New Flower Bloom

Today I noticed that one of my black eyed Susan’s looked different than all the rest. All the black eyed Susan’s that I’ve grown are single petaled so for this double to show up is really interesting. I’m not sure how it got here, 

I was first wondering if this was a result of cross pollination because I didn’t even know that there was such a thing as a double for this flower type but I’m really not sure what to think now. 

All of the BlackEyed Susan’s in this one small spot self seeded, so that is what makes it even more interesting. 

Full Day Of Planting and Garden Tour - What’s Growing May 2024

Harvesting Chamomile Flowers

It’s so surprising to me that chamomile can self seed like it has this year. When early spring came and we were still having very cold freezing nights I noticed a lot of seedlings scattered around the yard in the dirt. They were mostly in the sandy parts of the yard and I thought that the leaves looked similar to chamomile so I decided to dig them up and transplant them in a few places in the garden. Then after awhile they started to get bigger and I started thinking they were weeds. lol! I almost pulled them out but left them and thought well if they turn out to be weeds I can just pull them out. I’m very happy that I left them to grow, because they turned out to be the most amazing chamomile Ive ever grown and with so little effort, they self seeded! I’ve been picking so many flowers for tea. I feel almost guilty that I haven’t had time to harvest as much as I should. I don’t want to miss the window while they are still good to pick. Tonight I spent a good hour harvesting one bush and I still have about 4 others to get to. The first year that I grew chamomile I remember how fast it died back and stopped blooming and I was really bummed because it just didn’t provide many flowers. But now they are growing so abundantly, that I am very happy! 

First Lettuce Harvest

 

It is currently the middle of June and I am beginning to harvesting my first lettuce. Last year the first harvest was June 4, so these are about a week apart in harvesting time. The weather was much cooler last year in comparison and I think I had an earlier start as well. These were slow this year but things seem to be picking up speed now. I am really bummed because tonight I went out to check on my squash and they are all completely black and dried up from the dip in temperatures last night. It was down to low of 37 degrees and they dont look good today. I was completely unprepared for that. I did cover them up tonight with the hopes that they might spring back but I may have to resort to some store bought plants to fill in what was lost. We may have one more night of colder temps and them back up again. 

The picture here shows the growth stage that they are currently at. They are just large enough now to begin to collect the outside edges for a nice mix of greens. The red fire mix has some really nice leaf growth now and they are a nice size. The dill plants are getting bigger and the Kale is doing well too. The one plant that didn’t germinate for me is the spinach.

This will be the second year that I have tried growing Spinach and haven’t had any success. Maybe it doesn’t do well in my climate, I am not sure. I will need to look more into the reasons they may have failed. 

I posted a video on the planting of the lettuces here. 

Thinning carrots

Thinning carrots is not my favorite thing to do. It seems so wrong to be pulling perfectly healthy carrots just to make space for another one to grow. I understand the reason for it but still I feel like it’s wrong. This is a task that I find that I keep putting off, but today I finally thinned the last half of the garden bed. I used some of the tops and the baby carrots to add to my salad for dinner tonight. Somehow it made me feel better about it so that I am not wasting them. 

Reflecting back to creating first perennial gardens in 2022

Reflecting today on the progress that I’ve made with the front perennial garden. It’s so cool to see pictures from the past. I remember this day, when I first started digging here. The soil was so compact and almost impossible to dig. I spent so many hours adding just bags of whatever I could to the area. It’s crazy seeing the little babies that were planted here and now today the size of the plants. Makes me so happy to see the difference that I’ve made and all of my hard work is paying off!

This video clip shows the area where I created the front rock garden and space just across from the perennial garden above. The video shows stacks of wood to made the garden boxes and you will also see a pile of dirt to the right that I filled the boxes with. I hand pulled all the weeds in the front and it took me weeks. After this was done I moved on to the back of the yard. You can see at the end of the video behind the pile of dirt it’s full of weeds and metal posts and a tractor in the back. You can barely see my head behind the pile working in the back pulling weeds along the fence. This was long before I made boxes along the fence out of recycled fencing. 

 

 

Potato and Onion updates

The potatoes are doing very well. When I first thought of growing them, I was nervous since I knew nothing about them. I was sure it would be very difficult.  I know this sounds very negative but I really thought this was a crop for only the serious experienced gardener. I did give it my best shot and I am so glad that I did. I am really amazed at how big they have gotten in just one month and how well they are doing. I just hope that they produce potatoes which remains a mystery.

They are currently blossoming and look very healthy. No major pests that I can tell. Some little things that I have noticed were some funny cut marks on the blossom stems which caused me to be concerned a little bit. 

Almost like something is deliberately cutting the blossoms off. But the interesting thing is, that I researched it a little bit and for most people they even recommend that you cut the blossoms off to send energy to the tubers and forming the potatoes. I don’t know if this is true or not. But I thought for a minute that if it is true, then maybe this pest is actually doing me a favor by cutting all of the blossoms off for me, lol!!! Wouldn’t that be nature at work for us?! Pretty cool if that was true.

 

Updated August 2024 - Here is a link to the video showing the potato harvest in August of 2024.