Garden update: July 2011

Oh dear!  I'm so, so far behind in sharing this garden update.  I've just been so busy this summer traveling, biking and enjoying the warm weather.  I took these photos on July 1, and my little backyard garden looks a lot different now. But here's a recap of what I've been up to so far.

In early July, my container tomato started wilting from leaf spot, or early blight.  It was fading fast, and I couldn't stand just seeing the leaves yellow and die off, especially when the plant was already setting fruit.  So I broke down and bought a fungicide at the local garden center.  Now my tomato plant has bounced back, and I'm being more careful to keep the leaves dry when I'm watering it.

My container strawberry plants are still growing and flowering, but the birds get to the fruit before I do.  I haven't decided if I'm going to overwinter the plants or just use my stack-a-pot to grow herbs next year.

I love my herb pot.  I bought Christmas basil, purple basil and curly parsley at the Des Moines Farmers Market.  They are all growing very well, and they look so pretty!  So much fun to brush past the basil plant just for the fragrance.

I planted begonias in these little pots my Mom and sister gave me for my birthday a couple years back.  I love the pink flowers in the pastel-colored pots.

I've been having really good luck at planting cucumber a little later than normal, about mid-to-late June.  It seems like they miss out on the moth season and avoid getting attacked by insects.  Plus, the cucumbers grow really fast in the summer heat.  They are already crawling up the trellis now.

I planted broccoli and cauliflower for the first time this year.  Right away, they were eaten by rabbits.  So I bought more seedlings and "caged" them inside cut-off buckets.  The plants grew fast, but unfortunately, they didn't produce much.  The cauliflower never formed, and the broccoli heads were small and went to flower right away.  Not sure if I'm going to plant these again next year.  Not really worth the space in such a small garden.

As a happy accident, I spilled a package of lettuce seeds when I was planting flowers.  And the lettuce grew in the middle of my flower patch.  So cute!

 

So far, I haven't harvested much, other than the lettuce, a few pea pods and a few radishes.  The radishes and peas didn't grow very well this year.  I think next year I'm going to try different varieties, although I'm sure the weather (and the rabbits!) are partly to blame.

I'm almost embarrassed to share this garden update, because I've discovered so many wonderful garden bloggers with gorgeous edible gardens.  But I try to remind myself that the important thing is that I try.  And I really do enjoy spending time outside tending to my little garden.

So how are your gardens growing?  Do you have any ripe tomatoes yet?  I've got lots of green tomatoes, and no red ones yet.