It's a Jungle Out There!

back yard garden jungle

The heat plus a little rain has caused a lot of things to put out tremendous amounts of growth the last couple of weeks. I can't take a picture of the back yard garden from my usual vantage point because it is overgrown with weed trees which I haven't had time to deal with.

In this first picture on the right (by the orange bucket), is the bed where the peas and lettuce were last winter. I've taken the trellis down and forked over the bed, adding some blood meal, iron and potash, along with a  some compost. I'm getting ready to plant carrots in here. The bed behind it are the Amish Paste tomatoes, which have given exactly 3 tomatoes so far. On the left under the row cover are a few bean plants (I've had terrible germination with beans this year, not exactly sure why, possibly too wet, because I watered a lot because it was so hot and dry.) The next bed has the remains of the corn and a gigantic Rond de Nice squash. It's beginning to look a little yellow, possibly needing iron/nitrogen. Squash has not been selling much at the farmer's market and I don't eat much summer squash, so will probably pull it out when I pull out the corn stalks. I might leave that bed fallow with a coating of manure until fall, then plant onions and garlic in there. Behind that bed is more summer squash, the yellow scallop and zucchini. The splash of red is the next bed back, and is the Red Burgundy Amaranth. Some of them have fallen over in a windy rain storm and need to be propped back up.

Here's the squash covered greenhouse. Click on the pic for a larger view. The leaves with silver veins are the Tromboncinno. And yes, last week I had to climb on the house roof to pick squash.

Tromboncinno

Here's a shot from the other side. I missed picking this Tromboncinno when the skin was tender so now it's growing to be a winter squash.

King of the Garden Limas

The King of the Garden Lima beans are going for broke; that horizontal pipe on the trellis is about 8 feet in the air.

ginger plant

I had some extra ginger last spring because I never got around to making ginger beer like I planned. So I stuck it in this big tub in the greenhouse and it actually sprouted. Looking a bit peaked, I should probably feed it.

There are tons of other things going on around here, but it's late and I'm tired. Catch you later.