state of the garden

Someone asked for an update on how my garden was going – I’m more than happy to oblige! I took a bunch of photos today while out doing some watering. The constant rain for awhile there was irritating, but at least I didn’t have to get dressed, go outside and water every day!

In the top row, L-R:
1. Cucumber. Doing pretty well, looks healthy, with one yellow flower so far. I think I might let it just sprawl on the ground although I’m still wavering on whether to trellis it. That was the original plan, and it’s planted just at the bottom of the stair railing to the deck. I’ve got other squash plants planted next to the cucumber, and while they aren’t big yet (actually, two of them died and I just reseeded, ugh) it might get really crowded, really fast. Maybe I will set up a trellis so the cucumber will grow up along the railing.

2. A puny tomato plant. Maybe purple ball? I can’t remember (but they’ve got tags in the ground). I’d originally planted a few of my tomato seedlings in a different spot, and although they all look healthy, they just weren’t growing much. I think once the leaves really came in on the trees in my yard they got shaded out. So this weekend I went out, turned some other crap under (green onions that weren’t doing so well) and moved the tomatoes to a sunnier spot. I hope they catch up!

3. Bush beans (Royal Burgundy). They’re kinda leggy from being grown in the pot, but they look leafy and healthy and have lots of pretty purple flowers. I’m hoping that the taller stems will make it easier to find and pick the beans! These are so easy to grow, and satisfying – for those that don’t know, they’re normal “green bean” type beans, but are dark purple on the outside. And they turn green when they’re cooked!

Bottom row:
4. Flower on the biggest tomato plant in my wee garden – which is in a container. It’s a “Lemon Boy” variety that I bought on a whim at Canadian Tire and was the first one that I planted out. It’s almost as tall as its cage now, and has a couple of blossoms.

5. An heirloom tomato growing with a basil plant in a recycling bin. The tomatoes that I planted in the bins are doing somewhat surprisingly well, so I’m happy. I think this one is a “Tigerella” variety. The basil’s doing great, too!

6. This one cropped kind of weird, but it’s another tomato + basil in a recycling bin. This one’s “White Queen” – white beefsteak-type tomatoes! Doing quite well too.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with how things are going. The squashes could be growing a little faster, but at least they’re alive; it seems like everything’s a little slow this year. I hope the sunshine and heat predicted for the next little while helps things along, even if I do have to be out there watering!

And I’m keeping my cool knitting hemp (in my AC’d house, but anyway…) – this is the “cool hemp ponchette” by Hemp for Knitting, in the new AllHemp6 Lux. It’s smoother and silkier than the usual AllHemp6, and really quite nice to knit with! This one’s a shop sample, and it’s almost done.