Garden update ~ July 9, 2010

There is a lot going on in our little city garden.  I like to plant in succession and replace finished plants with new ones.  Actually, I have rows waiting right now to be planted with more zipper cream peas and some rows waiting on fall planting that will start in a few weeks.  I can not believe that it is almost time to start planting for the fall around here!   

~zipper cream pea blooms~

We have been getting a lot of rain here lately.  This week the rain made me smile.  You see, last week I didn’t have to water at all due to the rain.  This week it was looking like I would need to water because it did not rain for a few days.  So I got up and watered early one morning.  Of course, that afternoon the rain rolled in…and a good one at that!  I thought to myself, “If you want it to rain, water the garden”!

 

A while back, I posted about some volunteer plants that I had found around the garden.  I thought they were perhaps watermelon and dug them up and moved them to their own little spots in the garden.  We were surprised to find this little bitty baby this past week:

And more to come…

 

I love those kind of surprises!

~Speaking of surprises~

A few weeks ago, the kids were eating watermelon while in the pool and they were spitting  the seeds outside of the pool.  (Yes, we are quite refined, thank you.  ;)  Anyway, I found these sprouting around the pool.  Obviously, we can’t weed-eat next to the pool so I may let these grow and see what happens.  It’s kind of like a little science experiment!

Okra flowers are so beautiful!  I love those colors.

My friend, Mackey, gave me some yellow pear tomato plants and I am now harvesting them.  They are so pretty.  It’s kind of odd eating a yellow tomato (it tastes like a tomato but the color tricks my brain every time)… but it’s fun too!

I started an eggplant from seed this year.  Well, I actually started a few but only one decided to sprout.  This is my first year to plant eggplant so this is a learning experience for me.  I don’t have an eggplant yet but just blooms.  I’d love for my children to get to see an eggplant growing. 

Those little ants probably aren’t supposed to be there, huh?  :) 

This is what I’ve been working on this week: 

So far, I’ve got a few jars of fermented pickle relish and cucumbers soaking in a salt water brine.  Today when I get some more dill, I will hopefully have a few jars of dill pickles too.  And since I am still picking cucumbers, I will probably have some bread & butter pickles too! 

A friend on Facebook left me this link after reading my status about an overabundance of cucumbers.   If you click on cucumbers, there are over 800 recipes!  I’ve printed out a few to try since I’m definitely rich with cucumbers!

We have a new sunflower friend that opened up its sweet little face this week.  We sure do love sunflowers around here.

Our older sunflower is working to become some yummy seeds.  Soon the race will be on between us and the birds.  Who is going to get the seeds?  (Probably them - they are much quicker than we are!)

  

Now is the time to start thinking about fall planting.  If you live locally, I have been using these two guides for fall planting times. The Louisiana guide even shows a year around gardening plan.  The Texas guide also has some good information.

Louisiana planting guide

Texas fall planting information

That’s what is going on in our little summer garden.  We will soon be beginning to plant for the fall.  Wow! 

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