About a month ago, we got our garden for the year started. The post I wrote for that is over here, and I recommend opening it so you have some “before” pictures to compare to the “after” I’m about to show you.
It’s mid-June, and we’re well out of evening frost territory. Instead, temperatures have been in the high 80s and low 90s, which would be absolutely miserable if not for our air conditioning. The plants, though, they love it. Check out our progress!
First up, the plants in the pots on the porch. The tomato is doing really well, look how much of a beast it is compared to when we first planted it! The kalanchoe is expanding a bit. No flowers this year, but at least it hasn’t been devoured by scalebugs like my other one. The celosia has held its color a lot longer than I thought it would, so I’m excited to see if the new ones I planted will bloom too.
If you remember (or checked) the last batch of photos, this front raised bed was largely empty. Off to the left I planted a bunch of sunflower seeds, and as you can see here, all but one of them have sprouted. They’ve stayed relatively squat, so I’m not sure how big they’ll get, but they’re not bad. The tomato, much like the potted tomato, has exploded too. It’s a little less happy to be spending all day in the sun, but it’s fine. The lavender is looking nice as well. Unfortunately, the forget-me-not completely died. Rest in peace, I’ll never forget you.
Here we see what some big sunflowers do when they get plenty of sun. This huge one on the left is a mammoth sunflower (it will probably get 6-7′ tall) and the others are an assortment of random sunflower varieties. A few didn’t germinate, and a couple have died, which is unfortunate. The black raspberry is expanding, but it probably won’t bear fruit this year.
Now for the back garden. We’re still figuring out what will go where here, but for now, we have our third and final tomato. It’s not doing quite as well as the others, but it gets less sun back in the corner, so I’m not surprised. The strawberries were from last year and are doing very well. We did a bunch of hunting for hoops to use to put netting over it to keep birds away from the berries, but they’ve more or less ignored them this year. A few got eaten, but we’ve harvested a bunch.
The zucchini never germinated, so those didn’t make it. On the other hand, what DID germinate was those two little seedlings. Those are lemondrop melons. We buy them from the store occasionally, but they’re pretty rare. They’re like honeydew melons, but tangy, and really tasty. A couple years ago, we harvested some seeds from one, and in a surprise turn of events, they actually germinated. Now, will they be lemondrops? Maybe, maybe not. Lemondrop is a hybrid Galia, so we might just have Galias, but we’ll see if they bear fruit. It’s exciting!
Down here in the basement, slated for planting outside in July, are what few remaining seedlings we have. On the left are broccoli, on the right are cabbage, and the two in the back are more celosias. Hopefully, they’ll still be doing well come July, and we can actually keep them alive through the year. Last year, our broccoli got bug-eaten to death in a matter of days. This year, well, we’ll see in a couple more months.
So that’s it! That’s where things stand for now. Stay tuned for the next few weeks, though! I have some exciting things planned. Here’s a hint for you.
