Well, it's been about a month since I posted some pictures, so I thought now would be a good time to see how things have come along. It was a very long, cool spring here-- which I very much enjoyed. The garden probably didn't enjoy it quite as much, but it's worth the trade off for me. (Click on the pictures from May of last year and look at the difference.) This is actually the first year since I have lived here that there was what I would call a normal spring-- i.e., one that lasts more than two days. Oh well, at least here in Texas we get the long growing season.
The only thing that actually died this spring was the cucumbers. I told myself many times I should get some more in the ground, but never did. I'll probably go the the farmers market and get a couple already big.
I have a much reduced plant list this year. I just wanted to keep it to the basics. I don't have much room or time and so I decided not to do the double planting I usually do.
In the foreground are string beans. Running the distance, top to bottom, on the right are French Marigolds, as usual. They really do help. I highly recommend it to everyone. I don't have grub or white fly problems and there are plenty of bees and other insects going to the flowers to make sure everything gets pollinated. Most of the plants that are to the left of the marigolds are various heirloom tomatoes. The big bush at the top, end of the garden is the asparagus.
I heavily pruned all the tomatoes today. All the sprouts, suckers, that grow from the fork of the plant are pinched off. This will help keep the shape of the plant, but more importantly keep the fruit the proper size. If I let all of the suckers grow, there would be way too much fruit and they would be small. I sometimes let some of the suckers get about six inches long though and pinch them off and put them in water to root, then plant them. They are genetic clones of the mother plant and grow and bear fruit just like the mother. Sometimes I think they are even a little more hardy. Here in Texas, as the summer heats up, the tomatoes don't pollinate. These sucker transplants are perfect because they are put in late enough that they end up being the fall crop.
These are just a very few and the suckers I pinched off this morning. There are probably 20 in there. In about a week there will be roots all over the stems. When I transplant them, I do it on as cool a day as possible and do it in the evening to give them some recovery time before the heat of the day. They will completely wilt and look like they're dead, but keep them soaked in water and they will come out of it and do fine. After a couple of weeks in a pot, they can go into the garden.
All these guys were volunteers from the main garden. I had way more then usual this year; this is only some of them. I have no idea what types are in here, but in my experience, volunteers are very vigorous and so I try to keep them.
These are the onions. They don't look great because they got knocked down a couple of nights ago (in the same storm where there were 16 tornados in the area). Other than lying down, they seem to be doing fine and I'm sure will make fine onions.
The Yellow Crooknecks are doing very well this year. Last year was a bust, which is strange, because they are usually so easy to grow. These just had their first, male, blooms two days ago. There are little fruits that will bloom in the next few days.
These are the green beans. I hope to get many jars of pickled beans out of this little patch.
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