summer

This is just a little update to prove that I haven't forgotten about updating this blog! I need to take a new batch of garden pictures, but the weather is not so great for that right now. Everything has grown so much since I last posted pics. My sunflowers are about six feet tall now, and one of the flower heads has finally opened! Very pretty!

I came out to the garden yesterday to find several branches of tomatoes that had been stripped of foliage. Upon close examination, I discovered a huge tomato hornworm, gross!!! I grabbed the scissors and killed it along with several smaller ones. There are lots of green tomatoes now, but no ripe ones yet. They'll probably ripen up when I go out of town this weekend. -_-

Corn is doing well, growing bright green and vigorous. However, I think I planted most of it too late. Next year I'll probably plant an early and late variety at the same time, instead of doing successive plantings. 

Lettuce has all bolted. I'll start the fall planting in the beginning of August. I ordered some fall seeds, and those arrived today, including my two favorite varieties from the mixed pack I got in the spring, Forellenschuss and Amish Deer Tongue.

I dug up and ate some baby dragon carrots and beets yesterday. Yum! Too bad they weren't very big. They needed to have been planted earlier.

I've discovered that the "pumpkin" seeds that I saved from last years pumpkins were definitely cross pollinated with zucchini. They are growing some wierd mutated "pumchinis". They are also not very resistant to powdery mildew, and are being attacked very badly by it. My massive "pumpkin" volunteer is also beginning to die from powdery mildew. The mildew has also attacked the young melon plants. Not much I can really do about it without dousing everything in chemicals, which I won't do. Next year I'll grow everything from disease resistant seed.