Garden Update: Flowers

Lets start with roses that are perking up for round 2 and desperately need to be dead-headed.

Gladiolus which are falling over and need some serious staking.

Some marigolds that are doing great.

And Morning Glories all closed up for the rain

The Lilacs aren’t flowering but they are growing and looking good. They’ve got some Morning Glory invaders and that giant grass thing from the neighbors that needs to be taken care of.

The hydrangea out back looks great

And this one Gladiolas that is in my veggie garden is doing great. This is it’s second blooming stalk…I cut the first one off to take inside. Crazy!

and last, but not least, sunflowers.

I’ve got about 4 that are about to bloom. I’m so excited.. is that weird? I’ve never been too successful with sunflowers before and I’m just so excited!!!

How are your flowers doing this July? Are they preparing for an awesome August of blooms?

Sarah

Check out the other posts in this mini-series.
Garden Update: Squash
Garden Update: Tomatoes and Herbs

Garden Update: Tomatoes and Herbs

I’ve harvested exactly one tomato this year. It is a Black Kirim tomato and it’s finishing ripening up in my kitchen. It started to split so I went ahead and picked it. It has been mis-shapen since it started growing but it’s a big guy and I’ll bet it’s going to be delicious.

There will be plenty more Black Kirims before the summer is over.

The Romas also have tons of fruit.

They are big healthy plants

The cherry tomatoes aren’t doing quite as well but you can see this one long arm with tons of little fruit.

The cherry tomato plants just aren’t as big and are a bit more sprawling I think. All-in-all I’m pleased with my tomato results. There are a few cherries that should ripen any day now. I can’t wait!

As far as the herbs, we are just about done. They tend not to like it hot. I also had some horrible disease that attacked my Mint and Oregano.
From (blurry)Top to bottom, this is Chives, Sage, and Oregano:

and from top to bottom this is mint, parsley, and cilantro:

The cilantro bolted and died as usual and the Sage is going strong but what on earth managed to kill the mint and oregano? Normally you can’t kill mint if you try. (Oregano is also a mint..) Any ideas what could have happened? I pulled the pots out of the garden to prevent them from spreading their germs to the basil (also a mint). I’m hoping they might infect all the creeping jenny in the yard. It’s another mint-type weed.

So far, the basil is disease free and doing quite well.

I accidentally let this boxwood basil flower.

but I’ve been keeping the sweet basil under control. It’s time for some epic pesto-making.

It’s not a tomato or a herb but I snuck sweet-peas into my squash post so I’ll sneak carrots into this one.

I’ve picked about half of them. I figure I’ll wait until I cook these up before picking the rest. Though, they do last in the fridge a nice long time.

If you missed it, Check out the Garden Update: Squash post I published yesterday and stay tuned for Garden Update: Flowers coming tomorrow.

Let me know how your garden is coming and if you have any ideas on this Mint killer, let me know!

Sarah

Garden Update: The Squash

It’s certainly been a busy couple weeks here at chez Wolpert.  Two weekends in a row of vacation with uncharacteristically hot weeks in between.  It’s finally cooled down enough for me to spend some time in the garden tidying things up.

We’ve got Squash Galore! 2 large plants each with tons of baby squash

The cucumbers are getting bigger but aren’t producing yet. They had better get going before it gets too cool for them!

The sugar snap peas are done. I didn’t plant nearly enough and I wasn’t regimented enough about picking them. I’m going to try again this fall for a second crop.

The butternut squash is doing fine. No fruits yet which isn’t a good sign. I’m not sure it’s going to yield a squash before winter comes! I’ll keep trying. I’m thinking perhaps it really needs to be started indoors fairly early in a large pot.

The Zuccini is still small.  I’m not sure we’ll get much this year.  I had a problem with rabbits eating my seedlings so I didn’t get them to actually start until much later.  I’ll come up with some sort of prevention for that next year.

There’s a chance we’ll have a long hot September which would allow the butternut, cucumber, and zuccini squash to really fill out. Otherwise, there’s always next year.

Stay tuned for a Tomato and Flower update!

Sara