Garden Update

What is this? ? ?

It's been a while since I have done a garden update.  Some of these pictures are even a few weeks old now!  Ooops!  :) 

Raised bed "kinda square" foot garden - before planting

So, here is a picture of my raised bed planter before I started getting things in.  You may remember it from a previous post.

I have been battling Keeled Treehoppers.  Little buggers are nasty and hard to get rid of.  They have already completely decimated one tomato plant.  I had to pull it out and get rid of it.  And with it . . . a few million of the nymphs.

I don't want to spray anything unless I absolutely have to.  I don't want to kill any of the good guys.  I have a lot of ladybugs, spiders, birds and a few lizards around.  I think I saw a green lacewing around recently also!  Go, team!  :)  The increased bird traffic has created a big decrease in my grasshopper population!  Yayyy!

My poor Sweet Peas are starting to get powdery mildew.  I think it is too early for that.  We really haven't been getting the heat yet!  I hope that doesn't mean this is going to be a bad year for it again!  :(  But, for now, they still smell heavenly!  

I think I am making headway now . . . but we'll see!  I'm definitely not out of the woods yet.  They are on my tomatoes, my peppers and my eggplants.  I am not sure how many of them I will be able to save!

A few years ago my mom got me an Argentine Giant cactus.  They get such big, pretty blooms.  

As big as they are, you would expect a scent to match, but alas . . . they just have a slight grassy scent to them.

This one reminds me of Little Shop of Horrors . . . I can just hear him saying, "Feed me!"  What do you think?

How about an alien?  Some strange martian, perhaps?

These cherry tomatoes have soooooo much flavor!  When you bite into them, you get a big burst of flavor!  Sooooo good!  I love them.  I should have taken a pic of the ripe ones!

I can't wait to start harvesting some of the Roma tomatoes.  I don't know what I am doing wrong with the tomatoes I plant in pots.  I see other people growing big, healthy plants in pots, but mine always look a little sad and scraggly.  For those of you who successfully grow in pots, please let me in on your secret!  I am not showing you the potted ones . . . they are just too sad!

Fava Beans

I planted my fava beans a little too late, but we had a little stretch of a little cooler than usual weather, so I got an ok harvest from them.  I need to remember to plant more of them and to plant them a little earlier next time so I get more beans on the darn things.  (Pssst, hey, Jules, see those leaves in the lower left hand side?  Those are my sweet taters!  THANKS! ! !)

For now, I am hoping to be able to save enough for seed next year.

I have 3 strawberry pots, but they don't really produce enough to give me any more than 2 or 3 berries at a time.  But, they are not quite fully planted either (I have some empty pockets! :), so maybe I will be able to change that one of these days!

I nearly killed my blueberries a couple of years ago and they are starting to recover, so I am hoping to get an even better harvest next year.  This year was MUCH better than last year, but the poor things have a ways to go to be their most productive!  I got a big handful of them this weekend and had them over ice cream.  YUMMMM!  :)

My lilacs  . . . well . . .  one of my lilacs did a little better this year.  Again, the unseasonably cool weather I'm sure helped quite a bit.  They are finished for the season now, but I had them for a few weeks.

And my tarragon is doing fairly well!  But, does anyone have any idea what this . . . bee(?) is?  He was just kind of lazily buzzing about and really seemed to like my tarragon!  I have never seen one like this and hadn't seen him around here before.

So, what have you all been up to lately? ? ?  :)