2012 - July 9

They turned YELLOW!!!!  The Squash are finally ripening and looking more like a Spaghetti Squash and less like a Cantaloupe.

The Cherry Tomatoes have a Red one on the vine!  

Tasting Time!  Wow!  Lots of Flavor, but a tough skin.  Something to do with the heat and lack of adequate water.

I knocked this sunflower down as I was watering.  So I stuck it in this beautiful vase full of Roses from Evan!  <3 <3 <3

2012 - July 5

These Sunflowers are SO tall!!!  They tower over 10 feet! 

The Strawflowers are so cool to watch open and close as the sun goes up and down and when the rain pours (during the few times it has).  The squirrels keep digging in the pot for something and knock out some of the flowers.

When I cleaned out the Butterfly Garden at the beginning of the season, I pulled up a portion of the Mums by accident and thought I had pulled it all out.  Here it grows in my disbelief!  Grow baby grow!  Fall flowers, here we come.

Panda checks out the Tomato pot under the Rose-of-Sharon bush.

The first Pepper!  It is small, but it is FULL of flavor.

For size comparison, Evan and I decided to place it next to a Roma Tomato.  Not very big.

Along with the Pepper, the Kentucky Pole Beans had some dried pods.

I took them out and put them in a bag for safe keeping.  I will be using these later.

Here are all the Snow Pea, Radish, Dill, and Cilantro plants that have been pulled up.  They are drying so that I can pull the seeds from them for keeping.

Coriander seeds from the Cilantro plant.

2012 - June 30th

Amidst the heat and lack of rain, the fruits of our vegetable are struggling to survive.  June has been so hot and dry, with temperatures in the upper 90s and low 100s.   These three little Spaghetti Squashes are protected by the netting from the deer.

The Butterfly Bush is doing well with the drought.  I love how it keeps producing beautiful purple flowers throughout the summer for the hungry Butterflies, Bees, and many other nectar eating insects.

The deer netting is also protecting the Crab Apple nicely.  The tree has recovered nicely from the attacks from the hungry deer.

The morning sunlight shines on the backside of the house as Panda tries to stay cool on the walkway bricks.

Mimi's plant at the bottom is doing well along with my "Cat Vomit" plant (my mom calls it) with all it's new sprouts all over the plant.

Another pretty Sunflower bloomed in the Walmart Pot with the Daffodils.  I love the color variation of red with the yellow.

The heat has really taken a toll on the Inpatients.   The leaves are shriveling up into small echos of a leaf.

The Green Pepper is ALMOST ready to pluck!  It has done well.  It is small, but looks VERY tasty!

The Basil has been very delicious on our Margarita Pizzas. 

The Brussels Sprouts have taken the toll from the caterpillars, which have just about munched all the leaves off of this stalk.  I ended up pulling up this plant in hopes to get rid of some of the pesky eaters.

 The larger of the two stalks has only been sparsely munched on.  Thankfully. 

The Sunflowers in the Raised Garden are so pretty, but they are so freaking tall that I cannot thoroughly enjoy them.  Next year, I will put the shorter Sunflower varieties in the Raised bed and put the taller ones out on the fence line to see them from afar.

The Gypsy Pepper and the Tomato plants are struggling the most in the small pots.  I am not able to water them like I should with this drought.  The plants suffer from the heat and lack of water and have put out a limited supply of fruit.

The Cherry Tomatoes are getting ready to turn Red!!!

The Radish Seed Pods are full of seeds and look about ready to be pulled for collection.

The Snow Peas are definitely done.  The plants have turned to a crispy papery shell of a plant.

This is the third year for the Butterfly Garden.  It looks so rough.  The caterpillars have really done a number on the Cone Flowers.  After I divided the really pretty Red Lilies, it seems to declined in life.  It has gone dormant like it was turning winter.  I hope it survives.  I really love that plant.

The Mammoth Sunflower is getting taller and taller, while the Yuccas are done with their flowers as they produce seeds in their pods.

2012 - June 22 - Pests and Production

The onslaught of an early spring and the lack of a true winter has shown my garden what it can do to it.  Ants have been a problem on all the sunflowers, but no major damage.

Soybeans!!!  This little plant had several bean pods.  They are too small to taste.

The cilantro is blooming and is done with producing the yummy leaves as the heat has caused this herb to bolt.

I wanted to attract pollinators to our vegetables so they can produce a bounty of fruit by planting the sunflowers in the raised garden.  However, the mass of caterpillars have done their damage to the plants.  Pockets of holes all throughout our garden show how hungry these guys are.

The Spaghetti Squash is getting bigger and bigger and I await patiently for it to turn yellow!

The Bumble Bees LOVE our garden this year.  They frequent the Butterfly Garden and the Raised Garden.

2012 - Pesky Pests

And it begins.  A swarm of Japanese Beetles have graced my garden.  My poor four year old Rose-of-Sharon Bush is finally providing me privacy from my neighbor is being eaten alive by this damaging pest.  I need to find some way to save it.  I used the rest of my insecticidal soap to kill the mating bugs in the act, but I fear it is minimal to zilch effect.  This flower is now devoured.  As well as the majority that have bloomed yesterday and today and the ones that are just opening.  A few beetles turned into hundreds.  Madness.

 

 On another note, the Spaghetti Squash is producing a few fruits.

 The Green Pepper is getting bigger!

The Peas are finishing their season and I am trying to decide what to put in their place for the summer rotation.

 The Brussel Sprouts are doing better.  Maybe by winter, they will be as tall as me and have lots of Sprouts!

 My pot of Sunflowers and Daffodils are almost as tall as me and starting to bloom.

Opening Soon!!!