Well we returned from vacation on Saturday after a week at the Jersey shore. We had great weather and had a great time (at until the alarm went off this morning).
And what equaled great weather on vacation meant that the garden didn't get any rain while we were gone. So in addition to picking, I had to water. The tomatoes and peppers didn't look bad but the cucumbers were really wilting so I watered them and the beans again on Sunday.
On Saturday I picked about 60 tomatoes and about 150 cherry tomatoes and about 8 cucumbers. We took a bunch of the tomatoes to church on Sunday and I took the rest to work this morning. My wax beans are ready to pick and I plan to pick them either tonight or tomorrow.
Sometime this week or this weekend, I plan on planting carrots.
Sunday afternoon I cut the grass, or at this time of year... I lowered the crabgrass.
Hey, haven't seen that in several months... we had rain last night and it was just a four days since the last time we had rain. I was going to water tonight if we didn't get any but I emptied 1.1" from the rain gauge this morning. Neat! Just in time for our family vacation. I will be away from my garden for a week starting tomorrow and hoping we get rain at least once while we are gone.
I also noticed that the green beans I planted on Saturday were starting to push up the ground yesterday.
Here is a picture of my Hosta I bought at a roadside stand. This is the one I split when I planted it and the smaller split died. This one seems to be doing better.
I cut my grass last night (or maybe I should say I shortened my crabgrass, but at least my yard is green). Since we haven't been getting enough rain when the yard needs it, there were some areas that I didn't cut last night (just really didn't need it). And to my surprise, my 19 year old son came out and helped me (I have two mowers. My mom gave me hers when she downsized to an over 55 community and has a service do her lawn). Well we got the other mower started (I like to start it up several times a year to keep it running so I have it as a back up, its a smaller one so I don't use it that often) and we plowed through the thick crabgrass.
I did notice something last night in the veggie garden. I have mentioned before that I have a problem with growing peppers in that I don't pick any until September. I am pretty sure it is because they only get about 3 to 4 hours of good sunlight and since they are a tropical plant they need more. But come September the plants decide that they aren't going to get more sunlight so they decide to start making peppers. In September I pick a bunch of small to medium peppers (the size of one is good to cut up for two salads). So anyway, last night I noticed that I had a medium sized pepper growing on one of my plants and its only mid August! Then I remembered that I had planted two varieties of peppers this year to experiment. I grew Parks Seeds "Whopper" and Totally Tomatoes "Fat and Sassy". The "Fat and Sassy" had a shorter maturation time. And guess what, the plant with the pepper was the "Fat and Sassy". I also noticed that the F&S plants had little peppers in the blossoms where the Whopper only had blossoms. So it looks like next year I will continue with the F&S. But I am thinking of moving them into the area where I grow my beans (I think it gets more sun there).
Here is a picture of some the Sedum I have. It seems to done very well in my yard with very little care.
Last night I picked a bag of cucumbers (although they are slowing down now), a bag of cherry tomatoes and a bag of regular tomatoes. I also noticed that one of the cosmos has a small bloom on it, a white one.
Saturday I did get some yard cleaning done and planted another row of green beans (hopefully October will be nice to me). I did take some pictures over the weekend and I hope to put some up soon. I also picked cucumbers, tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.
Yesterday was an interesting day. The rain that usually passes us by didn't. When I got home from church it started raining and I had to take down the two loads of laundry I hung up before church. Luckily we have room in our basement to hang clothes (which we do all winter). But it rained off and on all afternoon and the thunder and lightning never stopped. It would have been a beautiful thunderstorm had it not knocked out our power. When we got home from church the clocks were stopped at 11:30 and power came back on around 1:30. Power was only on for an hour before going out around 2:30 and not coming back until 5:15 (as I was headed out the door to pick up something for dinner; since the local delivery place was backed up and said delivery would be an hour). Any way, I emptied 1.7 inches from the rain gauge yesterday afternoon and I emptied another 0.6 inches this morning. Very nice!
Looks to be a gorgeous weekend weather wise and I hope to get some done outside. Even though if I plant now, I won't be harvesting until October, I want to plant another row of green beans. And of course some housekeeping as well (trim some bushes, pull out the dead daylily stalks, weeding, etc.)
In early September, I am planning on planting carrots again like last year. Hopefully this year I won't be as lazy and water them when needed (last year the carrots came out small, I think from the lack of water).
I did look again at that dogwood I transplanted and it does have some leaves that have grown to normal size.
Yesterday I also noticed that seven of my sunflower plants are in bloom. I hope to take some pictures of them, people don't believe me when I say my sunflowers are 8 feet tall.
I watered the veggie garden and some of my flower beds last night. My cucumbers in the shady side are doing much better than the ones that get more sun. The ones in the sun seem to be getting burned, I guess I'm not watering them enough.
While I was watering my flower beds, I also did some weeding. The funny thing was that some of the weeds were tomato and watermelon plants (not surprised since I throw the rotting tomatoes and the water melon rinds in the compost pile).
Earlier this spring I transplanted a Dogwood tree. I transplanted it when the leaves were still small. I guess I should have waited until the leaves were mature because the leaves stayed the same size. Last night I noticed from a distance that half of the leaves appear to be of normal size. I will have to check this out closer.
I purchased a large green Hosta late this spring and thought it was big enough to split. I wrote earlier that the smaller one died. Last night I noticed that the larger remaining plant was in bloom. It has three stalks with white flowers.
Watered the veggie garden last night and picked a bunch of cucumbers, a couple of large tomatoes and a couple dozen cherry tomatoes (after eating about 6 while picking).
I ought to get a couple of pictures of my sunflowers, they are all at least 8 feet tall. One of them is now in bloom. My daughter asked how come they are so tall. My answer was that "I water them?" I planted a row of them in my veggie garden (sacrificing a row of beans) just for my wife and daughter to enjoy because they like them. It was rather ironic that I read this week that sunflowers make wonderful trap crops (meaning they attract the bad bugs away from other crops). I thought that was pretty neat.
