanging basket collapsed, spilling dirt and poor little marigolds all over the deck; I gave up and planted them in the back-of-the-shed patch. I also seem to have lost the carrots and Summer lettuce in A8 and A9 - perhaps to over-fertilising. I have planted more seeds.

My sugar snap peas are doing nicely, and since the pyramid fell apart I now have them growing up individual canes. I caught Don gently readjusting one of them when I wasn't looking. Perhaps he has a green thumb, somewhere, hiding under his keyboard? ;-)

We watched a black squirrel sit on the trellis and chirrup at us for quite some time!

I got more dirt and have now potted all my corn. I am not sure if they are supposed to look so dry, like little pieces of paper, but will soon find out. It's not too late to plant more, if so. There is a quadruple row of pots at the back of the house.

The broccoli in A6 is making florets! Wheee!

12 May

The bean I germinated has done its stuff, and while doing a bit of digging around in the tricolour pole beans pot, I found out that I'm going to have five, not four, bean plants there. The MIA bean has germinated... one of the others is about ready to push above ground.

I did a bit of harvesting today - two nantes carrots (not many left now), two Dutch beets and the first of the jewel beets, as well as more spinach and Mesclun lettuce. These went into a nice salad/sandwich type thing, though I now know to fully peel the jewel beets - the bit I left rendered it too chewy to eat. Flavour was yummy, though. :-)

The carrots in A9 are either dead or recovering; same with the summer lettuce next door. I planted two pots of bell pepper - one golden, one crimson. Not sure what happened to the other bell/jalapeno that I planted in those pots a while back, but they never came up. A couple of the corn plants I potted a day or so back seem to be MIA - whether it was birds or bugs, I cannot say. I finally gave up and tie-tagged the last of the sugar snap peas to a pole, since it didn't seem to be capable of hooking itself up there under its own steam. The petits pois seem to be doing happily, though, and the snow peas are getting bigger all the time.

13 May

I did some tidying up - cutting off dead roses etc. The roses seem on their way out, I'm not sure if they'll continue or what, and the flags are finished as well.

One of the cucumbers is peeking up above the earth in its pot; I put it in a sunnier place to see if it gets on with it. The corn I thought was dead has become a lively-looking shoot; I'm not sure if the other corn is alive or dead. I have plenty more seeds and another six weeks of planting season, if not.

Exciting news of the day is that the petits pois are flowering. This means that I will soon be eating fresh yummy peas again. The extra two snow peas I planted are up and happily growiong, though I'll probably have to do the same game with these as I did with the sugar snap and tag them to the growing posts until they get the idea on their own. ;-)

It is probably about time the alpine strawberries came up. I don't see any signs of that, though.

17 May

Wow, it's all happening out there! The cucumbers seem to like their new, sunny location, and the two corn seeds I thought I'd lost are now back - as fresh green shoots. It's the other seven, with leaves, that are looking bad... I will give them until next weekend, and if they're not showing signs of growth or green by then, I'll replant seeds.

The peas in B2 have got increasing numbers of flowers, and one of the tomato plants is flowering too! I'm actually going to have at least one plant with tomatoes - wheee!

I finished the path/patio today and tidied up a little. I now know I can fit about 28 pots out there - I'll judge how large the various plants go and size accordingly next year. Maybe the peppers don't need such big pots; I don't know.

I did some planting today. I gave up on the carrots and lettuce in A8 and A9, replacing them with more spinach and more peas, respectively. And more peas in B7 - we ate and enjoyed all the carrots. I figured that the peas might make that space okay for root veges again next time. I also decided not to put the cucumbers back in block C, since they seem to like the warmth of where they are much better. So, in C2 I planted green onions, in C3, breakfast radishes, and in C6, I'm giving the summer lettuces another shot to see if they like it better there.

It's getting warmer on a daily basis, but not too warm. It'll be interesting to see what survives our searing months.

Tried the first kale today. I liked it, then I didn't like it. I read up on it, and the book suggested cutting out the stems - the centre vein. Perhaps that's where the bad-to-me taste came from. I will also try cooking them. But it isn't looking hopeful, as it tasted very close to the Pacific stir-fry vegetables.

There are too many aphids about. Ironically, the only ladybug I have seen was a dead one, caught in a spider's web. I wish more of them would show up already!

18 May

I lay a small dead bird to rest today. :-( There are birds nesting in the trees in the church near our home. I don't think it was a fledgling though.

Another tomato plant is flowering. The green vining bean is almost at the top of its pole; I'd better get something longer. There are many pea flowers.

I transported the three cucumber plantlets into big pots, previously occupied by corn. The contrast between the green, live shoots and the dead wisps in obvious and I need wait no longer. I planted four more seeds and did some watering and fertilising.

19 May

We had at least one shower today, which was a surprise to me. By the afternoon it was dry and muggy, and I think there will be more rain tonight.

Had a disappointment today - the broccoli in A4 flowered. :-( I simply harvested what little there was, and had to pull up the rest. Also, some of the leeks seemed to be forming bulbs at the top which are probably flowers, so I harvested those also. One of them was quite large, but nothing like its full size.

I harvested the first baby carrot from C9, and it was delicious - sweet and crunchy. I pulled up a few green onions too. Three tomato plants are forming flowers, and everything else is doing just fine, it would appear. In fact, one of the peas has gone into make-pod mode. Within a week I shall be eating my first peas :-)

23 May

After a few days of rain, the garden is back to its usual warm and happy self. The summer lettuce is poinging up all over its square - I may have gone a bit OTT on seeds, but the last attempts germinated so poorly that I felt it worth trying. The radishes are also coming up - yay!

The green vining bean outgrew its pole, so I used that magnificent material, duct tape, to tape two 5' poles together and make a new pyramid support. Any support over 5' appears to be disproporionately expensive, so I would rather save those for large tomato plants, if needed. Anyway, the kludge looks quite sturdy - good for beans and peas, probably.

Unravelling the bean vines and rewrapping them was intriguing. I put the beans against the back fence, where many tomato flowers are beginning to form. I wonder how long before they actually make tomatoes?

The peppers seem to have grown a bit, though they are slow... or at least, I think so. The swiss chard is starting to form those big-stalked leaves that it's meant to. I hope I actually like the taste ;-)

I harvested the about-to-flower leeks, and found them quite pleasant when boiled (Don thought they were too slimy). The broccoli was harvested, such as it was - the florets were sweet, but the stalks were hard and inedible.

Pea pods are forming now in the petits pois...

31 May

The kale in B5 has got caterpillars :: sigh :: and the heat seems to be disagreeing with my cool weather plants. I will have to plan three totally different gardens next year, I think - one from February to May, another from May to September, and another from September until whenever everything keels over for Winter. I'm not sure the second lot of Dutch beets will make it, and the first lot of jewel beets are starting to bolt. I did harvest one, though, and enjoyed it - apart from the hard, chewy core.

I have had the first of the petits pois - there are many more to come. They are sweet and yummy. So are the baby carrots.

The roses are almost gone now, except for the tender pink ones that are by the house. They smell sweet, like some kind of confectionary - perhaps candy floss? The beans in back of the shed are almost up to the top of their poles, and I should really have added-on before they got that tall. The ones with the pyramid are climbing high.

Doesn't look like the contents of A8 and A9 are coming up? This suprises me. Perhaps I should dig out all the dirt and put in fresh. The spinach I have seems to be about finished, but the chard is coming up a treat. I look forward to trying it. And, the green onion is pushing up here there and everywhere in block C.

Also, finally, one of the extra pepper plants I added has decided to germinate! It has two leaves almost overnight. We'll see how this one compares to those started inside, which still are quite small given that they're meant to be 2.5' tall.

June

01 June

Wheeeee! The beans in the tripod are flowering, and so are the sugar snap peas! Excellent! Lots more peas are coming ready from the petits pois, too. The corn has shot up in the last few days, and if I ever had any doubts that the previous lot had died, I don't now :: laugh :: You never saw such fresh green healthy stuff.

04 June

Hey hey hey! There are tomatoes forming! I don't know what kind, save that it's not the roma, since they are round. But that is just totally cool. I can see them on two plants, so far, but they're all flowering now - eight or nine plants (I'd have to go out and look again, and it's dark).

I did some planting today, and also sat down and made a three-season list of things to grow. Spring and Autumn are about the same; Summer is totally different. I dunno how it will work out - we shall see.

In spaces A4 and A7, I put some tricolour bush beans - four seeds in each. In spaces A8 and A9, I planted snow peas. I figure the earth, even with the fairly well rotted compost I added (which an army of ants seems to think is their own) could use the nutrients. Let's see if anything else comes up, anyway. I don't know what I'm putting in A5 yet, and there's a place in B6 too where the carrots never came up. I should probably have another stab at the strawbs too, since they never came up either...

It was nice to plant, tidy up and potter. I think my favourite part is the actual planting - the potential of good stuff in the future. :-)

12 June

The snow peas started to flower a few days ago, and today I harvested the first two of those as well as a small handful of sugar snaps. They'll go for our dinner tonight - yum!

I tidied up and pulled up dead plants - the petits pois dried out and died; the second batch of Dutch beets didn't make it. Yesterday, I planted two jalapeno and two bell pepper plants in the spare blocks. I don't know if it's too late or not, but one of the last lot of seeds just pushed up above ground, and the rest of the pepper plants are growing like mad. One of the eggplant has died, but the rest are growing like there's no tomorrow, and I expect I'll see fruit reasonably soon. I just discovered I like zucchini and squash, too, so maybe I'll grow some of that next year.

The tricolour beans seem to have five in a pot, as all the failed seeds finally germinated (go figure). Two of the vines are taller than their supports, which means they are longer than the supposed 5' - oh well. I'm sure they will manage. I need to go to Home Depot and snarf some more canes. The other beans are doing fine, they're not a the top of their tripod yet.

The tomatoes are growing merrily and I think all the plants are pushing out something now. The plants look like they'll be quite prolific. It's rather nifty. :-)

14 June

I have another pepper coming up, and three bean seedlings in block A. The first of the snow and sugar snap peas were really delicious. :-)

22 June

One of the tricolour beans has died, and one of the plants is over the top of the supports already. The third latecomer is now starting to creep up its own pole, the fourth might be a wee while longer. I harvested and ate the first four French beans and they were sweet and delicious. Each day I get a few more sugar snap and snow peas, but some of the sugar snaps are wilting and dying. I'm a little disappointed in the yield. I'd probably have to grow three or four buckets' worth to get a decent harvest.

The peppers are vastly varied in what they are doing, growth-wise. I have one purple bean forming on a stunted-looking tricolour bush bean. And the corn is growing like there's no tomorrow :-)

23 June

I harvested and ate my first Swiss chard leaf. I found it unusual and rather tasty. It has a mild bitter twang but also a buttery kind of flavour. (I pulled up the kale some time ago because it was so riddled with catepillars, and because I didn't like the taste.)

All but one of the tomato plants is making tomato fruit - lots of them! I seem to have a lot of cherry tomatoes. One of the Roma tomatoes has one fruit and another has one and a lot of flowers coming.

28 June

How exciting! I have little bell peppers forming on one plant, and another isn't long behind. Also, pretty little white flowers have formed on the jalapeno pepper. This means, I daresay, that I can expect jalapeno peppers "soon"!

I think three of the tomato plants are cherries, two are Roma, and one is the green striped variety. The cherries are prolific enough to make up for the disappointment in yield of the beans and peas. (The sugar snap peas are definitely on the way out, but the snow peas were better, and the latest lots haven't even sprouted.)

I wish I could grow ten, twenty times as many plants, I really do. I need an allotment, but they don't have them here - shame!

I'd reached a kind of plateau, but the appearance of those tiny peppers and the flowers has got me all excited again.

July

02 July

Ooh! Aah! ;-) I have flowering peppers. One jalapeno and a couple of bells are pushing out pretty little white flowers. It'll be interesting to see how they form bells after that.

03 July

The first tomato is ripening! Amongst all that green it looks interesting and colourful :-)

05 July

I have little yellow flowers and one tendril on my cucumbers. I was beginning to think they would never take off. I noticed that one of my roma tomatoes has a dark spot on the end - blossom end rot? It doesn't look like the plants will amount to much anyway, with only one tomato on each. I suppose I would have to plant many - sigh. But the bells are forming - it looks like the flower sort of pushes out a nodule that becomes a tiny pepper...

06 July

Did some tidying up today. The jasmine is ending, alas, and there are lots of little dead flowers to sweep up (and spider webs). I did get a surprise though - the mystery vining plant at the far end of the path has burst into magenta flowers and I think it is a snapdragon! The winter lettuce has bolted and is now flowering with very pretty blue cornflower like flowers, so I am leaving it alone for now. The mesclun bolted, so I dug it up. And my bush beans all died, as has my brave little potato plant. :: sigh ::

On the other hand, I have brussels sprouts getting bigger a little at a time, and the corn is growing like mad. I pulled up my snow peas as they had died, but the tiniest pepper plants seem to be doing fairly well.

10 July

It looks like one of my eggplant is finally getting ready to flower. The flower buds appear at the top.

My last batch of peas is history, I think, and the snow peas I planted in block A never came up. As soon as is sensible, I'll spread manure and compost on that square and let it sit, see if I can't make the earth fertile again. It's a pity.

I harvested the three tiny red onions that never quite made it. It is a shame, as they were absolutely delicious - very sweet and mild. I also harvested a good handful of snow peas and they all contributed to a nice vege stew. We are starting to get the hot weather now - I am typing this at ten in the morning and already I can feel it will be a very hot day. I have several tomatoes ripening - all cherries of some kind (well, I already know that two produce orange fruit). I will probably be able to harvest the first one tomorrow, I'll check.

11 July

I did indeed harvest a couple of cherries, and enjoyed them very much.

25 July

Have missed a week or so, but have been going out every day. One eggplant is flowering with pretty lilac flowers, and I have several green peppers forming (not sure what colour they will end up being.) The tricolour beans are finished - having hardly begun - and the swiss chard seems to have mildew. The cucumbers are coming along nicely despite the unseasonably cool weather, and I think I have a couple of fruits to watch. The corn is flowering but I don't know what kind of a kernel I'll have!

I still pick off snow peas - they were one of the successes. The baby onions are probably about ready now, and I'll harvest them to pickle before long. The two roma tomatoes are ripening now, and a few might form, but I'm not sure. The plants would probably be better off out of tubs and in earth, but that's hardly an option. There are many cherries.

26 July

I pulled up the last broccoli and sprouts from block A. They're not doing anything any more. The "winter" lettuce seems to have finished making pretty flowers, so I pulled that up as well as some of the other lettuce that weren't going anywhere. Is starting to look kind of bare, now...

27 July

I poured a load of chicken manure on block A, and will let it settle and mature for a while. I'll probably start planting in late August/early September again. We don't seem to be having a very hot Summer, though the late-planted pepper plants seem to be doing okay. I have a lot of tomatoes to pick and do something wiht...

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2002 Gardening Diary Part 2 - May-July

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