Things are growing like crazy and I just have to sit down and make a list so I can keep track. First, I have to mention my favorite thing: raspberries! This year's crop has been incredible, and it's not over yet. Yesterday I picked close to 9 pints of berries- enough to make two batches of jam (one cooked and one freezer), give away two pints and still have plenty of fresh ones left over to eat out of the fridge. This is on top of the 4-5 pints I picked last week! The crows have taken more than their share, and some were lost to the very wet days we had this week, but overall, it's been a very good year so far. The blueberries are also outperforming their yield from last season. They'll ripen up here in a week or so.
On the trees, the well-pruned one has a single apple (covered in an orange bag net to keep the squirrels off), the pears and peach tree haven't fruited yet (too young), but my Evans cherry had four fruits on it! Two were lost, despite the nets, and two ripened. They were fantastic- and VERY sour! They're light-fleshed, though, not dark like I thought they would be. Oh well- I can't wait to make homemade cherry juice anyway!In the vegetable garden, the sweet yellow cherry tomatoes are beginning to ripen, lettuce is beginning to fade, peas were great this year (we even harvested enough to eat some for dinner, instead of eating them all fresh off the vine), green beans are beginning to flower, melon vines are growing (although I doubt it will get hot enough for melons this year), and, finally, I am harvesting zucchini! This may not sound like much to you, but for some bizarre reason, I haven't been able to get any zucchini to grow. Strange, I know. I feel like a real gardener now.
In the flower beds lots of things are blooming- too many too mention. But I will say that the rose mallow, lily and day lilies Sarah gave me are all doing great, and the three new rose bushes (Bonica, Buff beauty, and Blanc Double de Coubert) are all thriving. The last two have blooms on them. My experiment with gladiolas seems to be going fine- I hope they bloom soon.
One major disappointment this year was the recent chipmunk invasion of the tulip bed. I had at least a hundred tulips interplanted with my other bulbs- mostly little species tulips- and every one of them has been dug up by a couple of zealous chipmunks. I tried mothballs to cover the scent, and lots of mulch, but it made no difference. I have exported the critters up the mountain, but the damage has been done. Somewhere underground they have stored up a serious cache, and I'm sure it won't be long before another chipmunk discovers it and moves in. It was very disheartening, and I'm not really sure if I'm going to replant any of those this year. But maybe I will... they were so very delightful this last spring.
2 comments:
This is all unbelievable to me. So far in my married life we've had two plants. I killed the Jasmine within the first two months and the money tree is beginning to look a little peaked. Your garden sounds like a model straight out of Martha Stewart! I can almost taste it!
Thanks, Em. I've never had much luck with houseplants. The garden is nowhere near perfect, but it is fun. It's always amazing to me when those seeds or plants just grow pretty much all by themselves.
Post a Comment