one more piece of pie: August Garden Update

Last minute cantaloupe planted as a "whatever" effort, by the air conditioner on the south side of the house where there is lots of light. I did not amend the soil in any way whatsoever. Five germinated, three survived the rabbits. My friends all have actual fruit by now; I don't know if there is enough time for these guys to produce anything. You get what you put in!

Spinach on my deck. I can't figure out if the birds are eating it, or just chilling on the planter, or drinking the water that might pool in the leaves?

Here was a seed harvesting fail. But I will take the rain any day!

Oh yeah. And I painted my nails and toenails. That is an accomplishment!

Lettuces.

Cosmos.

Chard. Whatever I planted on the other side never came up. There are no drainage holes in this bucket, so...hence the mossy substance growing on the top.

Cucumbers. The seed pack said 55 days to maturity and I planted them a few weeks ago when there were 80 days until the average first frost date of October 15. We'll see if we get any cucs.

Weedy wildflowers sent in a seed package from Texas Children's Hospital. I think there were cosmos in that pack. I have no idea what these guys are. They are pretty pathetic, IMO.

Roma tomatoes! And my improvised Florida weave because I was too cheap to shell out $2-10/each on tomato cages.

It seems to be working fine. The plants have a lot of room to breathe and none of the fruit is on the ground. It's not really a big hassle because this season has been soooooooooo cool; they haven't really grown super high. But I have had about 5-10 tomatoes/week for the entire month of August, which is pretty good. I've started freezing them, saving them up for a big giant canning extravaganza with my friend Leila.

Tomatillos are happy, except every single leaf seems to have either bug or fungus holes. Weird. You can see the last minute lavender I planted down there, too.

First "purple" tomatillo of the season. Not very purple, but definitely ready.

I transplanted my strawberries from the cinder blocks where they were before to the spot where the potatoes had been. I want them to focus on growing strong roots so they will successfully overwinter. When I see buds or fruit, I just pluck it off. NEXT YEAR I am hoping for an awesome strawberry patch. These guys are "everbearing" so I don't think they will be quite as prolific bearers as other cultivars. But we shall see. They really love to spread. I underestimated that. Oh yeah, and notice the corn husk "mulch."

Late season squashes and a lone cucumber there in the back. The others didn't germinate I guess.

Late season yellow and green beans.

Endless Summer Hydrangea on 8/15/14. See how it is changing colors from blue to pink? My soil is super alkaline. I love the color it is right now!

I want the lavender to grow huge and flower. Mostly, I love the purple basil as a middle plant between some big blooming perennials and short petunias. And a huge mass planting of this will give me more than enough pesto for the winter!

This is my sunflower today, 8/16/14. I believe this is day 8.

Here was the big project I did today with a little help from my kids. I dug a new garden bed on the south side of my house. It is about 1 1/2 ft x 4 ft. I planted the six currant bush starts that I had in very small containers on my deck. Guess what!? All of them had rooted!!!!! I don't think all of them will make it. I think that there is probably enough room in this space for TWO plants, not six. So if they all continue to grow, and flourish, and overwinter successfully, I will have to make some more space for them. I'm so excited. These were starts that Danny's boss's boss gave him. I'm just really surprised that all of them, even the really sad looking ones rooted! I think they will get better moisture in the ground itself. I amended this area with a lot of compost (that I made! woohoo), some uncomposted paper bag strips, a layer of corn husks, and some dirt from the cinder blocks in the big garden. I had transplanted my strawberries from that spot already and it was just growing grass. In fact, it still probably is.