Growth, Growth and More Growth

Yes, it's true, that is an actual peapod. I noticed it last night when I got home from work and I'm almost positive it wasn't there yesterday morning before I left. I think it's safe to say the peas are pretty happy with their new climbing structure, since there are roughly 5 of these brand new peapods all of a sudden.


After spotting the peapods, I looked at the cucumbers and found this guy: a two and a half inch long pickling cucumber. He'll probably be ready to eat in a few days. There are a ton of cucumbers that look just like his brother there, about an inch long with the little dying flowers on the ends.


... and more growth! On the largest and most impressive squash plant (with leaves bigger than my hands) we spotted this little 3/4" long mini-squash. I guess I don't need to hand pollinate after all ... I hope I still have the receipt for that Barry White tape I bought.


That's the plant that the little guy is growing on. While we were away over the past weekend he practically doubled in size.


Super Chili #1 keeps on keeping on. If you look carefully in the center of the plant (click the image to enlarge) you may be able to see a couple peppers sticking straight up.


This is Super Chili #3, who is showing a greater abundance of forming chilis. I think he was resentful of not making it into a solo photo yet, so he needed to show off a little.


A close-up of Super Chili #3, and the great looking chili peppers that will become part of our pickles.


The largest pepper in the garden keeps growing. He's a little dented, but he'll still taste good I'm sure. There are about 5 other inch and a half long peppers scattered on the various Green Bell pepper plants.


A view of all the cucumber plants. We added some straw below both the cucumbers and the tomatoes, to help in retaining moisture and keeping the soil warm. However, since it's been rainy for weeks and humid during the days and I spotted a few slugs crawling around last night, I think we might remove the straw since it's probably unnecessary.


The cucumber plants love the trellises, as you can see by this guy stretching out with a big thank you hug.


Front Right view of the garden.


Front left view of the garden. Look at that giant squash plant.


Added bonus update: Blueberries. There are a lot of berries that need to be picked, probably tonight.


Added Bonus: Pears? We think this is a pear tree in the yard, on the driveway side.


Flowers in the Yard Tangent: Hostas. It looks like there are going to be a lot of flowers on this big bed of Hostas.




Flowers in the Yard Tangent: Lilies. The Lilies are upon us, with more to come. Lots and lots of buds spread throughout the yard, with about 10 flowers open this morning in various colors.

Early Pea Update

One of the things that has been really satisfying about trying to do this garden thing is that besides growing stuff we've also gotten to build stuff, and that's just plain fun. Last night I took leftover materials from some of the previous garden building projects and made a support for the peas to climb. Some extra wood from the Cucumber Trellis Project, a leftover length of bird netting from the Blueberry Preservation Project, and three bamboo stakes, extras from the Bridge Over the River Kwai Tomato Structure, were all pillaged and used to construct a simple climbing surface for the peas, which are now starting to flower.


In front of the peas, the sign has grown. I used two pieces of 6' long wood for the end pieces. We used our post hole digger, which is rapidly becoming the #1 garden tool purchase, and dug holes two feet deep to give them a lot of strength. I stapled the pea sign onto the support, for continuity's sake.


Then I stretched the netting across from one post to the other, running it between the two rows of peas, and stapled it to the supports on each end. Finally, I took three five foot long bamboo stakes and wove them down through the netting at regular intervals, pushing them into the ground about twelve inches. The idea here is that the stakes will hopefully help prevent sagging of the netting and give some added support for when the peas get larger and heavier.


The final step was to go along each row and stand the peas up, guiding the tendrils to grab onto the netting. A little gentle prodding and the peas were all standing upright, ready to climb.

Blueberry Bowl

The first bowl of blueberries, picked in the rain last night and eaten while watching Boondock Saints. Somehow, blueberries from your own yard taste so much better than those from almost anywhere else.

Nothing Witty Today

Super Chili #1, Week 5: Taller and taller, this fella is really becoming the star of the show.


The Spartans lined up for battle, spears in hand... Okay, actually, it's the pepper plants.


Here's the largest pepper in the garden right now. It's about 3" long.


And here's a little guy, just getting his start.


The parsley finally looks like it's grown, though it's still not very impressive.


The dill is started to bud.


The view of the best looking squash plant from above.


We might have lost the onions entirely. Disturbed by not seeing much growth, we dug up the row and discovered that we planted them far too deep. There were probably ten onion bulbs that had tried growing and then gave up because they were too far below ground, so we replanted them all only an inch or two below the surface with the growth sticking out above ground. I don't know if we got to them in time, but this guy was completely white two days ago and now the sun has given him some green so maybe there's hope yet.


The cucumbers are flowering!


We cut this cherry tomato in half and split it. It tasted so sweet. There are another dozen green ones still on the plant, so we've got some good tasting salads in store.


The Roma tomatoes are about 3-4" long, about the same size as the largest pepper.


The peas are still growing. We separated some of the ones that were real close and filled in some dead spots in the rows. I had thought that they were going to be bushy enough to support each other (and planted them in two rows 4" apart to accomodate that), but the plants are falling over. We'll probably need to rig up something with a few stakes and some twine to give them a chance to climb a little and get up off the ground.


The cucumbers continue to make their way up the trellises. I'm pretty psyched.


View from the front left corner, with squash in the foreground.


View from the from right corner, with tomatoes on the right and the pepper soldiers lined up on the left.


Added Bonus Update: Blueberries. We ate about a dozen blueberries off the bushes the other night. So sweet.


Flowers in the Yard Tangent #5: There are tons of these purple flowers scattered about, intertwined with blue ones. No idea what they are, as usual.


Rainbows in the Neighborhood Tangent #1: After a quick storm the other night, this was the view from the driveway, looking out over the neighborhood.


Cats in the Yard Tangent #1: Coming up to the house from the garden this morning, this guy was staring me down. He didn't stick around for a close-up.


Dragonflies in the Yard Tangent #1: Sitting on a Lilly, wastin' time.

Super Chili #1

Super Chili #1 gets his own entry. 4 weeks worth of photos, side by side.

Click on the image to see it full size.

Mind Your Peas and Cukes

The peas are raging. They desperately need to be thinned, but we want to wait to see if anything comes up in the dead spots of the rows. If not, then the peas we pull will get transplanted to those empty areas. I'm told pea plants don't transplant well, but if we're throwing them away anyway, we might as well see what happens.


Super Chili #1 continues to reach new heights. He earned his own bamboo stake the other day, even though he doesn't need it yet. We didn't want him to feel left out when looking over at his Green Bell Pepper cousins.


We finished constructing the home-made bamboo and zip-tie structure for the tomatoes. My uncle came by to see the yard and said it looked like The Bridge Over the River Kwai.


The cucumbers are growing well and starting to make use of the netting to climb.


Another view of the cukes. I think we could've planted another 9 plants in the spaces we have between the existing plants. Oh well, now we'll know for next year.


On the other end of the garden, the squash plants are looking good. I can't decide whether to leave them be and let them grow out across the ground or to try to get them to climb, too. I don't think they put out feelers the same way as the cukes, but I'm not sure. I was thinking that some simple old-fashioned tomato cages might work well to keep them a little contained, but it's something we need to think about a little more.


Another view of the peas, still growing behind the sign.


The parsley isn't doing anything very impressive. They still look small, but at least they're still green.


The dill has grown up, but not out. All six plants are about 12 to 14 inches high.


The view from above of the cucumber end of the garden and my shadow. It was rainy all night, but as I started taking pictures the sun came out.


Added Bonus Update: Blueberries. The structure to protect the berries from the birds is done and the netting has been put in place. No one's getting in there at those berries. At one point it seemed like we might not even be able to get in to pick them when they're ready, but at least we would know they were safe.


The blueberry bushes are pretty loaded up.


Flowers in the Yard Tangent #3: ??? What are these, daisies? I have no idea. I really don't know my flowers. They look nice, though.


Flowers in the Yard Tangent #4: ??? I have absolutely no idea what these are, either. They might be a weed for all I know. There sure are a lot of buds, though ...