Boys 'N Berries

Today we worked more on weeding and watering in the garden this afternoon. It was fairly cool in the morning- in the 60's but it sure warmed up in the afternoon. Since Adam takes a nap in the afternoon this is the time that we have to do most of our gardening work, so we have to work in the hot sun.


In the morning we picked quite a few boysenberries much to Adam's delight. He loved picking a lot of his own berries. Sometimes he would pick one that wasn't very ripe and take a bite or two and then ask me to "hold this." So cute! He sure loves berries! We also picked a few of the snap peas still on the vines.


Later in the afternoon we went out to work in the garden and I noticed the echinacea was blooming in one corner of the garden. It looks so pretty!


Our grapes (pictured above) are also doing quite well and are getting much bigger. We also saw some lettuce and beets (pictured below) growing quite nicely.




We went to work weeding two rows of carrots. This was hard work because the carrot plants are so tiny and delicate and it was hard to spot them among the grasses and weeds that were much bigger. But, we were able to uncover many carrots. Also, we worked on weeding the rows of beans. We haven't gotten the bean poles up yet but we noticed that the beans are starting to put out tendrils and wanting to climb up something so that is a project we need to tackle soon.


My Mom also watered all of the plants. Right now we just have hoses out there so it is a big job to water everything so maybe next year we'll put in some type of drip irrigation system in. While my Mom was watering the potatoes she noticed a potato sticking out of the ground! It was such a great discovery! We were very excited but then quickly covered it up so that it could grow some more. We have decided to harvest our potatoes at the very end of the season so that they have more time to grow.

Since our melon plants are so small right now we have doubts that we will get any melons this season. Our corn is still very spotty but there are a few more stalks that have come up in some areas so we made sure to water them in case there is a small chance of getting a few ears of corn.

Have a great week and enjoy the sunshine!

Weeding, weeding

Today was a fairly warm but mild day so we were able to work quite a bit in the garden doing lots of weeding, or getting our plants "out of purgatory" as my Mom, Serena likes to say. We have a very healthy cucumber plant in our garden which is pictured above!

In the morning Adam enjoyed coming into the garden to pick as many berries as he could. He picked a couple of boysenberries which are plentiful and almost ripe, but still a bit tart. He picked and ate the last of the remaining raspberries as well as a small handful of blueberries.

Maybe Next Year:

As we were weeding we thought that the red Russian kale and our dragon's tongue wax beans never came up. However, as I edit this post on Monday, July 19th my Mom has discovered that they had come up! A real disappointment was that only a few of our corn plants came up. It will be a miracle if we even get one ear of corn under these circumstances. Also, we only got one of each kind of melon to survive. We'll have to see how the weather is next year and perhaps try some other strategies to grow things.

On another sad note, the bees in the hive that we had near the garden have died. They had done a lot of work on building the honeycomb and preparing the hive for honey but we speculate that the queen may have died and the hive couldn't continue. We'll try again next year.

Blooms:


Many plants in our garden are blooming which is very encouraging! Another row of potatoes is blooming. Our tomato plants look very healthy and green and have many blooms on them. Also, our cucumbers, zucchini and pepper plants are also starting to bloom. This is a very good sign and tells us that crops are on their way!

My Mom fertilized many of the plants this week including the brussels sprouts, cabbage and broccoli. All of these plants are getting much bigger now that we have weeded around them. They grew a lot in one week because they had a lot more room to grow. Also, my Mom staked all of the tomato plants.

This coming week we need to put the poles up for the pole beans that we planted to make sure they have something to grow on. We'll also continue to weed as much as we can and get the garden cleaned up.

Suburban Garden Report:


Our sharecropper pumpkin plant has really taken off! It has runners going in every direction and has several baby pumpkins on it already. The sweet potatoes planted next to it are also doing well. I have been careful not to water them too much unless it has been particularly hot.



The strawberries are starting to produce a new crop of berries and they are growing quite large. Also, the rhubarb continues to put out new stalks! I am very happy with my tiny garden in the backyard.

Have a great week!

We Finally See the Light!

Country Garden Report:

Yesterday, June 8, 2010 we were finally able to plant a large number of our tomato starts out in the garden! We have had a day or two of dry, sunnier and warmer weather this past week which we are so grateful for! We ended up planting 44 of our all purpose tomatoes with many more specialty varieties left to plant in the next few days. Luckily according to the forecast we are supposed to have some sunny and dry weather coming up this weekend and beyond.

This Friday we'll take advantage and try to plant the rest of our tomatoes and peppers. We really need to plant most everything in the next two weeks in order to give the plants time enough to mature and bear fruits and vegetables in time for harvest in the late summer and early fall. It is fortunate that both I (Trista) and Serena are on vacation from teaching classes this week and next so we'll have extra time to get some gardening done.


All of our potato plants have come up and look very healthy! That is great news as we hope for a lot of potatoes to use in winter dishes. The organic russet potato plant is pictured above. Most of the plants look the same but the purple potato plants have a slight purple tinge to the leaves.


In other garden news our peas are now blooming as are our boysenberries (pictured above). Also, there are berries setting on our raspberry bushes.


Also, tiny baby grapes (in the above photo) are forming on the grape vines and the heirloom roses (used for rose hip tea) are blooming like crazy! Things are starting to shape up quite nicely after our very cold and rainy spring!



In fact, in the NOAA weather report for May, Oregon was among the coldest of all of the contiguous states for the entire month. We didn't have record rainfalls, although it shows the northwest was well above normal. You may also be interested to see how your own region's information. See link for maps below from NOAA:

http://tinyurl.com/26ta9dv

Suburban Garden Report:


The big news in my suburban garden this week was that there were a few ripe strawberries on the bushes in my raised bed garden! It was certainly exciting to see these and as soon as I pointed them out to Adam he quickly devoured every last one! (Pictured below)


In other news the rhubarb continues to grow. It has done really well in the wet weather and the second plant that hadn't been doing as well is now growing much bigger and getting healthier. I may even be able to harvest enough for a pie towards the end of the month! (Pictured below).




Happy gardening to you all this week!