I haven't given you an update on the gardens here of late...quite frankly, it's gotten too damned hot to spend too much time out there! Summer is relentless in Texas, and it's not even here yet! Memecrunch picture!
As my gardens are, predominantly raised beds, plastic pots, ceramic and fabric pots, I do have to water daily, almost. Except for those occasional rains.
Which Texas, also, does over the top. We've been getting a good soaking rain about once a week, lately, which the plants are absolutely loving! Nothing like God's good water to create those growth spurts! It'll dry out completely here, in a bit, and transition to the Texas version of dessert weather. That's never pleasant!
That time of the year when it turns deathly hot, the stillness of the air sucking the life out of every little thing...we struggle to keep our plantings alive, as the eventual return of the grasshoppers comes to invade our poor, sorry crops, that are already gasping, and grasping at each droplet of moisture they can get
So, while everything is still pretty, and verdantly green, let's stroll through the front planting areas...
These tomatoes are in a plastic 15 inch pot...they are from slicings from wilting tomatoes from winter. There are, also, some scallion butts growing in there...and some basil genovese and red rubin. I co-plant in all of my pots, making certain that the inhabitants of each are compatible and nurturing of each other. What's kind of funny is that I don't remember planting regular tomatoes in here, but I did scatter a few random seeds, when the slicings were dilly-dallying around, and taking their time to germinate! I did plant some Roma tomato slices...not seeing them, yet. Those in the front, right, are teardrop sweet tomatoes...so very tasty!
Here is the bed with The Three Sisters plantings...well, except now, it's the sisters and some other friends. I tucked some seeds in where nothing else was growing, carrots, beets, radishes, scallions and onions of various types...all underground growers, so they don't have to compete for sunlight. It's got lots of flowers and visitors from our friendly pollinators but no fruits yet. We'll have to see about this spot...it gets decent but not spectacular sunlight.
A lot of my gardening friends are already seeing zucchini and squash, and fully red, ripe tomatoes. Although I thought I had made a good, strong early start, I guess others started even earlier! I started mid March, with seed planting. And thought I was doing good!
The Garden of Que Sera, Sera is filling in in a big way! There were more wildflower volunteers in here than I anticipated. Big Boy and Better Boy tomatoes are at the right side of this picture...parsnips, turnips and beets are growing to the left, with a blue vining wildflower that I've called 'duckweed' ever since Danny had his rescue duck. It was one of the duck's favorite flowers to eat. Around the back, are more tomatoes that came up from seeds...it'll be exciting to see which varieties do well!
Around this side, the squash is having a fight-out with the 'tree that just won't stop'...it keeps sending up random shoots, and they're not from the parent tree...there are many, many kinds of winter squash planted and I really have no idea what is growing. I planted acorn, butternut, stars & moons, and also threw in some of those cute little flying saucer squash...pattypans! I hope they'll produce more than leaves and flowers!
Some of the wildflowers that volunteered to be in the garden, along with a friendly pollenator. You can see the other tomatoes behind them...they're sprawling like crazy! They're fertilized with an organic fish emulsion solution. Fingers crossed!
Cucumber plantings interplanted with ginger. You can see one ginger branch reaching upwards through the tangle of leaves. Two more sprouts are popping through the soil...I'd bought a large hand of ginger from Aldi's a couple weeks ago, and noticed just the other day that two knobs actually had green shoots growing...as the ginger needed a friend, I placed the new shoots in this pot.
And, the first raspberries! We just planted the berry plants at the end of March...there are raised planters of raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries and blackberries, and four blueberry plants in the ground. These were interplanted with mint; unfortunatley, the seeds failed to germinate. I swear, I must be the only person in the world that can't grow mint! So, I planted some basil seeds...those are growing! Thank goodness for raspberries!
Herbs and bean plants around the plum tree. Red rubin basil, Mexican tarragon, parsley, sage are in here. Our chicken nuggets (the baby hens) love the basil! But not as much as they love the cilantro...fortunately, that stuff is cheap to buy, cos it won't grow for me! It'll start, then it'll bolt. Would you believe that my Arugula actually bolted on me this year! It gets too hot, too fast, and the poor babies think it's time to reproduce!
This last garden area is planted with a butterfly mix...it'll flower intermittently throughout the season, as some flowers fade, others will come in to blossom. It'll get really pretty in just a few weeks...I'll keep you posted.
And, with that, we'll end the tour for today...I need to get into the kitchen and finish straightening up. And, there are promo's to work on, and such. Short market is this weekend, for our Bounty Basket clients...my crops aren't ready, still...but there is plenty of good looking fresh produce around. To all my friends on the platform, Steem on!
