Gardening update

[tagryn]

Generally good progress, with a couple caveats. I did some weeding in the garden over the weekend and had a chance to look it over throughly. To my surprise I found a large cucumber growing on one of the plants, and I never noticed it because it was hidden in the vine leaves. On the pickling cucumber there's two small cucumbers also coming along. The green peppers are starting to produce very well, there's three peppers almost ready for harvesting and many smaller veggies on the way. My only concern is that there's a black coloring developing at the stems of all of the peppers, but my mom looked at it and said its probably just the way the plants come in.

I'm starting to get small green tomatoes coming in. Hurrah! The crop has started. I honestly can't recall which of the plants are cherry tomatoes and which ones are normal-sized, so I guess I'll know when the small ones start turning red while the larger ones are still green. I sprayed both apple trees (and the pepper plants) with Ortho Home Orchard Spray to try and knock down some of the cedar rust that the trees are infested with. I also put in feeding stakes for both apple trees. What's puzzling is that the harvest was very heavy for the apples last year, when they were basically neglected, but this year I expect there'll be hardly any fruit at all. Hm.

Unfortunately, the pea plant I was cultivating burned up from the summer sun. That was educational, since I thought the spot I had them in next to the kitchen was protected, but I now know that I probably can't put anything in there that can't take full sun. Also, the Japanese beetles have arrived, and seem to absolutely love my comfrey plant. Interesting, in that I'd thought they've made a beeline for the roses out front, but no, its comfrey all the way for them so far. Also, the mache does not like the heat and sun much, so I'll have to reconsider where to plant lettuce next year to get it more shade.

I'm still waiting for the two black-eyed susans I planted out front to start blooming. They look to be very close, but still nothing. The cosmos I planted along the side of the house are blooming in twos and threes.

Comments

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Excellent!