Welcome to my Starting a garden Blog post #20 馃尰馃檪 My opening flower this week is milkweed #alwaysaflower
I left an area of my yard unmowed near my garden to allow some milkweed to grow.
The milkweed is coming into bloom. But only just starting. Lots of the plants are still without blooms.
The Monarch Butterfly caterpillars are happy with the milkweed.
The caterpillars are munching away but the milkweed is there for them 馃榿
One more critter before getting into the garden. Some aphids showed up on one of my apple trees. Along with their ant handlers 馃馃悳
A few of the aphids are getting pretty fat lol. I went with the low tech, organic method of aphid control... a strong blast of water 馃挦 I knocked them all off and will check everyday for awhile to see if they return. Aphids don't do alot of damage to mature trees but they prefer tender new growth and can slow growth of new trees.
Now onto the garden!
Here is today's harvest laid out on the kitchen counter.
Since you all have seen too many pictures of my garden and green tomatoes, I wanted to share some different content - record keeping.
And here's the tally for season to date:
Zuchinni 10
Pickling Cucumbers 65
Green Beans 65
Radishes 13
Cherry Tomatoes 24
Grape Tomatoes 46
Garlic 2
Green Onions 12
Basil LOTS (including lemon basil)
Blueberries 18
This is the first year for our garden and first year in Vermont, we are keeping good records.
And a monthly summary. Mostly tracking rain and watering. Plus fertilizing. Also keeping temperatures. Planting and first harvest are also in notes. Other local gardeners are saying this is a dry year. Our raised beds dry out pretty quickly and we are watering alot. Plus we planted too many plants too close together in most beds so its hard to mulch to retain moisture. So far its been a great year and TONS of fun. Thanks for checking out my post 馃尰鈽笍
Bonus pic: Everyday at the lake is a good day 馃檪 Have a great week!