Growing Well in The Heat

The heat has finally turned up here so things are growing well. Peas are done for but zuchinni, cherries, apples, onions, rhubarb, leeks, brussels sprouts, beans, tomatoes, horseradish, peppers, garlic and cucumbers are still growing and doing well.

We cut down a plum tree that didn't produce in the last three years, moved the firepit over, and planted the butterly tree in the corner. We had a big "to-do" last week and started burning in the new location.

There are a lot of pictures so I just put them as thumbnails. When you click on the small images, you will see the larger one open up.

Summer Night Time

Everything is hooked to either auto timers or solar photocells. When it gets dark, the garden automatically gets watered and the lights in the back and front of the house kick on. In the summer usually I am burning up stuff in the fire pit so here is what it looks like in the summer nights:

Big End of June Update

Everything is up and looking good for the most part. The white bib swiss chard looked like it had some funky disease on it so I pulled them all out and replaced that section of the bed with hot peppers. I haven't had much luck with peppers before but I am going to give them a shot this year. I have a total of 15 now including the pots on the South side of the house. That stuff is really getting warm. It's a bit of a pain to water those more often but you can see the difference between the ones on the bed and in pots on the South side.

The peas have come and gone. They were great in stir fry and just munching on but those have been pulled and zucchini plants have been put in the old pea spot.

Because I am tired of trying to tell people in this area its not too early to plant your warm veggie plants, here is some proof. My tomatoes are starting to produce fruit and the cucumbers are about 5" now. It's not too early in the slightest.

All the Volumtious roses we replaced in the front are blooming. They are our favorite tea hybrid.

Anyway pictures of all are below:

School's Out, Garden's Up

The sun has been hiding but the temperature seems to be decent. We bought a Butterfly Tree as well as a Juniper tree that will soften the front garden a bit. The Butterfly Tree will be good once we get some stone work to build up the new a shade garden but for now, it is in a bucket. We get our new Honda lawnmower this Wednesday (thanks to my mom) after my old, free one finally rusted right through the entire body. I also picked up five chilli pepper plants, putting them on the South side of the house where it is hot but it is starting to look a little W.T. (aka white trash) on the side with so many buckets.

June Finally Brings Some Sun! (with videos)

After a record of 270 days not reaching over 70 degrees, it finally broke this weekend! The tomatoes are looking good, the cucumbers are surviving, and the beans are up. I also planted some peppers on the South side of the house that gets tons of sun. Everything is in good order for the summer BBQs! Get ready to come on over! (Click to enlarge image)

Veggie Supports

I added a bunch of support structures to my veggie garden. The fruit trees are blossoming well. Next year I want to start bee keeping a bit. I put out the cucumbers I grew from seed and the beans (underground next to the peas).

Flowers 2.0

After dropping some money in some more flowers, we added 90+ petunias, many geraniums, 4 clematis, and a bunch of other things...to be honest, Jen is in charge of the flowers and I am in charge of the veggies so this is all her. I am really happy, we finally got some ornamental grass. Drip lines with timers were installed and the cucumber starts from seeds look pretty dang hardy:

Before and After

Some shots when we bought the house and after. Look for a killer flower update soon...Click to enlarge image:

Tomatoes (and weather) Back On Track

• We had brief boughts of hail and snow in April but May looks to be better. It is in the low 60's and I decided to uncover the tomatoes and put up cages.
• The cucumbers in the grow house are looking pretty nice.
• I also added some automatic dusk till dawn lighting to the dogwood tree for later this summer when we host some get togethers.
  
• The fruit trees are also looking nice.

Easter: Tucking Tomatos Into Bed

I chickened out and tucked my tomatoes in under plastic to cover them up from the wind and frost. We also picked up some sweet hanging baskets at Easter and my 1971 Chevy Nova: