Garden: Week 12

The garden is really filling in and perhaps getting a little messy. In the past, this is when I usually let the garden go. I would get bored with it or get tired of fighting the birds for every tomato or I myself would grow wilty from the heat.

This year, however, I feel like we are still going strong. The weather has been beautiful and sunny without being blazing hot yet. Andrew and I have a nice morning routine watering together we first get up. And we have eaten more than the birds so far.

I'll give you a little garden tour of my 4'x8' patch.

The two tall plants in the back are sunflowers. They have been badly eaten by bugs, but they grew up all on their own. Volunteers! They are the best!

On the left is a mystery squash. It has huge varigated silvery leaves and the flowers are huge as well. The fruit is round with greenish-yellowish stripes. They are still small, but I have no idea how to know when they are ready, so I'm not sure how big they will end up growing. Any guesses on my mystery plant?



Also on the left are some herbs. I don't use them nearly as much as I should but I'm open for ideas. My adventurous and culinary friend Kimberly went to the garden to add a leaf of basil and a sprig of oregano to the cheese and crackers I had set out as appetizers the other night. Genius!

In the middle of the mess are the tomatoes. We have eaten a few cherry tomatoes and they are wonderful. I have a Yellow Boy tomato that has a lot of fruit (some of it very large), but nothing has turned yellow yet. I keep thinking they will turn any day! I also have an heirloom called Valencia. I do not know anything about it, but here are a few of the tomatoes looking happy and plump.

I probably need to stake up the tomato plants, but honestly I hate those ugly round tomato cages and I have been too lazy (cheap) to buy stakes and twine to make my own cages. Maybe by next week I'll have some new garden structures to show-off.

On the right we have three cilantro plants. They have gone to seed and are now taller than my kids. I pulled out my Western Garden Book to determine what to do with them and discovered that cilantro is pretty much done by the end of Spring when it gets hot. I had decided to pull them out until this morning when I discovered ladybugs!

I do not know if ladybugs especially like cilantro, but they like my cilantro and I like ladybugs so the cilantro is staying.

Is there anything happier than finding ladybugs in your garden? Except maybe having your kids let the ladybugs crawl over their hands and up their arms! That's pretty happy too.