I'll be posting garden photos in the next few entries to show what I do when I'm not writing (or finding creative means of avoiding it). One of these days I'll have to post some astronomy photos to give some journal-time to yet another of my hobbies. Bear in mind that most of these photos are sadly out of date, despite having been taken as recently as the middle of last month. Since then things have gotten quite a bit bigger....

On the left are two German Pink tomato plants, and on the right are two cherry tomatoes. Both were purchased as seedlings from Walkup Heritage Farm on May 7th, since we were a bit too late to plant the seeds. I'm not exactly sure what variety the cherry tomatoes are, but I suspect they're Cherry Roma since Mr. Walkup gets his seeds from SeedSavers.org, as we did.

German Pink / Cherry Tomatoes

Both sets are growing in self-watering pots from Gardener's Supply Company. I wrapped chicken-wire around the cages 2 or 3 days after we first planted the tomatoes to keep out raccoons. Apparently raccoons are fascinated by the red plastic covering the soil and delight in ripping out the plastic, plants, and all. It seems they think that where there's plastic, there's delicious garbage to be had. Luckily the plants survived and the raccoons haven't been able to attack them since. The plants have since grown nearly 6 feet high and are peppered with slowly-ripening tomatoes. Now I'm wondering how much more they can possibly grow!

Since my last entry showing the newly constructed garden beds, the veggies have been growing like crazy. Here's a photo from a few weeks back:

The Veggie Patch

In the first bed (left), we've got Empress Beans, Oxheart Carrots, Green Arrow Peas, Yukon Gold Potatoes, Golden Bantam Improved Corn, Jolly Jester Marigolds, Golden Emperor Nasturtiums, and Tip Top Formula Mixture Nasturtiums. In the second bed, there's Genovese Basil, Triple Curled Parsley, Cilantro, Italian Oregano (started as a seedling, since we were too late to plant), Quadrato Asti Giallo Peppers (seedlings from Walkup Farm), Blacktail Mountain Watermelon, Nimba Zucchini Squash, Longfellow Cucumber, a mixture of lettuces, America Spinach, Detroit Dark Red Beets, and more marigolds and nasturtiums.

Today both garden beds look like weird overgrown jungles, with a small cornfield, sprawling potatoes, masses of pea-vines, and squash plants that tower over half the second bed. We've already been enjoying the lettuce in salads for the past week or so, and the other vegetables can't be too far behind (most are flowering now). Although it's hard to see in the photo, the peas are climbing three metal-frame obelisks, and the cut-off soft-drink containers are covering beans. We haven't had much luck with the beans so far. Only 3 or 4 plants remain from the dozens of seeds we've planted, the bulk of which have fallen victim to the insect hordes (even the containers didn't stop them!).

I've scattered straw over both beds to use as mulch, with the potatoes having the bulk. I started off hilling the potatoes with mushroom compost, then switched to straw when I read that hilling with straw helps avoid heat problems. After the potato plants were about 3 feet high, they started to lean and now sprawl across the pathway between beds.

I've tried to keep the garden beds organic, with no fertilizers -- other than the mushroom compost blended into the soil (also contains sand and topsoil) -- and no pesticides. The purpose of the marigolds and nasturtiums is to keep some pests at bay, and they seem to be working okay so far. Closer to the end of the year I'll plant some garlic, which works even better in my experience.

I'll save most of the flower garden photos for another entry, but meanwhile here's our wheelbarrow hummingbird / butterfly garden (Carrie's project):

Wheelbarrow Hummingbird Garden

The wheelbarrow was here when we moved in, but it was broken and not terribly useful for carting dirt around. We ended up getting a new plastic one and transformed this one into a garden by filling it with the same garden soil as the veggie patch, and drilling holes in the bottom for drainage. The thing at the front is a small hummingbird feeder.

We started the wheelbarrow off with assorted flower seeds (I thought they were Hummingbird Seed Balls, but I've since been corrected!) then added larkspur and alyssum seedlings to add some colour while the seeds were still growing. The wheelbarrow has filled with more greenery since this photo was taken, and a few weeks ago we spotted our first hummingbird of the year. We've also noticed a lot of white butterflies and several monarchs hanging around it. Carrie started another butterfly / hummingbird garden by the house around the same time as this one, but until recently it was a bit untidy (weeds!), so the photos will have to wait for another day.

Next up I'll take a look at the rose garden and show some close-ups of roses and other stuff around the place. Stay tuned....