I don’t know about you but we’re expecting a bit of a storm to blow through my area tomorrow and Wednesday. I’m so happy! We really need the rain. It’s been such a dry hot summer that my lawn looks more like rattan carpeting than grass. I’d been watching the storm track on TV and saying aloud; just move a little to the left, just a little. Why? Because I adore a good storm and, yes, even a hurricane and/or blizzard. It seems the damn storm listened to me but it moved too much to the left so I’m hoping it inches back to the right just a tad before too long.
We picked up the yard and put everything away in expectation of wind gusts. I’ll bring the potted plants in tomorrow afternoon just to keep them safe.
Right now everyone is looking ok out there. Not just ok. This picture was taken on July 30, 2020.
You can still see the tops of some of the stakes but today (8/3/2020)
Woops…where did the stakes go? I’ve spent the last several days tying them up, pushing them back up, resettling the ones in baskets, and putting several big rocks down to hold them up. There’s nothing left that I can do except water them and keep an eye on them. There’s no more room to tie them up anymore.
Honestly, when I picked up and planted those seeds earlier this year, I wasn’t expecting this. It was just a little something for me to do while in quarantine. Well…so much for that. LOL
We have some tomatoes!
It seems I am going to get to find out how a black tomato tastes. Those are some of the Black Kim variety and there’s quite a few of them out there with many more to come judging by the amount of flowers.
We will have some of the Delicious variety, also with many more to come.
We are going to have a plethora of Sugar tomatoes. The package said they would grow in a bunch like grapes but I didn’t believe it. Sure enough….there they are.
To tell the truth, if the storm doesn’t do much damage, we’re going to end up with way more tomatoes than we’ll be able to use. I may end up setting up a card table in front of the house and giving them away. I’d sell them but that would illegal, however, I could put a ‘tips’ or ‘donation to the garden’ jar on the table and see if anyone drops a penny or two into it.
We have cucumbers!
Again, there’s a good chance we’ll end up with more than we can use so that card table is looking better and better. I don’t want them to go to waste. I can only freeze so many tomatoes and toss just so many sliced cucumbers into pickling brine. I don’t know how to can, I’ve always wanted to learn but have always been afraid of giving someone food poisoning because I didn’t do it right.
There’s another shot of the cucumber patch. If that soil in the empty corner hadn’t been so poor the whole end of the garden would be full of them. But that’s ok, next year. I’m happy that even the smaller plants seem to be going great guns. Yes, my little marigolds are loving life.
I’ll jinx myself here, I’m sure of it, but (knock on wood) I haven’t seen any sign of deer nibbling the garden. I think that’s because it’s been so hot and dry that I haven’t cut the grass so that means the dog poop hasn’t been dispersed and the dogs do seem to really enjoy pooping all around–but not in–the garden. So maybe the deer don’t like the smell. I don’t either but that’s another story.
I have seen signs that they’ve started nibbling the pumpkin plants but not too badly…not yet anyway. I think they took a nibble or two of the roses. Something is eating them that’s for sure. Hubby sprayed with bug spray and that seemed to help.
Look at that lovely big green bell pepper plant….and the rotten pepper. Damn! Oh well, I’m sure it will give us a few more.
The regular jalapenos are doing very well, I suspect we’ll be making poppers in no time.
There’s the Mammoth jalapeno and they really did mean it. It’s very large! It should make several good poppers or, since hubby found a recipe, we’re considering making a rather large jar of pico de gallo. I mean, what the hell? It’s not like we don’t have any tomatoes. I’d say we could use the scallions too but…
I harvested the lot this morning. Well, what was left of the lot that I didn’t already use.
I harvested a good deal of the basil too. Apologies for the poor quality picture.
That’s just some of it all three plants are still out there hiding under the tomatoes.
Of course we’re not the only ones who love the garden. The cats can’t get enough of hanging out among the plants. Here we have my darling Charlie a/k/a Don Gato (black cat) and Majin the one who loves to lay in the cat nip.
Let us not forget Mongo
I think the garden makes them feel like little panthers and tigers.
Here we see the rare and exotic creature known as The Happy Old Hippy in here native habitat. Please approach with caution and either coffee or something sweet. I call that mop on my head Cinnamon Sugar (as opposed to Salt n Pepper) soon it will be all sugar but not just yet. I need a floppy hat, some colorful plastic jewelry, and a pair of round specs with purple lenses then you call me Janis.
Well, that’s pretty much it for what’s doing in my garden this week. Hopefully next week I don’t have a damage report for you. I guess you’ll have to come back next Monday to find out. In the meantime, I hope your gardens are growing well!
