Bay Tree

Been busy with other things lately.  I cook from scratch most days - geez that takes up some time! :)  But I really enjoy it.  Today we woke up to fresh homemade bread (yeah bread machine) & then I made homemade vegetable soup - using a zucchini & a squash from the garden, along with my normal frozen veggies.  Then I made Ranch dressing.  I don't have any red bell peppers yet, but have some from last year that I dehydrated & work great.

Recognize this?

It probably doesn't look like what you'd get in the grocery store does it?  But that's my red onion.  Looks a bit weird but tasted fine.  The jar it's next to is an empty 32oz jelly jar - impressive huh?

One thing that totally flopped a few weeks ago is my bay tree.  This thing was 6' tall, gorgeous & in a REALLY small pot.  So, I did something I think I should have done 2 years ago... I transplanted it into a bigger pot & cut it in half & put that also in a bigger pot.  So much for doing a good deed....

Not a trick of lighting - all the leaves turned brown.... This was bottom half

This was the top half

I would have taken pictures today, but it was just too depressing... the bottom half of the plant - was a stick! :(  There are a few leaves on the top half still, but I think I need to just get another plant & put it in the big pot to start with... But will check with my friendly wonderfully informative local nursery folks!  They are really good & if you live locally I highly recommend them. 

 

Just a few things

Took a quick tour this morning.  Gave everyone a nice soak with the hose to help soak in the fertilizer.  Overall things are looking better.  It seems some plants that started out galloping are definitely at a walk now, suspect that the early heat did that.  This week the temps have been more normal, so maybe they can start growing again after this short rest.

I have planted watermelon in 2 different spots, twice now... nothing!  Not sure if seeds were bad or someone ate them, so got new seeds & started them indoors today.  I WANT WATERMELON!  Also many of my melons are just.... small leaves, doing nothing.  I have to remember IT'S an experiment this year & my learning curve is pretty high on those.  So below are a lot of pics of beds that I hadn't really been showing you much of - just to give a clue as to how they look right now & hopefully in a month - they will be big & green!

Jenny 5/6 - Cantaloupe, pumpkin, watermelon, & zucchini....

Harry 5/6 - Spag squash, Cantaloupe, eggplants, watermelons & tomatoes...

Peter 5/6  The cukes in the back row are sure small, but so are the zucchini &squash :(

Amy 5/6 beans looking a bit better, tomatoes near in front of them aren't much better - other side of tomatoes doing ok

Oscar - Cantaloupe & squash in front, not doing well.  Will I ever get cantaloupes???  Tomatoes doing ok.

Herbs - going ok

Julia - 5/6 - Beans on left recovering - sugar snap peas in front ugh & black eyed peas on right doing pretty well.  The tomatoes & peppers are slow.

Chimney - lettuce - we'll see....

Rachel - my hardest hit beans :(  Doing some experiment here - will fill you in next month with how it went.  Tomatoes, ok.

Not bad herbs here

Robin has a nice acorn squash going

Mint in the bog growing nicely!

If you look closely you can see 6 purple lilies!  This will be cleaned out soon

Robin - still struggling - cantaloupe, melon & pumpkin in back - bush cuke on left front, zucchini in center & acorn squash on right.  Looks better than my new beds, but this is a bed that's 4 years old.

Rick - our star - same age as Robin.  Only difference really is he got 1 bag Mel's mix & 1 bag turkey manure this year - Those are some HAPPY plants!  They are all big & deep green & yep you've been seeing the zucchini & squash from here.  There are onions & scallions on the right....

So that's what they look like right now.  The best thing my "inspector" Cleco got to inspect this week didn't come from my garden, but from my daughter.  I thought I'd share the wonderful roses she sent me for Mother's Day.  My photo really doesn't do them justice.

Twins!

Never grown squash before so don't know if it's normal or not - but I got conjoined twins!  Also 2 types of zucchini - black beauty is the smaller one on left & cocozelle the striped one.  

Here's Brenda Lee - I replanted this one as it got hit so hard with the fungus.  I planted 48 seeds total & as you can see, unlike last time, not many have come up.... BUT look closer & you can see someone has been rooting around in there - suspect they didn't want to wait for more beans & just ate what they found.  Pooh!

Here are some comparison pics of Leo so you can see how the cucumbers are loving the netting.  No cukes developing yet tho.

Leo 5/4/11

Leo 4/17/11

Meg - the spaghetti squash isn't looking quite as vigorous, but steadily growing - no fruit here either, nor any pumpkins.

Spaghetti Squash 5/4/11

Spag. Squash 4/22 - more leaves, shorter tho

Pumpkin 5/4/11

Sanford - look at those beans grow.  The ones growing up the strings were least hit by the fungus, but not producing yet.  The ones on the left of the pic were hit harder by the fungus but we're starting to see some beans there.

Sanford 5/4/11