July 22: kablooey tomatoes

Some of these are sideways again. A little neck craning never killed anyone though, right?

The pea planters are now void of peas, but a couple little beans have popped up! I don't know what went wrong with the peas... too sunny maybe? Me no know.

The remaining scraggly plants from the fence patch: zucchini (left) and beans (right). Way 2 go guys! U can do it!

Watermelons doing well and close to flowering. Still anxious to see if we get anything from them.

Lost a watermelon plant!! Waaaah! It drowned. I had a tray under it and it rained while we were away, flooding the planter. It should have never had a tray to begin with. IDIOT.

Cantaloupe looking a bit worse for wear, but flowering nonetheless. These melons are fickle little jerks!

Cucumbers doing super duper. Makin' cukes, workin' it, doin' it right.

Squash are looking good, but still haven't sent out any main runners. Soon, hopefully...

Pumpkins are SLAMMING. We had a close call with this planter – the wood beneath these plants gave way. Luckily Mike reinforced it before it was too late. I would've been sooooo sad to lose these guys.

The x-treme pepper plant is barely visible amid the tomato jungle. It's actually grown recently though, and looks like it'll flower soon. That'd be nice, you know?

Tomato planter jungle!! I only put cages on two plants, and the others obviously need them too. Hopefully we grab some this week, otherwise they'll be waay too far gone.

The dwarf tomatoes are making tomatoes!!! YAAAAAAAAYYY!!!

My monster tomatoes are OUT OF CONTROL. They exploded over the weekend and they won't stop growing HUGE. They are beyond cages, I think I'll need a bigger structure to surround the entire pots. Hopefully the tomatoes they produce are monstrous as well.


Overall, VERY excited for August!!! Plants makin' food! Exciting!

July 14: rain rain you're okay

Lovin' this rain, if only for my plants' sake (and for all the farmers). Everything is going nuts and I can't wait to see what happens when the sun comes back. It's gonna be craaaaayzaaaay!


Herb planter is finally looking useful. I have to thin the mint some more before it chokes out everything else, but no biggie.


My "red pot" tomatoes are totally loco. They're almost twice as high as the others, and I don't have cages for them yet! I had to rescue one after heavy rain as it had slumped over the edge of the pot, and I've added many stick supports, but these babies demand moooooore! No flowers on them yet though... all the smaller ones are slightly ahead in that regard. Apparently, the big guys can talk the talk but can they tomato the tomato?


Tomato planter has overtaken the x-treme pepper plant, and all are on the verge of flowering. Mike picked a bit of thyme and basil and they have gone nuts since then. Yay herbs! We'll likely have some major herb-drying to do this fall.


All the dwarf tomatoes are flowering, which means we'll have plenty of plum tomatoes in our salads this August. Maybe I'll make some salsas too, WHO KNOWS?


Pumpkins are doing so awesome! I've had two huge flowers on them (both male so far) and those insects better damn well be pollinating them! The squash haven't sent out any main runners yet, hopefully they get with the program soon.


A pumpkin!!! Well, a female flower about to open anyway. But the flower is totally preggo with pumpkin! I'm with ya' lady pumpkin, haaang in theeerrre!


Aaaannd I officially have THREE cucumbers growing on my little underdog cucumber plants! Whoop whoop!


The peas are in agony and I don't know how to fix them. They didn't like these planters or something. The beans have flowered though, so we'll likely get a few of those. It's a very sad planter situation. I blew it over here.


The cantaloupe was recently pummeled by a short burst of hail, and a lot of its tender leaves got torn, but it seems to have pulled through. It's even flowering, good sign, no?


The watermelon are definitely growing, but there's no sign of flowers yet. They seem healthy though, and if we have a warm September I might still get a couple little melons from them.


Our first wittle strawberry! The rain has helped a lot. On sunny days I just can't keep these planters moist. We've got some compost coming up soon, and hopefully it helps. Otherwise it may just be gimpy little berries for us this year.

July 5: hi summer!

Everything has been exploding with growth, and the few things that aren't have been nicked from my worry list. Not a lot I can do for them except for try again next year.


The watermelons are thriving since they've been outside. No flower buds yet, but maaaaaaan I hope we at least get some baby melons from them. Just to feel like we've accomplished something.


Cantaloupe are also rocking it. I need to start tying the vines to the trellis; I don't think the little tendrils will do much when it comes to melon time.


Strawberries are shy. They're blossoming and slowly fruiting, but this spot dries the pots SO fast. I seriously have to water them three times a day, and sometimes I forget. In fact, I'm going to go water them right now.


My peas have taken the attitude of "eff this, I'm outta here". It's sad really. I was totally caught off guard by how much water these planters need. This spot in particular (the strawberries are above them) dries really fast due to the constant breeze and the sun. I don't like watering in the heat of the day, but I think waiting 'till evening is what killed these dudes. I doubt I'll get any peas. The beans still seem happy enough though. How the tables have turned!!


This tomato planter is kicking a$$. They are huge. They've benefited from no ant infestation, and they also seem to really like this spot (partial shade even, who knew??). I need to put a few more support sticks in there, but otherwise I have high expectations of their produce capabilities.


My herb planter is finally worth noticing. That's mint, basil, and thyme. The mint took foreeever, but should be thriving just in time for virgin juleps! Do those even exist? They do now!


The rest of the small planter tomatoes. The big ones still have a little ant problem, but seem to be pushing through. We had ant traps around, but then when Vera got sick we were freaking out because we found one with chew marks on it and thought Vera had been poisoned (she hadn't, it was a squirrel). We threw them out. It was better for everyone, squirrel included.


And yes the tomatoes are finally flowering! Woohooo! Must be all my diligent sucker pinching, or maybe because it's just that time of year...


Precious planter box, lookin' good! The thyme on either end is going nuts, and the tomatoes are all happy and starting to flower. The X-treme pepper plant is exactly the same as four weeks ago. In fact, even though it has suffered no damages, it also hasn't changed at all since we planted it. We actually checked to see if it was plastic, because it looks so awesome yet isn't doing anything (cyyyboooorrg!). Should be interesting to see what happens with it.


The pumpkin/squash/tomato planter is totally holding its own, especially the pumpkin, yay!!! Those are dwarf tomatoes btw, and they ARE actually thriving despite their size. However...


...the base stalks of all my pumpkin/squash plants kind of look like this. Does anyone know what is happening here? The stalks are flattening and splitting, yet the plant seems to be fine. I'm worried about insect infections, and losing the whole plant just as it's getting really big. I might try covering the stalks, anyone know how to deal with it otherwise? (this pic is of the biggest pumpkin plant)


Here it is again, except on the squash. This one has split completely, yet the plant still seems okay...


Happy happy cucumber!! I got Mike to make these mesh things to protect them because the birds were hanging around them a little too much for my liking. They're doing awesome, and even though I can barely weed them now and I'll have to cut the mesh to pick cucumbers, the peace of mind really makes it all okay.


The smaller of the two cucumbers, and it's flowering!!! Yaaaaaay!


This is one of the previously dessicated zucchini plants. It kept growing so I'm still watering it. I think it suffered another recent attack though. They're in a bad spot and I'm not sure how well they'll do anyway, so I might just water and observe... so cold. So cold.


This is the patch formerly known as "radishes/cucumbers/corn/sunflowers". Again, I totally underestimated how big the tree above them would get, and they're in the shade a lot. The radishes went to seed already, didn't get any actual radishes from them. The corn and sunflowers are stunted in time and won't be getting much bigger than they are (you can't even see them). The cucumbers are the only saving grace of this patch, and I'll be damned if I lose them!!!

June 14: lookin up

Pretty pleased with how everything is recovering. Have to move some planters around since our trees are way shadier than I thought they'd be, but that's no biggie.



Watermelons are springing up nicely, although their stems are still kind of wussy. I might still put them outside. Depends how they keep up over the next week or so.


I had to loosen the soil around the cantaloupe, it wasn't growing very well and I figured it might be choking due to the heavy topsoil we used (no sandy soil like the watermelons). Since then it's sprung up and looks a little happier.


Tomatoes looking happy enough. They'll need cages soon. Still wish I would have started them sooner. Next year: grow lamps!! Half of where they're growth is going is to thickening the stems, which should've happened a while ago. I'm also very impatient.


My favorite planter making me very happy (note how continuously robust my Terminator pepper plant looks. Only thing not started from seed and it's making me feel bad). We'll be moving both the big planters into a sunnier spot soon. Don't know if you can see, but they've all got a slight lean going on. They demand more sun, so I must comply lest a revolution begins.


The basil survived the frost and hail (uncovered!), but they look a bit worse for wear now. They haven't actually grown much, despite being alive. I'll try to loosen the soil but after that, I dunno.


The thyme took the hail and frost uncovered as well, and didn't seem to mind at all. As you can see, they're having the thyme of their lives! Eh? Ya?


Pumpkins are recovering happily, with the surviving leaves a bit haggard-looking but okay. I did a lot of pinching post-hail/frost (they were also uncovered), and they seem to be thanking me for it.


Had to pinch a lot off of the squash, but there's fresh growth coming up so I'm not too worried anymore. These plants have never been especially enthusiastic... not sure what I'm doing wrong. I'll wait a couple weeks and hopefully by then I'll have some nice fresh compost for them. If they don't like that then screw 'em. Or just watch them slowly grow and hope that they make some squashes.


Even have a few late-comers! Oh, hi beans. So happy you finally decided to join us. Please acquaint yourselves with the pumpkins and squash and I'll be around shortly to go over my expectations.


Dwarf tomatoes chugging along cutely. Lookit the wittle guys! Oooh soo woo wooo!!!


I've got ants in my plants, and it's making me want to dance to France. This was the first victim and I've been nursing it for a few weeks now. They moved into the other pots too, but I've been more diligent with moving them and spraying bug spray on the ground below them. Get outta my plants!!!


My "salad" container lost it's cucumber in the hail/frost. I had to pinch all of its leaves, but the stem still looks healthy and there's a tiny bud, so I'm kind of waiting to see if some new shoots come up. That would be awesome as my other cucumber plants are also a bit sickly looking.


Peas 'n' beans. I'm still not sure about the beans. I think they're tricking me into letting them stay by looking healthy, but I'd be surprised if they produced. Too crowded? Maybe. If excessive feeding doesn't get everything huge then I will have failed here.


Hanging strawberries and some wittle berry blossoms! I over-crowded these planters initially, and then could only pinch off the extra plants. I'm hoping that the left-over roots aren't sucking too much away from the remaining plants. I want strawberrieeees!


Did a bit of zucchini pinching too, and they seem okay. The little specks on them is this weird sticky sweet stuff that comes from somewhere in the tree. It gets all over the lawn, like, my hose will be all sticky from it. I have no idea what it is, but it seems harmless.


This is the healthiest cucumber plant left. There is one other that looks a bit worse, and the others are dead (except for the possible reviving of the salad planter one). I like to think of them as undead cucumbers. Little growing zombie plants. These side patches aren't doing so well due to their very bad placements (mostly shade). Next time it's all containers or middle-yard digging.


Yes, the radishes LOOK healthy, but I think the soil is lacking. Where there should be radishes there are only wispy roots. Maybe I need to wait longer (and I will), but I'm not holding my breath. Plus, the lettuce mix behind it is coming up pathetically, which makes me think that the soil is wrong. Oh well. We can have lots of great tomato salads.

I'm really happy with the tomatoes, but really disappointed with the cucumbers (WHY didn't cover them!?! IDIOT). The corn and sunflowers are officially being ignored. I mean, I'm watering and weeding them, but until I see some really lovely and miraculous improvement, I will no longer be wasting camera batteries on them.