Thursday, June 10, 2010

Garden Update


I knew it'd get like this around this point in the year. Plants are growing, but not quickly enough for a harvest, and so I feel like I have nothing to write about.

I did pull all of my peas, so that I have space for my cucumbers. I'm hoping they survive the transplant. I read they don't like that, so we'll see. They were already flowering and I just had to finally get them in the ground.

My peas had yellowed half way up the vines, and I was no longer religious about picking them, so they were plumping too much for my taste. I picked what was on there, and yanked all of the vines out. I've got several gallon bags of snap peas ready for stir fry and other vegetable concoctions to come.
After I got all of the pea vines out, this poor scrawny tomato finally got some room to breathe. Look at how much it has had to reach to just get some sunlight! It's my only Striped Pasted tomato plant, so I hope it can recover!


I've yet to see any heads forming on my broccoli, even though the plants are massive at this point! I have no idea if it will still set with the heat, because I don't really know much about broccoli!
My lettuce is beginning to bolt, and we've barely eaten it. It's so pretty out there, that I just have a hard time bringing myself to harvest it! It's probably completely bitter by now anyway. It's still pretty though, and I'm okay with that.



Here are some of the tomatoes forming. I'm hoping these cherry tomatoes start changing colors this week, they are starting to have some give to them, and they look like they're almost there! The second picture is my most anticipated tomato right now. It's the biggest "normal" tomato I've got growing right now. It's from a Delicious plant (the plant the currently holds the title for the largest tomato, somewhere in the seven pound range). I just really want an open-faced tomato sandwich! Many of my heirloom tomatoes have LOADS of blossoms, but no fruit yet. Kind of disappointing. The tomato I'm looking forward to the most is my Pineapple tomato from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds, but that one has yet to set any fruit. Those plants are my healthiest looking as far as foliage goes, so I'm not sure what the deal is.

This is our newest addition to the turtle pack. I wasn't interested in adding to them, other than with potential babies from the turtles we already have. My husband saw this one almost get crushed, and when he pulled over to move it, he saw she already was missing a back leg, so he decided she'd probably fare better away from traffic. She's way smaller than the rest of the turtles we have, she's probably only two years old... about the size of the palm of my hand. We haven't come up with a name for her yet, hard to top Ilene (our other turtle with three legs).


Lastly, this is what the garden looked like today. I wish I had a photo splicer of some sort, so that I could connect these pictures. Probably the only downside to having a Mac. I used to use MS Paint to do that, but I don't have any software that I can do that with now.

4 comments:

  1. The broccoli gets huge before it even sets a head. I always think it's long been time for one when one finally appears.

    How many turtles do you have? Do they all have free roam of the garden?

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  2. Who says you don't have anything to talk about? Those tomatoes are looking really good, and you should be eating some real soon.

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  3. Ribbit- thanks for the encouragement! I know the broccoli has been ravaged by the cabbage loopers, but I am still really hoping I get to harvest my own broccoli! Guess I just have to be more patient...

    We now have 8 turtles, and are awaiting five eggs that Eleanor laid to hatch. I'm pretty certain if ANY hatch it'll probably only be one of them, the eggs are looking pretty funky. I'll make a post soon about all of them. I've got to get a better picture of two of them first. :) They are kept in a pen with our compost pile on the other end of our yard. The pen is about 25' by 8'. They have free roam of that, and they spend the winter hibernating under the compost pile.


    EG- Thanks... I sure hope so! I go out and check every day (alright probably a couple of times a day if I'm home..)

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  4. I think it's a good thing that your broccoli hasn't headed up yet. Mine started to when the plants were still relatively small and as a result, the size of the crowns and side shoots have been very disappointing. Broccoli plants definitely need to bulk up in order to ensure a good harvest.

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