Thursday, June 3, 2010

It's Grow Time!

Looking back at last years blog, I am about ten days ahead of schedule in the plantings when compared to last year.  Blogs are so useful for this sort of thing.  I was getting a little anxious about where things were at, then I looked back and saw that I'm in great shape!  Its grow time in the garden.  All the productive stuff with strict timelines is in, that means I could sit back and just watch the growing.  (If I didn't have so many other non-producing areas to clean up that is.  :P

Here are some pictures from Memorial Day weekend. Click them to see more details.  I have a few days left of the peonies before they get chopped back to give the tomatoes more room.

Broccoli is starting to gets heads on it now.  Lettuce is huge but still tastes great.  Spinach is about ready for one last harvest before I plant the summer crop of it. 



This is the  same bed looking back the other way.  Sagae is the big hosta in the foreground.  This is a young plant and is showing every indication that it will be a monster!  This is probably this area at its prettiest.  Once the alliums and peonies fade and get chopped back, the colors go to white and yellow for summer.  I'm thinking about sticking some red in there for a change this year, but we'll see what the schedule allows.  There is a house to be painted and a fence to be built!

The circle garden is my source for angst this week.  See the big tomato in the center?  It has blossom drop.  I suspect the cause might  be that it doesn't like tomato tone on top of the rich soil it is already in.  The other possibility is that since it is from the Ukraine, it didn't like being on the black during our heat last week.  I'm going to pick up more cocoa bean mulch this week and cover the weed barrier now that the soil is warm.  Hopefully between that and the rains, it's  blossoms will start sticking again.

I love the way peonies look right before they drop their petals.  The lightening around the edges is so pretty!  We had some storms that knocked down the light pinks the other night, so they are done.  These guys are holding their own for a few more days though.  yay!
Storms also cracked one of the balcony tomatoes in half but otherwise, no other carnage with that one.  I cannot believe it is the first week of June and I already have quarter size tomatoes on some plants.  Mystery one and two look like they'll have something for snacking maybe as soon as next week!  Weird season, but good so far!