State of the Garden, June Edition

[dantesspirit]

So much rain means lots of growth. Unfortunately, it also means things bloom, but no pollinators are around to fertilize them, because of the rain. Here's hoping at least a week of no rain every day will help in that case.



The Heirloom tomato Indigo Rose has at least a dozen tomatoes in various sizes now. The Omar's Lebanese has a few tiny ones started.






Tiny Cayenne peppers. I'm thinking it might have been mislabeled and it's more of an ornamental bush size, since it's not really getting much bigger than this and my last Cayenne pepper plant (Long Hots), was huge.




I cannot remember which tomato this is, and the tag is subsumed by leaves. Need to add blood meal to the soil, to help with the yellowing leaves at the bases. It's not the Chocolate Plum, since that one has a few tomatoes, that naturally, have been sampled by birds. *sigh* The Mr Stripey, which moles tried to kill, has recovered nicely and the Cherokee Purples have doubled in size, so they'll be nice later in the season tomatoes.




Both Cubanelle Pepper plants have good sized peppers on them. These are the largest. The Ancho Peppers are still tiny.




Little Spaghetti Squash! Nothing on the cucumbers, the loofah, the cantaloupe, the butternut squash, the watermelon yet, but they all *just* started blooming this week. So hopefully that changes.




Quite a few Summer Squash, though so far, it appears only 2 have actually been fertilized as only 2 are growing beyond the bloom size. It doesn't help that the male flowers seem to be blooming opposite the female flowers, so one is closed when the other is open- on *both* plant mounds. *sigh* No zucchini yet either, both plant mounds seem to only have male flowers blooming right now, though there are a few females growing still.




Bonus! Katydid. Heh.

Moved the potted lavender, the potted anise hyssop, the potted strawberries and a bought variegated petunia (pale green and white leaves with deep purple flowers, it was stunning) to the edges of cucurbits bed to help attract more pollinators. Hopefully it helps.

Comments

[zesty_pinto]

Nice! Jealous on all the crops; finally just started getting weather that is holding between 50-80, so I'm trying yet again to plant. Sigh.

[3rdragon]

Wow! How far south are you? My peppers have started blooming because they're overachievers, but they're still only about six inches tall, just like almost everything else.

My usual experience with squash is that it takes a while for the male and female flowers to sort themselves out to get down to blooming at the same time.

It all looks great, and I particularly like the Indigo Rose. Are they prolific?

[dantesspirit]

Yeah, it's supposed to get up to around the low 90s this next week, so I expect to have to water a lot and some more growth}:P

[dantesspirit]

South Central Virginia, right at the foot of the Peaks of Otter of the Blue Ridge Mountains.}:P


They're indeterminate and produce *very* well. There's lots of flowers on them right now. I'm planning to save seeds from them this year.}:P

[3rdragon]

Hmm. Sounds like they might be a good candidate to companion our appropriately named Tess's Land Race, if it can survive the local wilts.

:D

[bridgetmkennitt]

Very nice garden! Everything looks good. What is blood meal and how would that help the yellowing on your tomato plant?

[tielan]

Oh wow, that looks GORGEOUS!

[lilacsigil]

That tomato looks amazing! Our pepper bush was only about that size last year, but produced a lot of very hot, very small peppers.

[norfolkian]

Wow, those plants are beautiful! Not very warm and lots of rain this past week in the UK. Tomatoes are starting to flower but might be a while yet before fruit!

[saki101]

These are gorgeous! I've not seen the plum-coloured tomato before. It looks lovely. Is their taste any different?

Good luck with attracting the pollinators.

[sylvaine]

Oh wow, that's a gorgeous colour on that tomato!

[dantesspirit]

It's essentially what the name implies.}:) It helps boost nitrogen in the soil. It along with bone meal are great organic fertilizers for veggies. Bone meal releases calcium faster than crushed eggshells. Calcium helps ward off blossom end rot and nitrogen helps with the yellowing.

[dantesspirit]

THanks! There's *a lot* more tomatoes than I originally saw too.

[dantesspirit]

Flick the flowers once in the morning and again in the evening. It'll help with pollination.}:)

It's supposed to be in the low 90s here this week, so I expect I'll be watering most evenings. Heh.

[dantesspirit]

The last time I grew Indigo Rose, the chipmunks at the townhouse got them before they were fully ripe.}:( So we've never actually *tasted* them, but love the look. The plant itself has a blue-purple tinge to the stalks.}:) It's just a lovely plant.

[dantesspirit]

I can't wait to make a pasta sauce with them!

[saki101]

Oh, the rascals! Hopefully, you'll be able to taste your harvest this year!

[nanila]

Oh, yum! It looks like you'll have great pepper & tomato harvests. Go, squash, go, you have some catching up to do!

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I will have to try to get this variety next year! Very lovely.