Garden Update

The weather hasn’t been all that warm.  In the 70’s.  The tomatoes seem to be loving it, but the peppers, not so much.  But this week we are suppose to be in the 80’s, with a chance of rain during the day.  The tomatoes in the raised beds are about 3 feet tall and covered in blooms and little tomatoes.

  This is a little cluster of Cherokee Purple.  I can’t wait for them to get bigger and ripe.

Another jewel of the garden, at least in my eyes, are these…..

  earthworms!  Huge, fat, juicy earthworms.  Actually, I go out a couple of times a day and lift up the bag of coffee grounds from Starbucks and pull them from the top of the ground where they have burrowed up and drop them into my raised beds.  I figure at this point I either have a HUGE pile of earthworms in my beds or I am picking up the same ones over and over again.  But there is some ground cloth in the bottom of the raised beds to stop weeds, so I don’t know.  I would like to think I am full of worms.  In this case, it’s a good thing.

My ‘test’ tomatoes, which are dwarf types, are all up about 12 inches and have nice and thick main stems.

  We won’t talk about the weeds in between.  My goal over the next year is to build 3 long raised beds and not have any yard at all.  I am sure my landlord will be very appreciative.   And the Postal Service not having their discarded bins used for planters.

Besides the tomatoes, my cucumbers are coming along well.    A little ‘cuke’ about the size of a large gherkin.  And the other plants are coming along with blooms and little cucumbers. 

Another thrill is my gerber daisies.    I planted a couple of these last year in a planter.  I hadn’t really liked them in the past (and I hadn’t grown them), but planted them last year so that I could have some large, instant color.  I figured they would be gone once the heat of summer hit.   They hung in there and this spring I moved them from the planter to the ground, thinking if they survived ok, if not ok.  They survived and are starting to put out flowers.  Ok, Gerber, you have moved up a lot in my estimation.

  Pineapple sage and peppermint are spreading out nicely, along with the catnip and lavender mint.  Lemon balm, by the raised beds, is going nuts.  I have been cutting it and putting it in the tea while I brew a pitcher.

And inside, the growing is going nicely….

My $1.99 African violet is blooming away.  And my avocado is growing along.  One of three I have rooting in fact.

So a lot of growing going on here.