Coming along well

I'm very pleased with how my garden is doing, especially given the late start I got this year, and it's not quite been a month since we got everything set up and planted. My tomato plants have lots of blooms on them (except the Fantastic - thus far zilch for flowers??), and my squash and zucchini have gotten quite large. The squash has been a much faster grower than the zucchini, which surprised me, but I've never grown either before so this is a new experience for me. The squash plants are probably 2 feet tall and have spread to about 2 feet wide too - at least the ones that get more sun. The plants that get a little more shade during the day haven't fared quite as well, but they still look healthy and have plenty of blossoms. This morning I spotted three female blossoms on the squash plants. The little blooms already look like itty tiny squashes. How cute is that?

I'm also happy that I'm not having to water as much this year. Between the mulch I put on the boxes and setting the boxes on the ground my need to water has been significantly less this year than last. And so far this year has been much drier than last. But we are getting some pretty heavy dew in the mornings so that probably helps too. We had a nice shower on Monday or Tuesday of this week, and when I checked this morning the beds were still pretty moist. I will probably need to water some of them tomorrow. It's either that or I need to break out my best rain dance. I know the rest of my dry yard would welcome a few drops from above.

The floating row covers have done a great job keeping insects off my squash and zukes. (Well, except for the millipedes. But technically they're not insects; they're arthropods, and they were probably already in the boxes before I put in my plants. So far they are not bothering the plants, and there don't seem to be as many of them as there were a week or so ago.) I'd read a lot of horror stories about squash bugs, so I'm really glad that I went with the row covers. Of course, since this is the first year I've had squash and zukes, it may prove more challenging to keep them at bay next year.

My real camera has been resurrected, so I'm posting some updated photos of the baby tomatoes from the other day as well as some pics from this morning.

Dew on the Fantastic tomato plant

Lonely little okra. Maybe I'll get around to planting it some more siblings today. I think I said that yesterday...

Baby early girls

Baby cherokee purple

There are two squash plants in the box. I know I'm insane. Mel says one plant per 3 sq feet, but I wanted more than 2 squash plants, so lets see how this turns out.

Two of my female squash blossoms. Two days ago these looked exactly like all the other soon to be blooms. Can't wait til they open up.