After a fairly rainy first two weeks of June, the weather has improved to the point where the garden is finally starting to take off. The sun has reappeared and that means warmth and longer periods of light. The strawberry patches are going to produce a lot of strawberries this year; I have never seen so many flowers in a strawberry patch as I have this year. And the black currant, red currant, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry and mulberry bushes are also starting to produce berries. My corn plants are developing thicker stalks and growing taller, the pumpkins are growing, the bean plants are doing very well, and the snap peas have attached and are growing up along the trellises I made for them (I learned how to make them from twigs from an online gardening site). And in the greenhouse, the tomato plants are big and healthy, and the sweet pepper and cucumber plants are also doing well. I've only grown tomatoes once before, and that was indoors in our apartment, with limited success. I am enjoying working in the greenhouse; on chilly or cloudy days, it's a nice place to be. And so far, the slugs have not found their way into it, probably because it gets so warm and dry in there that it's not optimal for them. I'm hoping it stays that way.
The flowers I grew from seeds are also growing, but slowly. I planted two hydrangeas this year, and they seem to be doing ok so far, although I read that they need a lot of water. I planted sunflowers for the first time, and they are also starting to grow taller. I also planted pansies, more lavender plants, and more grass (mostly to fill in the bare patches here and there).
Here are some recent photos:
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| pansies |
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| hydrangea |
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| hydrangea |
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| tomato plants |
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| our lovely rhododendron that we rescued last year from a garbage heap |
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| corn plants top left, string bean plants top middle, pumpkin plants in the foreground |
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| our lovely rosebush next to the rhododendron, and the bird bath in front of it |
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| another view of the pumpkin patches |
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| check out the strawberry patches near the garden arch and how many flowers there are |
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| my sugar snap peas growing up the trellises |
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| more tomato plants |
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| another view of the garden |
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| the greenhouse--you can see the tomato plants inside |
