Garden!

The garden is busy with activity!

The only herb we managed to grow was cilantro and that took us several tries to get going.

Tomatoes!!!

Finally here!!!!! 

Cherry tomatoes!

We have had tomatoes forever but they just were not ripening. 

Yesterday I noticed that they are on their way!!!!

Here the Roma Tomatoes are still very green!

But forming well!

Next we move on to the cucumbers. 

This summer we are growing two kinds of cucumbers. 

Regular cukes!!!

And lemon cucumbers!

This is the cucumber plant. Look at all those flowers. 

I have seen several bees busy pollinating so I hope we get many more cucumbers!

Onto the pole beans!

We have already harvested many!

We have 5 bean plants but this is the only one which has vined and also the only one that hasn't produced any beans. the others are small and bushy but have given us lots of beans. 

Weird, huh!

Peppers!!! 

When I got these 2 plants all the natives doubted me. They pooh poohed my peppers. Well, guess who has peppers now! :-)

Strawberries!

We just got 2 new strawberry plants. They are the everbearing variety! We can't wait!

These are the June bearing ones. The leaves have been doing well and we got a big crop in June but since then the leaves have been turning red. Anyone know why????? Please tell me it is normal!

Watermelon!!!!

Yes you read correctly! Watermelon in Western Washington!

Like the peppers I raised lots of eyebrows with my choice, but I think they are doing rather well. Let's hope the warmth doesn't run out before they actually grow. 

And since the weather did turn colder I got some broccoli plants. We have three and we will see how they do. These are a first for us.

So there you have it. A look around my garden. 

How is your garden doing?

Will they be ready in time?

We plan on not buying any Jack-O-Laterns this year. We have four growing. The longest one is turning yellow  finally and the roundest is just starting to turn also. Do you think they will be ready in time?? We saw some in the grocery store for sale already. I started them in June!!! This has been a strange summer!!!!

Garden!!! Garden!!!

I did not think I could get the hang of this garden thing this year. I put seeds in the ground and hoped for the best. After I started I got some books and did some reading about the PNW soil. Now we are starting a small fall garden while the rest of our summer veggies finish growing up. So far so good.

Here are the tomatoes

The cucumbers........

The Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkins are HUGE!

It's bigger than my hand. (I know! I know! Not hard since my hands are very little.)

We have 5 pumpkins and quite a few flowers trying to make it to pumpkin stage. I planted 3 vines. Next year I will only plant 2 and give those vines the room they need. They are not crowded just yet but they could use more room.

Since our one carrot was not the size we hoped for we are trying again. This time I grabbed the big shovel, loosened the soil and got all the rocks we could find out. Next I bought soil, manure, and compost, mixed it all up and made a garden bed in the loosened soil area. This area gets sun from about 10am until sundown which is about 8pm these days. I dread the shorter days. A week after we planted we got baby seedlings.

Lettuce

Spinach

More Carrots

Oh and I got an aloe plant and a Venus Flytrap Plant. I am afraid the aloe is already looking sickly and the venus is enjoying the gnats and fruit flies that love to live in my pantry during the summer months.....dang bananas! I will post pictures of the Venus Flytrap soon. It is pretty cool to watch in action.

Quick Garden Update 3

This weekend was HOT!!!!!!    And for a garden a hot sun is wonderful!

Pumpkins!!!!

 More pumpkins!

There is an actual carrot under there!!! The harvest date is August 30th according to our count.

CUCUMBERS!!!!

BIG BOYS!!!!!

We can not wait to harvest and start the fall garden! So far my plan from earlier in the summer still stands.

Garden Update!

I have really enjoyed caring for my garden. This was more of a test garden since I did not start it until June 12th and I really did not know what I was doing. My last garden was in 2002. I did a lot of research for the Georgia soil. I did none for this garden. I walked into a store, bought some seeds the kids picked out, and threw them into the ground. At some point I bought some fertilizer. The tomatoes never came up so I bought some plants. I saw strawberry plants and added those in. Most things are just starting to grow now that it has finally warmed up.

Oldest Peep wanted the tomatoes. We have two varieties.

Cherry Tomatoes

Big Boys

The Big Boys have not grown well. About a week ago I was ready to pull them up and start a fall garden. We are just finally getting some fruit. At one point I was definitely now watering enough and then I was watering too much. These last few days I think I am back to not watering enough. The leaves look a little parched.   

The pumpkins were the first to start growing and they have essentially taken over that part of the garden. I had no idea they got that big. I have been reading this site to learn as much as I can quickly. Each peephas his own plant and is suppose to care for it. I have mosly tended them.

The 6 sunflowers are mine. They are tall enough to be recognized as sunflowers. It is fun to see how they change position throughout the day. In our yard the sun comes up on the left and travels across to the right. The sunflowers start the day facing to the left and end the day facing the right. It is a lot of fun to watch.

Carrots are Middle Peep's

Unfortunately, we planted 10 but only one has grown. It is doing well and by last count we should be able to pull it up around the end of August. Middle Peep is looking forward to eating his one carrot. We will grow more for the fall. I have a plan all set.

The cucumbers are Baby Peeps.

I was for sure pulling these up this weekend but on Thursday we woke up to find flowers and vines. How could I yank them now? So they stayed and they are (I use this word alot) FINALLY growing.

Last but not least.......the strawberries. I know nothing about growing these. I saw them at the store and got them. I planted them in a fairly sunny spot and crossed my fingers. I hear the first year they don't produce much fruit. So far that has held true as we have gotten about 5 strawberries between the two plants. This week I noticed that they are growing some vine looking things....runners perhaps? There is so much to learn. I really need to google this.