Happy SUMMER! I hope you are enjoying some beautiful weather out there! Phoenix is hot already, but hey, we knew it was coming. Besides, we had such a mild and gorgeous winter, I’m not even about to complain. Well, at least not to you! I’ll save my whining for Joe. HA!
Since the heat set in, it’s time in the garden where the plants either make it or wither. This year has been weird with the garden, but in a totally good way. Remember me talking about it last month? It’s really doing good, even for how hot it is out there (especially being surrounded by cinder block, which holds on to the heat). Every other June I’ve had a massive ant farm going on with several species taking up shop, I’m usually having to rip out my sweet little babies which turned into zombies seemingly overnight, and forcing myself to get out there to water the haggard looking space. But this year, I don’t know. No ants, few white flaggers, and I’m really into watering on schedule. In fact, I just checked my post from last June, and I’m even more impressed now! Check it out for yourself here (just a head’s up, I gave some pretty helpful information in that post about pests and tomato problems). I’m SO glad I don’t have pumpkins again this June-they turned out so disappointing last year!
I did have to rip out the three pea plants that were doing so good last month. They just couldn’t take the triple digit temps. But everything else is doing good. OH! And I figured out the trick to my bitter bell pepper plant! Turns out, they are delicious once I let them change from green to red before picking them 🙂 Here are a few pictures for you:
cherry tomatoes, just one of the six varieties of tomato growing right now – this year is seriously all about the tomatoes!
remember how a sweet friend of mine gave me mint last month from her garden? so, it’s totally doing great! i did, however, forget that i put down portulaca seed in that portion of the garden, so i hope they can play nice and be friends…
there are three pots of strawberries all over our property right now, just to kind of see what they’ll do. this is the only one with berries on it, although i think the birds keep getting to the one up front. the two plants i put directly in the garden bed are getting nice and fat!
i have so many “tomato waterfalls” happening right now! too bad they are all green…
my early girl variety of tomato is truly massive, and it’s got at least 30 tomatoes on it. i’ve only been able to get five ripe ones so far, and a few of the ones on the vine are looking like bird food. but the five? holy crap! so good!
this isn’t the greatest picture, i know. but it shows how big and green everything is so far.
So this month, I have a couple of garden agenda items. To start, I want to figure out how to get my lavender to flower already. I’m also debating on planting some squash. They take up so much space, so it’s usually not my first pick. But I do enjoy eating them, so we’ll see. I need flowers up front to replace the decrepit looking baskets up there. I have a tulip plant that I need to get in the ground, and I think I’ve finally figured out where it’s going so maybe it will come up again in the spring. And of course, I’m sticking to my fertilizing schedule (once every two to three weeks with fish emulsion). So far, aside from what I mentioned already, we have a potato plant, a hot pepper plant, thyme, sage, a second variety of mint, red and white onions and two varieties of basil.
I need your help, too. I have a pile of pallets that Joe brought home for firewood and the winter was too warm for that. Have you ever done or know anyone who’s done the vertical pallet gardens? I think one would look great on our front porch, but I’m not sure if it will ruin the wall of the house. Anyone who can help direct me with this is truly appreciated!! I hope you have a great weekend!
