June update

Alrighty. First up is our brussel sprouts – 5 plants and they are growing like mad. No baby sprouts just yet. These are about 12 inches high right now.

These are bell peppers – yellow and red. Please excuse the weeds.

Tomatoes – I cannot remember which varieties we chose this time. I believe 1-heirloom, 1-big boy, 1-roma, and 1-either cherry or grape. All doing fine. I’ve been picking the blossoms off this time around to see if it really does encourage more tomatoes. We shall see!

This is the herb box. The rosemary up front are stems picked from that ghastly bush I posed a picture of last time. I also planted some more in a pot. I’ve never propagated rosemary (or any other herbs) successfully, so I’ll have to post again once they’ve lived or died. 🙂

Below – Yellow squash to the right, Zucchini to the left. I’m seeing some blossoms. Christi made me an A-frame to try and encourage climbing. Usually the squash plans just take over the entire garden, so we’re trying something new I found on Pinterest. The A-frame might not have been the best design for squash, but it’s all about trial and error.

Below is my first cantaloupe plant. It’s slow growing, but I’m hopeful for this lil guy. YAY!!

Here are some photos of the perennial beds. It’s a nice mix and this year it looks like it’s finally coming together. We added the stones this year and a lot of the ground cover is new – see the golden colored stuff? That’s new. Also, you can some of the other kind in the 2nd picture over by the lilies – it looks kinda like Asparagus fern, but more hardy. I love this stuff.

I was a little worried that once we added the mulch, that it would slow down the growth, but it doesn’t seem to have done too much damage.

There’s my little gnomie! Hi gnomie! This may be the last you’ll see of the Hydrangea and the pretty bush to the right (no, I can’t remember the name). Our a/c went out last week and they are coming this Friday to replace it. We’re going to have to remove the bushes so that they can get to the unit. I’m hoping that we can just uproot them and keep them in buckets for the day. We’re going to try and put them back afterwards, but….

I think I may add some more lilies next year. They’re not my favorite flower, the Daylily, but it’s a great filler for some medium height. You count on getting multiple blooms. And they’re easy to grow, very low maintenance and almost no pruning! Maybe I’ll look at some other colors.

Here lies what is left of my precious Spinach. This poor guy was loaded with little spinach sprouts just over 2 weeks ago. But the *#$@ squirrels have been terrorizing all of my new plants especially anything I put in a pot this year. ARGH!!! These three sprouts survived and are trying to make their way. The squirrels are leaving them alone for now. I’m looking into putting a homemade greenhouse on the back porch and these may be put in there. If nothing else, I may just put a milk gallon jug over the top for a couple weeks.

Here are some fuzzies!

More rosemary…

Oooh, this is cool. I saw this on Pinterest weeks ago and tried it out in my kitchen window. When you use green onions, you can save the bulbs, rubberbanded. Leave them in water to cover the bulbs and they shoot up like crazy in a matter of 2 WEEKS! After it worked once, and I ate my homegrown onions, I decided to get more and put them outside for some extra sun. Again, if I can get a greenhouse of decent size set up, these will be added. I love, love, love green onions.

This is Romaine Lettuce. I saw the same thing on Pinterest for these as with the green onions. This is my first attempt and I believe I’m doing it right. It’s definitely growing, but nowhere near as fast and the lettuce is already browning. I may give up and just put these in a small pot.

Here’s my potted basil. I’ve got another in the garden. See the leaves in the front and how short they are? These are growing back after I pinched off a long stem…. Looks like I pinched in the right spot.

And here’s the remains of what was pinched off…a stem and an extra leaf I just couldn’t throw away. They’re both taking root in water. I picked up extra pots this week and plan to make some more starters. I may give them to friends for sharing.