Garden Update: Mid-June

The first time gardner is back with an update!

Happy Father's Day everyone! I hope everyone has plans with their fathers' this wonderful Sunday. I do not, as mine is 2700 miles away, but there will definitely be a catch-up phone call once the sun has risen on the West Coast. I don't think my dad would appreciate a phone call at... well, it's 4 am on the West Coast :)

In lieu of father's day plans, I've got a big day of nada planned. It's supposed to be a wonderfully beautiful day, so I imagine reading on the patio for a couple of hours will happen. I love to sit out there and stare at my plants. I can't believe how much they are growing! Look at that huge bowl of basil I harvested! That made one tasty batch of pesto :)

Shall we get on with checking out my garden? I think so!

My zucchini. I took this picture on Friday, and then decided it was time to transplant yesterday. I transplanted 2 starts into a big pot and composted the 3rd. I think 2 zucchini plants will probably cover and feed the neighborhood!

I also transplanted my cucumber yesterday. I moved 1 start into a big pot with a trellis, and composted the other 2. So far, my transplants from yesterday are looking pretty healthy. I couldn't believe the intricate root systems when I went to transplant. The zucchini practically didn't have soil anymore, there were so many roots. In any case, it was definitely time to move both.

The chard and lettuce. This was an experimental box. I think I put waaaay too many seeds in this box. In any case, both boxes that housed the zucchini and cucumber were free after yesterday, so I started a new experiment. I planted 1 box of chard, and 1 box of lettuce. I also put very few seeds in each box, so we'll see how this experiment goes. Hopefully the seeds will sprout, and since there's less of them, they'll have room to grow.

My yellow cherry tomato plant. This tomato plant has had tons of blossoms on it for days, but I hadn't noticed any fruit forming. Well, on Friday I spotted these teeny, tiny fruits forming. Oh, happy day!

The Beefsteak tomatoes are growing like crazy! Lots o' fruit forming on these plants!

Red cherry tomatoes, looking good!

With all the mud in the backyard (which is quickly disappearing I might add!), we've become a haven for butterflies. They are literally everywhere on our property. Why do butterflies like the mud so much?

Update: I just Googled this. It's a behavior called "mud-puddling". Apparently butterflies like to land on fluidly-like substances (wet mud, puddles, rotting plant matter, etc) because they draw nutrients from what they land on. Who knew?

I was outside snapping pics of the garden when I noticed this furry fella. By the way, he's on a brand new pathway the hubby is constructing from the back door to our patio.

Apparently he didn't want to hang out with me, because he booked it across the patio away from me :)

And this is the basil, post harvest. Crazy right?

The hubby's uncle had 6-7 tomato plants leftover from what he bought this year that he decided not to plant. They were looking a little worse for wear, so I decided to take them on and try to bring them back to life. We'll see how this little raised bed does this year. The hubby built this for me a couple of weeks ago, but it's little more than a couple of 2 x 4's and a couple bags of topsoil. Come on maters'!

My green bell pepper plant is growing pretty slow. Not sure why on this one...

You can guess what I did. Yep, Googled it. Apparently, my pepper is going to grow slow until we start getting warm summer nights around here. They don't like cold nights, and our nights have been unseasonably cold lately, getting into the upper 50's. We are typically having nights around 70º this time of year. Poor little pepper, he just needs some warm weather.

Our little work in progress! I just love the pathway the hubby is putting in :)

Have a great day everyone!

Helpful links:

Mud-puddling

Growing Bell Peppers

Linked to: Garden Tuesday