When you are trying to get a good garden going, it may not be a good idea to go on an 11 day vacation at the end of May.
By the end of May, the garden was planted. Most of the plants had settled in and were starting to get growing with their bad selves.
Then I left for 11 days - 11 days when the deities of weather decided not to grace my backyard with any rain. Not one drop.
The good news: When I got home, nothing was dead. But nothing had grown. And in that time period, at that time of year, I expect plants to double in size.
My little town is also still under water restrictions - I'm allowed 3 days a week, with each day having only a 2 hour window opportunity to water my garden. If I watered that much, it would be too much. But my problem is simply forgetting to water during the appropriate time.
Nevertheless, I got my first two tomatoes in the past week. The Bestest Friend and I enjoyed the first one sliced with kosher salt and ground pepper. I like to call it Heaven In Red. I have many green tomatoes out there, that make me hopeful for some homemade salsa in my near future.
The squash plants have been producing flowers like crazy - but they were all male. Squash, like humans, need two sexes to procreate. This past weekend I found 3 female flowers - and it looks like two of them have been polinated. But the zucchini hasn't grown as much, or produced quite as many flowers.
Then, I spied what I think may be my first female zucchini flower. Grow, ye little green things, Grow!
The pepper plants have about 10 flowers and one actual 2 inch pepper - although the plants are no where big enough to sustain that many actual fruit. Still, one pepper per plant (they're red bell peppers) is enough to offset the cost of planting it. So one more pepper and I'll break even.
The cucumbers have been the real heartbreaker. They took the two weeks of no water harder than anything. They never actually died - they're still green - but they haven't grown AT ALL.
That is, until the past three days. In that time, one (and only one) of my cucumber plants has more than doubled in size.
So I'm more than happy with my gardening efforts. I don't consider myself a gardener - I really just kind of play with dirt and green things for many days. Even if I get the bare minimum from my efforts, I like gardening. For one thing, it's relaxing to dig in the dirt. For another, it gets The Bestest Friend over here, and she hauls bags of dirt for me while I sip Pina Coladas.
And that's just clean fun, that is.
3 comments:
Hey we are growing many of the same things. The only fruit I have so far is several green grape tomatoes. The rest of my tomatoes haven't starting fruit-ing yet. I just noticed flowers that are about to open on my monster zucchini plants today and there are tiny beans on my bush bean plants. Other than that I wait for the rest of it to start producing something I can eat!
there is nothing better tasting than a tomato off your very own tomato plant. we got 2 small ones last week and there's another couple ripening. i love this time of year!
Tomato sandwiches are the best! Well,,,,next to fried green tomatos...but good ol' sliced tomatos (without a chaser) can't be beat...Is it possible to crave tomato at 11 O'clock at night? Your garden looks great, Debbie. I hope the rain has been finding it's way to your yard.
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