I can’t believe how these tiny little sprouts have grown. Did I really plant them from seed only a few months ago (see the March blog post! They were only baby sprouts then!)? It seems like the heirloom tomatoes are growing a foot a day! The yellow blossoms promise wonderful tomatoes to arrive soon – can’t wait! -And already zuccinis are almost ripe!
The biggest news (literally and figuratively) must be the zuccini plants – in fact, I could have entitled this “Zuccini Plants Take Over the Garden – HELP!” Look at the size of those monstrous leaves! You have to look closely, but there is actually corn and heirloom tomatoes, as well as sugar snap peas, sharing the box with the zuccinis.
Some of the things that I think are zuccinis, in the corner of the boxes shown above, might actually be watermelons – time will tell! I had planted yellow and red seedless watermelons there, but I’m thinking from the look of the leaves that some mischievous blue jay had its fun. I admit I am hoping they are watermelons…
All these little peppers and basils shown below were transplants from the zuccini box – each was hidden by the massive zuccini plant leaves! Seeing their peaked condition, yesterday I transplanted these sun-starved sproutlings to where the spinach would have been, had the spinach … been! The spinach didn’t make it in part because the celery forest blocked all the light.
I finally removed the celery forest (shown in the May blog), feeling rather guilty, as I hate hurting living things, but the celery had become woody and fairly inedible. I hope the discarded celery is a delight for the birds and any bunnies in the yard. Now, as you can see below, the box has much more light and room.
We had a patio brunch here at the house, and I purchased two ordinary tomato plants at the local grocery store as table decorations, then transplanted these small tomato plants to the vegetable garden where the celery forest once stood. It didn’t take long for the garden critters to find these tomatoes – it is my hope that these tomatoes can be the “decoy” tomatoes for the critters to munch on, since they are low growing, so that the critters leave the heirlooms alone!
Here is a picture of the two kiwi plants – I was told these need to be planted in pairs, one male and one female. The foilage grows in beautiful artistic tendrils of greens with reddish accents. This is their second year, so perhaps fruits this season?
We harvested two artichokes this year – one we ate and one we gave away. This third one I will let go to flower – they flower beautifully!
This verdant apricot tree is full of apricots, which would be lovely if only I was 10 feet tall to pick them! If only it were as easy to pick them as it is to zoom a camera lens! More deocy food for the lucky birds! -AND did I mention, we do have true Western Bluebirds in the yard now! That’s worth ALL the fruit and veggies!
-And below is one of my favorite ornamental plantings, named a “Silver Cloud” tree – the leaves, which are almost heart shaped, like the leaves in my paintings, change from green to WHITE to red, and then the tree goes bare for winter. When all white, it will look like a fairy tale.
😛