Gardening Update – July 12, 2009

Well, after a week of being out of town, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the garden.  A neighbor watered for us every day and there wasn’t really anything else that the garden needed.  We were pleasantly surprised at how much everything has grown in the last week!

One thing that didn’t please us was finding nettles growing among some of the other weeds.  Of course, not being native Northerners, we didn’t know anything about nettles, but Mr. Math Tutor and I both got stung while we were pulling a few weeds this evening.  A quick internet search showed that we were, indeed, stung by nettles.  Even with the hydrocortisone on the skin, the area still hurts a little, six hours later.

Here is how things are looking so far:

These are the tomatoes and cucumbers being grown upside down.

Onions are looking good.

Green beans – they’re starting to get little white flowers.

The very first broccoli plant.

Broccoli plant #2 was planted about six weeks later.

Watermelon

Pumpkin

Summer squash

This is my spinach which is a dud so far.  I planted it too late and it got too hot so it’s going to seed.  I’ll try again in the fall.

Our first carrot – I think they need a little more time, yet.

Corn – I know I chose a short variety, but it just looks a little peaky to me.  We’ll have a prayer service over it soon.

Cilantro – of three squares of cilantro, this is the only one that seems to have taken.

Now that the garden is established, it really doesn’t take too much maintenance.  I can’t believe I didn’t take any pictures of the lettuce.  That’s the one thing that I have been harvesting for salads so far.  I have three squares that are still empty, so we may try some more herbs or something if it’s not too late.  I also want to try another broccoli plant.  We should have time for another planting of carrots and another attempt at spinach.

The one thing that is still not done is the trellis.  Mr. Math Tutor is going to do that this week since the pumpkin vine might need to be trained in the near future.  We have also learned to wear gloves even for casual weeding because of those silly nettles!

It has been an interesting year with the garden this year.  The kids have been pretty helpful – and Wild Man enjoyed eating his first tiny little carrot!  I really enjoy sitting outside on a warm (not hot) day with a book, enjoying the lovely plants.