Time Sink

Well I'm back at work after my long weekend. I'm hoping it's going to be a slow day, but who knows. I'd better get these posted while I can. Follow the link all ye with broadband connections.


This is a picture of the rows of okra. I planted it in two stages about 2 weeks apart. So far the okra hasn't been growing really fast. I think the first batch went in while it was still a little cold. Hard to believe that given how hot it's been, but really it hasn't been all that hot. It's just been incredibly dry with little wind. We haven't had rain in weeks, and the rain we did get came after weeks of going without. I'm having to water the garden a lot, daily for some things, but I don't water wholesale. I water each plant or down the middle of the row. I think I'm wasting very little water. I also don't water my lawn. I think it's a waste of water and money. My neighbor waters his lawn and uses a sprinkler in his garden. He has grass growing all in it, and his lawn starts wilting if he skips a couple of days watering. Anyway, I think the dryness of the weather and daily doses of cold water on the roots has stunted the okra, but they finally seem to be taking off with some big leaf production. Or maybe okra just takes a while to get situated before it starts growing. This is the first year I've grown anything here after all. The green between the rows is where I thinned the okra during the weekend and a little bit of centipede grass that came up in the pathways. I have mostly centipede in the yard, and it's the best kind of grass to have in the yard and accidentally get in the garden. It's drought tolerant, grows slowly, and stays fairly short. The centipede in my yard is brown; witnessed by the foreground of the picture; but if I put a sprinkler on it it turns green in a matter of 30 minutes. Gotta love it.


This is the corn. It's growing a might faster than the okra. The first two rows I planted are about 2 feet tall now and going strong. I wish I could get some soaker hose to leave between the rows to make watering easier. Oh well. The nozzle on my hose started malfunctioning this weekend and I had to go get a replacement. It'll have to do until later.


These are my cukes. I have them growing on the same cages I made for my tomatoes. Next year I may make larger cages. I don't really care for cukes, but lots of other people do. This garden is primarily for give away produce anyway. So far there are a few small cukes and one that's about 7" long but hooked like a clothes hanger.


The tomatoes are doing pretty good. A few are over 3 feet tall now. They seem to be alright with the weather, but I have been really putting the water to them.


These are of the the same Romas of which I took the first picture exactly one month ago. Given that the plant is now 10 times larger I can assume growth has been the primary goal for the past month. Virtually every blossom on the Roma produces a fruit. These things are enormous producers. I'm going to have Romas coming out my you know what. I'll have to start making sauce or something with them. If they ever start ripening.


This is the first fruit on my Brandywine tomatoes. It's much smaller than the picture makes out. I've mentioned before that the BWs are considered an heirloom variety and considered one of the most flavorful tomatoes. I was curious about them when I got them. Honestly I didn't know what to expect. I figured I would probably lose one and the insects would eat a lot of the others. Well the dadblamed things are the tallest of my tomato plants. Plus they stand up the best. They also don't branch as much as the other tomatoes, nor do they bloom as much. So far the BWs seem to have a pollination problem. I'm afraid the dry weather and the bee die offs may be adversely affecting their reproduction. Or they could just take longer to get busy making babies. I'm really curious about them though.


This gives a good indication of the rows of yellow squash and zucchini. They were doing ok and then all of a sudden about 1 1/2 weeks ago they started growing like crazy. I've got a few small zukes and squash, but the squash are straight with no bulge at the bottom. That happens some with the first fruit, cause the blossom's don't get pollinated properly. I'm just hoping we get enough bees and such to start pollinating them. Next year I may have to follow my Dad's lead and plant some flowers around the garden to attract pollinators.


This is one of my cayenne peppers. two of them have been putting out like no body's business. One still looks like it wants to die and another one is just odd. From the looks of it two will produce all the pepper I need. Oh and those are some of the free-range cantaloupe in the foreground. They aren't bothering anything, so I'm letting them go.


This is my first bell pepper. I don't really care for bell peppers either. And unfortunately cooking doesn't improve their taste to me that much. Usually a plant for which I don't care for the raw taste improves greatly with cooking. I think it might be allergy related. But with bell peppers there's a bitterness or something to them that just turns me off. Raw cukes cause a similar dislike, but at least pickling can make them delicious. Oh well, more stuff to give away.


And finally the item that I am most pleased with. This is a picture of the very Ichiban eggplant I took a picture of before. Yes that we 7 days ago, and you are looking at a week's worth of growth. It's amazing. I would go hit the new okra and corn seed with a little morning water and look at this plant. I would come home from work 9 hours later and the dang thing was visibly longer. In the mornings you can see how much it grew last night because it doesn't turn purple till the sun hits it. And I have 2 more fruit growing on two other plants. I pulled up the logs beside them, because I think insects in the logs were coming out at night to feast upon the yummy eggplant leaves. I was seriously expecting to lose two of the plants or have little production. The early insect damage seemed to confirm that feeling, but removing the logs and a one time sprinkling with Seven dust seems to have fixed that. I love it. And from the looks of it I'm gonna have a lot of these before too long. The guy I bought them from said they love heat and sun. Well they seem to be liking where I have them. Next year I'll move them from behind the asparagus ferns so they can get even more sun.


Well that's about it for right now. There's not much going on in the yard, since we haven't gotten any rain. Hopefully we might get some in a few weeks, but I'm not holding out much hope. So far I'm pretty happy with what's happened. Not bad for a first year attempt, though I did have second hand experience from the garden's my Dad, Godparents, and television allowed me to get close to. And I got a whole lotta sun this weekend too. Come on tan.