Garden Update

No more plants have disappeared from my garden, thank goodness! The five remaining Roma tomato plants are doing great. They are betting really full and bushy and growing really quickly. One of the heirloom tomato plants I ordered had a flower on it. They are still very small, so I nipped it off, which killed me, but I know the plants need to develop before they can concentrate on fruiting. The zucchini is growing like crazy. It sprouted after the broccoli and cauliflower, but now has far surpassed both in growth. I'm actually a little worried about the broccoli and cauliflower, they just don't seem to be doing to well, but I'm going to be patient for a while longer, while hoping that they are just slow to get going.

Mike filled the two 3' x 5' planters, he built last weekend, with dirt, peat, and manure. I planted 3 rows of cantaloupe and one row of watermelon. I have two rows left to plant the strawberry plants that are being delivered today. Some of those will fit in the bigger raised bed, now that Mike put in some stepping stones for me. We built that last year and I didn't know what I was doing and I had him build it too wide. Dumb! I have short little arms and can't reach to the middle at all. The stepping stones take away some of the planting space, but I couldn't get it to any of it without them, so I think its a decent solution to the problem. Mike is going to build a heavy duty trellis for me next weekend, so I can grow the cantaloupes up, so they won't need as much room.

This is my favorite climbing rose bush and the only one in the backyard that we are not cutting down. It doesn't have any thorns and it has the most gorgeous flowers, with a great, sweet scent. This is the first flower, a little small, but the rest will probably be a lot bigger. Mike trimmed it and tied it back up to the trellis yesterday and it looks so much better.

This is a picture of the remaining canes from one of the other climbers that Mike cut down. There is a live bird's next in it, so he left it. I can't wait to see the babies!

This is a close up of one of the zucchini plants

My new stepping stones!

The two new planters with cantaloupe and watermelon. Strawberries will go in tonight, hopefully!