Catching Up

Here are some random photos from last week (5/20 and 5/22).

This is the west plot. A few of the potatoes in the lower left, green beans, lots of tomatoes, some eggplant, peppers, and sweet potatoes back where my husband is standing.

The artichokes have doubled in size since I took this photo 5 days ago. So have the weeds ):
Peas, peas, peas! I love snap peas! My favorite vegetable. I think we will get maybe another week if we are lucky.
The onions are coming along. We have to figure out where we can hang them to dry.
The three sisters. Two sisters at the moment. The pumpkins are growing, but the corn is not. This could be a problem.
The zucchini is thriving! I am going to pick our first pollinated zucchini for our spaghetti tonight. I will post photos later.
Finally planted the next round of okra on the weekend. Same place as last year, but I think it will be okay. My husband added lots of compost and manure.
The strawberries are doing pretty well despite being in a muddy, shady, weedy, nutrient poor, and generally ignored corner. Some taste better than others. I think we will have to dig them up this winter and do them properly next year.
I was very happy about these pink flowers (Oenothera) I often buy seed packets hoping that they are the same as the flowers I saw by the side of the road or in someone else's garden and 90% of the time I am completely wrong. This time I got it right! I think (I hope)they go wild and re-seed on their own.

Pansies are still plugging along beneath the pink flower leaves.
Our neighbors let their mizuna go to flower. I didn't realize that mizuna made such pretty flowers! We will have to let ours flower next year.
My campanula are really flowering now. I planted a mix of white, pink, and purple, but only seem to have raised purple. Oh well, at least it is my favorite color!

flowers: May 9, 2010

This is my last set of photos from May 9, tomato planting day. Not the best photos, because I was in a bit of a rush, but you get some idea what flowers are blooming.

The irises are blooming one color at a time. Purple are just past their peak and yellow are beginning. I keep buying different types of purple irises because there is one kind I really like, but I don't know what it is called and keep hoping to get lucky. So far, no luck, and I have 3 different shades of purple irises.

This flower bed is just starting to get going. The bachelor buttons at the rear right are just starting to bloom. The silver duster at the back is practically a shrub despite brutal pruning. The Campanula are almost ready to bloom, and the balloon flowers will be close behind. In the front are pansies, a rather sad New Guinea Impatient, an osteopermum, a few anenome (most didn't come up again this year), and a few petunias in case all else fails. Also I planted a few turkish balloon flowers again because I do love them, even though they don't love me.

My husband made a new slightly terraced area at the bottom of the embankment for the blueberries. I planted extra pansies and other misc flowers here.

Also a new yellow osteospermum. It is really pretty, but I realized I will have to move it, because this whole area will be taken over by pumpkin vines by late summer.

My father-in-law gave us a few of this pretty pink flowers, which we planted behind the pumpkins at the base of my husband's baby tree patch.The yamaboshi (Japanese dogwood) started flowering. It seems very healthy, but hasn't grown at all in the 2 years since we planted it. We wonder if perhaps its sun exposure is too good, so it doesn't feel any need to grow taller.
The yellow magnolia by my classroom door is blooming.
And I have started planting flowers along the border of the empty lot next door to our driveway.
And I'm also putting flowers in the holes in the ugly cement fence by the driveway. I love this white flower, it continues to bloom every May. I think this is its third year.
My more expensive petunias from last year proved to be worth the extra money as they have come back in force again this year.

flowers and butterflies

I planted these bulbs in the strawberry patch before it became the strawberry patch. I planted yellow, white, and pink, but only the pink and white have bloomed.
Butterfly on the oregano.
Petunias in a planter by the side of the parking area.
Pink groundcover thing that does really well in the heat.
One with smaller blossoms.
Gladioli starting to bloom. Balloon flowers are doing well this year. And campanula are still going strong.
Campanula and blue flax.
Morning glory seedlings by the classroom windows, hoping to keep off some of the morning sun. This windows face east, so the perfect spot. We had a very old pack of seeds and wanted to use them up.
Butterfly on a purple flowering Indian tree, kind of wisteria like, but it is not a vine.

odds and ends

I thought it would be fun for the girls to grow these multi-colored carrots. It is fun to pull them up and see the different colors. Unfortunately, they taste dreadful! Especially the purple ones. The white ones are kind of bitter. The purple ones are extremely bitter and fibrous. But, the power of gardening! The girls ate them! I couldn't believe it...I wouldn't eat them myself!
This pink ground cover flower has started to bloom. The blossoms are much bigger than I expected. I think I will try to find some more, as my other flowers in this area are not doing so well.
I planted campanula mixed seeds a year and half ago. I was worried that I only would have purple ones (though they are my favorite, it is nice to have some variety). But a white one started blooming this mornng! It also gives me an excuse to post another photo of my mystery blue flower...Anyone know what it is???
I finally broke down and allowed my husband to plant 3 eggplants this year. But only three. And only because I have a weakness for purple flowers. My father-in-law grows bushels of eggplant, and really, there are limits to how much eggplant one can be expected to cook (and eat!) Luckily, Japanese eggplant are smaller and tastier than American eggplant. I recommend trying them if those of you in the US have not yet.
Green beans are starting to flower.
Yesterday we had male and female zucchini blossoms on the same day again! This means there is hope for two zucchinis bigger than my thumb. Today only male flowers. I shouldn't have planted so close to the okra. I thought it would be taller by the time the zucchini got this big, but it (the okra) was fighting off aphids and got a slow start.
One of the pumpkin vines, our only surviving Cinderella pumpkin, has started to show vine-like tendancies. It gets spared the worst of the evil orange beetles because they go after the cucumber...
After an interrupted orange beetle attack on a cucumber leaf.
The zap and stomp pest control method. Not terribly efficient or pleasant, but the only way I have found short of poison. And I always thought I was a pacifist...

fall?

I thought cosmos were supposed to bloom in late summer/fall, but apparently this one is confused. I love cosmos, so would be happy if they bloom from now till fall.
Finally some of the flowers in the flower bed closest to the house (NE bed) have started to bloom. This is where the bulbs are, and time between irises and lilies is a bit barren.
More nasturtium.
The SE flower bed is doing pretty well, but I have a bit of a gaping hole in the center that I have to think about. I'm hoping it will look better when the balloon flowers and gladioli start blooming. One Turkish balloon flower (? Turuko kikyo) seems to have survived the winter, hurrah! I love them.
I am still hoping for id on this blue flower which I love.
Reisentraube cherry tomato has zillions of blossoms in each cluster. If these all turn into mini tomatoes we will be in tomato heaven.
Strawberries are plugging along. Down to only 10 or so a day from a peak of 20. Not bad considering they are just in an out of the way corner, half under mud when it rains. They are to the right of the neighbor's garden tool shed in the photo below. Next year we should look into putting down some rice stalks or something for them to lie on.
An view from the girls' bedroom. The lawn has greened up, but the most trodden patches don't really get a chance to grow in .

a sad momemnt

L picked my first baby tomato yesterday (in the pouring rain)! Oh no! M found some new ones today, but we are keeping them secret from the baby-killer. L picks green strawberries, too. sigh.
My campanula started blooming today. I started them from a mixed color seed so have been anxious to see what colors they will be.
Mostly, I spent the morning weeding and removing diseased and dying plants. The pansies were still flowering, but getting pretty leggy, and harboring nests of gejigeji, so I took them all out. Some sunflowers reseeded from last year and I will get my students to plant more this weekend.