Things are happening in the garden. The garlic decided that it was ready to be harvested. Almost all the leave died back, that was the sign I was waiting for to pull them up. They look great, but they are on the small side. My best guess is that they needed a great deal more fertilizer than they got. The two bags of mushroom compost didn’t give them near enough. Next year I’ll go with the really rich (um, expensive) worm castings/compost. I’ve been reading up on about the bulbs being on the small side. There are a few things, like the fertilizer. Also, it actually takes a few years to get your garlic to grow up to the normal bulb size. I’ll save the larger ones to plant this fall, along with the ones that I ordered.
I’m planning on making some more focaccia with it to take to the fun trials over the 4th weekend.
Speaking of worm castings… and worms…
Mine are doing quite well. It took them about a month to make their way through all the broccoli slaw I dumped in there. I’m very happy that they thrive on neglect. Now that I’m over wanting to play with them all the time. I have been ignoring them and only feeding them 3x per month. I don’t really generate that much waste. The gardens haven’t started to generate much waste yet either.
This is the best picture I have of the surprise volunteer flower for the season. My very own opium poppy. No idea how it came about, I have other poppies planted but not in this area. The other poppies look very different from this one.
I found this humming bird nest, just by chance when I was out walking Sable. I checked on the nest almost every day, when the babies were finally big enough to get a picture of them. It’s hard to judge the scale, but that nest is less than 2 inches across.
Speaking of baby birds, the last of them has finally left the nest.
This spring I had 3 different birds build nest on my front door portal area. Finches, Curved Bill Thrashers, and Robins. There was 1 finch baby that I found dead one morning in front of the door. The other seemed to just disappear the day before. Both Thrasher babies left the nest around the same time. The last of the baby Robins was on the ground this morning. I found it before Sable. She can’t really hurt them, her mouth is too small, but she does like to chase them. I hope it figures out how to fly be anything else finds it. The other baby robin left the nest a few days ago. I saw it in the back by the herb planters. In the evening, I haven’t seen it since. I also didn’t see the parent birds for a day or so. But one of them was guarding this one this morning.
I have to say each month when I look a pictures from the end of the previous month, I’m a bit surprised at how much things have grown. I’m also shocked that I still have pansies growing in various pots. It’s been so hot I figure they would have all died back by now.
The butterfly bush is the exception, normally it grows out of control, but it isn’t really doing that so far this year. I guess this this is an indicator. As there are a number of other plants around the yard that aren’t growing as well has they have in the past few years.
I spent some money on petunia seeds this spring, trying to get some of the strangest looking and most colorful ones that I could find. This is one of the ones I grew from seed, there are a few more that will be showing up in the next couple of weeks.
This is mid June.
This is how much they grew in two weeks….
The lemon / limquot bush is having a rough month. It got all kinds of new growth and leaves, but just two weeks later it dropped most of them. I think it was the wild temperature swings we were getting, and that the pot was getting too hot in the afternoon sun. I’ve moved it, to a more sheltered location so it can get only morning sun. It still has the two fruits on it. I don’t want to lose those.
Not sure about all of these pots. I’m leaning toward putting in some raised beds along the edge instead of the pots. I also still need to finish the drip irrigation to all of them. I’d be able to use that drip on the beds if I change them out. I figured starting to use this area with pots would be a great way to break in the neighbors, so they stop driving into the rocks. So far I think it’s only happened twice. Huge improvement over the past few years. Also helps that I don’t have a drunk neighbor trying to back out multiple times a day now.
This area doesn’t get nearly as much direct sunlight as I thought it did. The trees do a great job of filtering the light. So things are not getting fried like I figured they would. The birds are loving the feeders here. I’m going to need to move two of those pots so the bird seed doesn’t fill them up so much. The strawberries are starting to bud again, I just love the everbearing variety fruit year-round.
The luffa has really started to grow since I moved it to the front area. It did need way more sun.
The canalope plants are starting to get flowers on them. I hope I get at least a few melons even if they are small.
The herb troughs have started to get out of hand, I cut handfuls out to take to people at work. They still are out of control… I’m enjoying it. That umbrella is likely in it’s last season. They really don’t last very long in this climate. The fabric is all chalky and it’s starting to poke through the ends .
This plum tree is also on it’s last leg. It’s even sadder this summer than it was last year. One the other hand it’ll make a great structure to hang the bird feeders from. Not sure what I’ll do once it actually dies. Cut it down? Put a green house there? Plant some other fruit tree? Pull out the gravel and turf the area so I can use the area more??? Put some more raised beds there? I’ve no idea, but I’ve got lots of options.
I’ve been doing a LOT of baking with the fresh herbs. My current favorite is herb and sun dried tomato focaccia bread but the herb cheese stuffed pretzels are pretty amazing.
The corn is growing well. So are the green beans I planted around the corn. I planted some squash seeds there last weekend so I see how it’ll work as a 3 sisters bed.
