Doing Well:
-- tomatoes (so far, at least)
-- chives
-- bell peppers
-- mesclun (but it's kind of odd-tasting to me... I prefer plain, sweet lettuce)
-- radishes
Doing So-So:
-- onions (looks like they're mostly just growing the greens)
-- bunching onions (ok, but a little slow)
-- squash & zucchini (not sure what's wrong, but they seem a little sad)
-- okra (think they need more sun, maybe)
-- Swiss chard (not growing much)
Not Doing As Well As Hoped:
-- broccoli (one has bolted)
-- lettuce (not enough of it coming up, and what does is a bit limp)
-- cucumbers (just sitting there, looking pitiful)
-- snow peas (no surprise there, but some of them are hanging on)
Oh well. I guess we'll chalk up the failures as a learning experience. ;o) (Isn't that what we're supposed to say when we've messed up something? At least it's not quite so obnoxious as that odious "teachable moment".)
There's probably still time to plant more squash, zucchini, and okra. (Maybe the chard, too?) I'm not sure, but I think all of those like our hot summers, and I think I planted some squash fairly late, last year. Working up the enthusiasm might be difficult, though. It's so hot outside, already, and yet people persist in talking about how "nice" the weather is. Pfpt! Nice?!
I can't believe it's going to be even worse in a month's time. I know it will be, but I don't really believe it. I refuse to believe it can be worse. It's some sort of defense mechanism, like women forgetting the pain of childbirth so that they're willing to have more kids. (g)
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Here are photos of some of the more successful (so far) vegetable plants...
Cherry tomatoes:
"Regular" tomatoes:
Bell peppers:
We've harvested a few of the cherry tomatoes. I tasted just one, and it wasn't my favorite thing, to be honest. I'm not a huge lover of raw tomatoes as it is, though I'll eat them on a hamburger/sandwich or diced into a taco. Generally, though, I like my tomatoes cooked. This one was a bit tart for my taste, though Donald thought they were ok. I've been reading about things you can do to sweeten tomatoes. Some suggest mulching with grass clippings... adding Epsom salts... or even rabbit droppings. Well, we have all three. Not sure which I'll try.
The bell peppers look pretty good. I looked up the variety online (Bonnie Green Bell Pepper), and they're supposed to reach 4.5 x 4 inches. Still a way to go, I guess, but I may pick them earlier than that, if it looks like something's messing with them. (If these peppers do well, I might want to try more peppers next year. Jalapenos seem interesting, but I just don't know if we'd use/freeze enough to justify growing them... Of course, we could always pass the extras on to someone else, if we had a bumper crop.)
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The lantana is blooming again! (I'm glad I put it outside the fence, where I can enjoy it without worrying that the dogs will hurt themselves by eating it. I just hope it gets enough sun where it is. I'll have to keep an eye on it.)
They really are interesting-looking blooms. I love the way they change color and end up with that progression from yellow in the middle to fuchsia on the edges. They remind me of fireworks.
And see how neat the flowers look right before they open?
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The passionflower vine is growing nicely. It sneaked up on me. I hadn't noticed it growing much at all, but comparing to the photo I took right after we planted it, the change is obvious. (I'll try to remember to take a photo of the whole trellis soon.)
We're enjoying a fair number of flowers (no more than two at a time, yet, though)-- and these springy tendrils that bring back memories of the passionflower vine Mom grew on the fence at the old house:
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A couple different types of daylilies are blooming at the moment.
Earlier this year, I divided a large clump of this variety, and now I think every division is blooming:
I don't have photos of the other variety, because the blooms were damaged by the thorns of the rose bush they grew beneath. I transplanted them this morning, and with any luck, the shock won't ruin the remaining blooms. (It had to be done, eventually, anyway.) Here's a photo of the same plant from an earlier year, I think.
Still on the subject of daylilies... Remember that we planted the daylily seeds right before a massive rain and that I was concerned that the seeds had possibly washed away? I've been trying to weed around the few green sprouts that I thought might be daylily seedlings that survived the deluge. (It's not an easy task!)
I've done enough weeding in this yard to be familiar with most of our weeds. I recognized some of them right away. However, I've never really seen a teeny-tiny daylily before, and looking them up online was only slightly helpful. There are some of these so-called daylily seedlings that I'm 100% sure are daylilies. Then there are some that I was fairly sure were daylilies. They grow differently, but they don't look like any of the baby weeds that I know by sight... and they seem too thick and "fleshy" to be plain old grass... But I'm not sure.
Today, I came across a bunch of the maybe-daylily-seedlings popping up outside the daylily "nursery-bed"! They all seem to be in an area where they could conceivably have washed during the Great Flood. Ever since spotting them, I've been waffling between, "YAY! More of our seeds came out! We'll be rolling in daylilies by July! ;o) (Except now some of them are growing way too close together, which isn't ideal...)" and "*sigh* Those must not be seedling daylilies... All this time, I've been carefully nurturing some random weed/grass."
I'm still not sure. Trying not to get my hopes up, but that never works completely. You can't help but hope. Well, it wasn't a huge investment in time or money, so even if we get just a few plants out of it, that'll be ok.
Here's an example of one that I'm just about 100% sure is a daylily, because it's growing in a pot (fewer weeds to contend with) and it just looks like a miniature daylily, minus the flowers:
And here's one of the "possibly a daylily" seedlings. This one also happens to be growing in a pot, but see how differently it grows? I suppose slightly different growth habits might be possible, among the varieties and types in that seed mix. That's what I was telling myself, before I saw the many little plants that bear such a striking resemblance to this one.
Fingers crossed that when they get bigger, their daylily-ness will be confirmed and we will, indeed, be rollin' in the lilies. ;o) (Of course, I've heard and read that it can by years before you actually see flowers from daylilies grown from seed. The suspense!)
