...but whatever. Let's take a little tour of the garden in its current state, shall we?
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| The Anise and California Poppies are doing well. The tall poppies and anise shot up a good 3-4 inches in the last week! A couple of the poppies are smaller, and look weak, but they have little flowers, so who knows? |
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| The lemon tree was looking droopy and the leaves were yellowing, which we realized could be from overwatering. We are letting it dry out a bit, and it seems to have perked up a little in the last couple of days. |
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| The rose bush, which we staked to the wall during my birthday garden party, is climbing nicely. See it peek into the office window? |
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| The little blue button (or whatever) flower has a couple of little buds! |
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| Tomato Row, with a giant freaking marigold. Seriously, that thing has grown so tall and has yet to falter -- it's like, freakishly strong! |
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| Spinach is not looking so hot; it's still got these dry spots, and a couple caterpillar holes (though I think the caterpillars are gone, after my spray down rampage). |
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| Squash is going nuts; it's huge and basically taking over the middle of the garden (duh). I counted 3 blossoms and a couple of buds! |
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| Strawberries...oh strawberries...what happened? After the squirrel stole the 3 berries that were showing up, it just hasn't looked good. |
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| Slightly blurry beans. Some yellowing leaves, but otherwise they look good. It's going to be time to tie them to the fence soon. How long before we get beans? |
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| Oh sweet peas. I'm sorry I planted you behind the tomatoes and the tomatoes grew faster than you did. I don't know if I can save you. |
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| Parsley looks good, with a random flower that popped up in the middle (see the purple dot?). Tomatoes and basil behind! Nasturtium popping up through the fence, naturally. |
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| Cucumber plant leaning towards the sun. I don't know how this one's going to do, honestly. It's not growing at nearly the same speed as the squashes (squash? today we decided that the plural of squash should be squosh) are, though it gets almost the same amount of sun (I think. Less, but I don't think a LOT less). |
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| The rainbow chard is coming back from its caterpillar disaster, but not as quickly as I'd like it to. Come back, rainbow chard! |
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| The kale is doing well, though the leaves are pretty narrow? Narrower than the ones you get at the store, I think? Still, they are strong and grew back well after I picked a bunch last week. You can kind of see the peppers behind/to the right of the kale, which are getting taller but I have no idea if/when we'll get peppers. |
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| Garden overview shot. Sunflowers to the right, standing tall. |
Note: I took these pictures before watering, so everything looks pretty dry. Any questions about my garden? Advice about the spinach (or anything else)? Let me know! :)
I just have one big question--do your neighbours mind that you're growing a rose bush over their window? I hope that's a closet or something.
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks lovely! I didn't get any peppers either, but I think I put them out too early last year. Silly me, planting in May, when we still get frosts in June. For crying out loud it is stupid cold here. I didn't do any planting this year--the wedding kinda distracted me during planting season, and then the weather got really bloody weird. England declared a drought at the beginning of April, right, driest spring in twenty years, no reserves left...so it proceeded to chuck it down for the next two months solid. We've had flooding like you wouldn't believe, freezing cold, gale force winds, hail and a dense, opaque cloud cover for ages. The weeds have loved it, naturally, but my flowers are wan and spindly and weird. (Thames Water was still maintaining that it was a drought, no rly, up until about a week ago, when they finally conceded that their reservoirs were overflowing.) The one nice thing about the cloud cover is that my Japanese maple's leaves haven't gone all crispy yet. Unsurprisingly, a plant that puts out red leaves doesn't like heat or direct sunlight.
Um...Oh right, I hope I gave you good advice with regard to the chard and the spinach. My mom says that getting rid of diseased leaves helps the plant in more ways than one--in addition to stopping any infection before it can spread, the plant also doesn't waste energy trying to heal the damaged leaves and can pay attention to growing. Oh, keep an eye on your spinach though--I had a constant battle trying to keep it from bolting, pretty much from the second it germinated. Once it decides to go for flowers the leaves remain tiny and bitter and it shoots up woody stalks. Keep it low and shrubby.
I've come to understand that cucumbers like to climb. You may want to find it a good strong trellis to train it up before it starts menacing your tomatoes.
Ben and I have decided that we do not have enough lemon trees here, so we're going to move to California.
Thanks for the long reply! :) Answers:
ReplyDeleteThe neighbors don't mind the rosebush because that's the basement window ;) It's climbing up towards our bedroom/closet window, and I doubt it'll ever get high enough to reach our upstairs neighbor (who likely wouldn't mind anyway). So there's that!
How interesting about the weather you're dealing with. It's been pretty hot over here, mostly dry, with the exception of random wet days here and there, though I think that's pretty much over by now. Time for summer in California!
Re: the spinach, I removed the diseased leaves a while ago, but they just grew back diseased again! I could do a better job of removing though; last time I just plucked them roughly with my fingers...I could use the clippers and do a more thorough job this time and see if it helps.
The cucumber doesn't seem as interested in climbing as it does in reaching for the squash (I think it gets more sun, so the cucumber is maybe just reaching for the sun).
I agree; we have lemon trees aplenty in California! Move here! Or, you know, Cinque Terre, which we learned also has tons of lemon trees.
can you make opium with california poppies?
ReplyDeletep.s.: i'm drunk
Haha, I don't think they're that kind of poppies. Sorry to disappoint!
ReplyDeletethere should be a law...everyone should have a garden (reduce their taxes as incentive..perhaps
ReplyDeleteincentive = spelling ? ie motivation
I don't think forcing people to garden is a great idea...many people don't have the space or time to plant and maintain a garden, especially in cities or poorer communities. That doesn't seem like a very fair tax incentive program, does it?
ReplyDeleteI do think gardening is a great activity though, and I encourage people who are interested but don't have space at home to get involved with their local community garden if they have one!
forcing people to have a garden...looks like i get my words twisted against me
ReplyDelete... i try to say something about gardens....you never heard the phrase....there oughta be a law .....?
Haha, I guess I took you too literally! :)
ReplyDeletereduce their taxes as an incentive...like using speeding tickets to influence speeding behavior in cars.... is that forcing people to obey traffic laws ? they will twist things in a negative way.
ReplyDeletei have said to my self for years...when i see a beautiful garden in front of someone's house... or flowers...i think they should get tax credits, pay less taxes to help beautify the city...especially downtown because lots of people let their front yard go to hell... and it looks awful especially for out of town visitors.
when they pay less taxes... it is an incentive to their neighbors to plant beautiful flowers tomatoes etc...it isnt forcing them... it is giving them an incentive or motivation....what do you mean by forcing them...putting a gun to their head?
sorry i am not good with english or expressing myself. i did better with math. i had a brother born in cancer - very adept at twisting my words against me- just like the astrology texts say - it is irritating.
forcing to me...means violence....physical force. a tax break is NOT forcing...it is an incentive, an option...ie you DONT have to do it if you dont want to..so it isnt forcing. people should do things out of love...not for a pay check or money is waved in front of their nose...in this society , people love money..it can be an influence...it isnt FORCE- like a gun to someone's head... ie the tax credits or not to help pay for flower or tomato or corn seeds...rather,,,, it is a pat on the back - well done. why do i have to explain myself ? it is part of being sagitarius and being misunderstood initially, so cancer can run in and mis-interpret or twist things.
incentive - dictionary = reward offered...it is NOT force.
ReplyDeleteno space...knock down every other house... force them to knock down excess houses.
why isnt it a fair tax... jimmy carter, jfk (originally the greeks) said...life isnt fair
encourage = incentive... or you just use pom poms ?
i wish i had the time for a garden...three years ago i had corn and pumpkins in my front yard... i am sure my neighbors didnt like it