I haven’t posted an update about the garden in a while since we got really busy and I ignored it for a bit…I am definitely paying for it now with weeding and chopping back, I mean pruning, the massive growth on our many ornamental bushes. I was keeping an eye on the bushes but we had a few days of sun and they seem to have all grown a foot and put out their flowers so I feel pretty bad about chopping those off. I tried to just trim where it was necessary such as along paths and to keep plants from growing too close to the house. This week I focused on weeding the larger weeds, installing soaker hoses in the vegetable beds and trimming back bushes where I could.
The bushes near the front of my house are starting to bloom and it will be gorgeous when all of the white flowers are out. I started the annual spring trim of these bushes so they don’t completely take over the front of the house but I didn’t get very far since it was so hot. I am hoping to finish next weekend but it will depend on the vegetable garden.
My gigantic Hydrangea bushes in the front have a couple of flowers just starting to bloom. I love these bushes and they were a selling point for me when we bought the house. I am a little concerned though because last year I spent many, many hours deadheading these bushes and even though I cut it back pretty severely last fall it apparently wasn’t enough to prevent massive growth. It seems to be extra bushy this year with lots of new branches and each and every one of them has a flower bud on it.
I am also concerned I will have the same problem this year as last year with the blossoms being to massive for the branches to support their weight when it rains. Most of the branches fell over last year and I had to cut the flowers strategically so that the branches didn’t break. I may have to cut these back even further this year and see how they do.
Our apple tree seems to be doing well. It is leaning a bit which is concerning but it did produce fruit! There are a few apples on a couple of the branches.
I was really excited to see them but I may end up pinching them off so the tree can grow a little more since it was planted only a year ago.
Our raspberries, blueberries and strawberries have quite a few fruit on them and the kids have been checking them periodically to see if they are ripe. I know once the blueberries begin to turn blue I will have a hard time keeping my three year old from sneaking over there and eating them before they are ripe. I did a little weeding in the fruit beds and pulled some of the outlying raspberry starts. There are way too many of them and I was afraid they would crowd the blueberries or the pear tree that is planted next to it. I may have to rethink my raspberries next year and move them into a planter to keep them from taking over my garden bed. I don’t have time this year though so that would be a project for fall.
In the vegetable beds we have some quick growing bush bean sprouts and some tiny broccoli starts. The beans popped up overnight. I took this picture on Sunday night, installed soaker hoses that night, turned them on for an hour and by Monday night the bean sprouts had doubled in size. I should hopefully be able to thin them this week.
Our watermelon (lower right) seems to be doing so-so. I think I may have left it too long in the cup since it has barely grown. The soil in the garden bed was a little dry so I am hoping that with the soaker hoses the plants will do better, despite my best efforts at watering.
We have flowers on our pumpkin plants! I am hoping the yellow one was pollinated by our busy bees!
Our squash and zucchini are doing well. I was having a hard time watering them without getting the leaves wet and I had to pull a few of the leaves off of them but they still had quite a few leaves so they should recover. Our cucumbers however bit the dust. I apparently planted them too early but thankfully I still have a couple of seed starts under the grow lights that I can harden off this week and get in the ground hopefully next weekend.
My lettuce is flourishing in it’s pot and my daughter has been grazing off of it every time we go outside to play. She will not eat salad but she helped grow this lettuce and has been helping water it for me and now she is actually eating it. It really shows how getting kids involved in gardening will help then expand their palates.
It is kind of hard to see but our asparagus is also blooming. They have not sent up any new shoots besides the first few in the spring but I think that is because we have kind of neglected them. They are pretty weedy and I may have forgotten to mulch them at the beginning of the season. I am hoping to at least get them weeded this week and possibly look into a large quantity of mulch to cut down on my weeding time in the future.
I did a rather hasty soaker hose install on Sunday night using rocks to keep my hoses down. I ordered clips a couple of weeks ago from Gardener’s Supply Store but they have not come yet. I am hoping to plant pole beans, luffa and peas this week so I will be moving the hoses around a bit next weekend to get a better fit.
They seemed to work ok. I ran them for an hour the first night and will try again in the morning. My soil probably needs some mulching in this bed so it will hold moisture better.
I had to get a little creative in the corner and I will have to hand water the marigolds but after an hour the area was pretty well soaked.
Here is a view of the entire set up. It is pretty ugly as is but after I tweak it a bit it should look better. Overall it worked pretty well. The carrot starts were a little iffy with the water so I may have to continue to hand water those but everything else seemed to get quite a bit.
I am really excited to see my vegetable garden take off in the next few weeks! What’s going on in your garden?
