This week in my garden: July 12th

This is a post inspired by Amanda Soule and her blog Soulemama.  My garden is "not looking good" right now. I have decided(har har) to have cool weather garden. So right now this is day one of the garden (again).

The blackberry bush is growing well. You can't even really see the borders of where the grass ends and the "garden" begins.

 





My favorite thing about this picture is that you can see the fireworks that neighbors are setting off.  It isn't the 4th of July but the house is outside city limits.

 

That grey little thing in the right corner is my cat. 

 

One of the reasons I have kept a blog is to see the progress of my garden. Right now it is not well, but through the blog, I can see what is was like when I kept it up.

 

It is hard to tell but under all that grass is really good soil. When I was moving stuff aside to walk, I could glimpse the soil. It looked rich and dark brown. Hopefully since this is the ultimate in "no till" right now, the dirt is doing well.

Effing dammit. The one picture that shows what little I had done to clean up the garden got deleted when I went back to compare pictures. Well shit.

In the middle of the picture I hope you can make out a corner. That corner is my hope right now.  Last year I set out some ceramic border in the garden.  That corner is a piece of one of the ceramic titles.  That is my starting point. So I cling tight to the song "Inch by inch" that Peter, Paul and Mary sang.  It helps to to not give up. Mother Nature does some amazing things with a little helping hand.

 





 

 





Time waits for no (wo)man

The weather here has been crazy- hot one day and the frost warning another day. Welcome to spring in TN :-)

With all the other spring activities (TCAPs, Field Trips, Overdue notices) i really haven't been in the garden.  Fortunately though, nature carries on without me. 

I finally have 2 asparagus shoots and maybe some carrots.

 

My first asparagus :-)



Carrots maybe?

 

YIKES!!!

The garden is so overrun right now.  I haven't been to work on it in probably 2 or 3 weeks.  It was either way to hot or it rained everyday.  This is not complaining or excusing, just stating a fact.  This is what was ready today.

July 19th

There is a beet, cucumber, zucchini, and two tomatoes.  Yikes. The old adage 'If you don't use it, you lose it" seems quite appropriate here. Cabbage bugs (or beetles) are everywhere as well.  Some cleaning and weeding is what is going to be going on for the next couple of days.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

The herbs are doing well though. Basil aplenty, tarragon galore, and more oregano that I need.

Not Kansas

Well, I now have seen something corny :-)

I first noticed this on my corn stalk and had no idea what it was.  Is this what makes the ear of corn?  I thought it was cool. These must be the kernels before they get pollinated or something.

It has been so hot here thought that I have slept late and hadn't been in the garden for a while.  When I finally returned, here is what I saw.

It had turned into that antenna thing that I always see at the top of corn.  I do have an ear of corn forming with the silks and everything. WooHoo!

Here is the other stalk.  As you can tell, it isn't as high as an elephant's eye but hey, I will take what I can get right now.

Bad Weather Blessings

There was a really bad storm on Thursday night. Nothing major in my neighborhood was effected, as far as I know. However, my onions did get knocked over. But look at these blessings.

no crying here

These were the first things that I planted this year.  I am so pleased with how they turned out.

At Easter

This is what they looked like at Easter. The lettuce is right behind them.

Other onions

These were planted at the same time as the others so the size is the same. Yeah!