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.

Two more and yet two more

Got up this a.m. to a couple of more pepper plants sprouted. Now one four-pack has completely sprouted, but I'm still waiting on 3 cells of the other 4-pack. Not sure what the deal is with that...

I also discovered that there were TWO more tomato sprouts awaiting me in the vermiculite. I seriously don't remember putting 8 seeds in there. But maybe I did. I know I had a pretty low germination rate the last time I tried to start tomato seeds, so I must've overcompensated a wee bit. Especially considering I only have ONE spot left in the garden for another tomato plant. So I'm faced with a dilemma. Give the extras away to folks who don't mind having to wait til July to get any cherry tomatoes or have Charlie build me another box for the extra tomato plants. The problem with option two is that there's not really any extra room inside the fence. I guess I'll have to go with option one.

My little sprouts

It won't be long now

As I was checking on my pepper plants in the entertainment center this morning, I noticed that another tomato had sprouted out of the vermiculite. I honestly didn't know I put 6 tomato seeds in that container, but I guess I did. That or we have our very own immaculate conception...

After my discovery I had to go out to the garden and get some more soil to put my new sprout in. As I came back from retrieving the Mel's Mix from an empty square I glanced at my tomato plants. To my shock again I noticed a little bitty baby Cherokee Purple. I got so excited about that discovery, that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, and I got tangled up in the electric fence. I almost busted it, and that would not have been pretty! But at least the ground is soft because of the rain.

As I mentioned earlier this week 2 of my jalapeno seeds have sprouted. They are in different 4-packs, so I snipped those cells loose from the other ones and placed them in the sunny windowsill where I have my sprouted tomato seeds. So far all my little sprouts are looking pretty good. I think this is the best I've done with seeds I started myself. When I checked the jalapeno seeds last night I noticed one more little sprout is just pushing up through the soil. I'll give it a couple days to get a little taller then place it in the window too.

So far no more okra plants, so I will probably reseed them tomorrow.

Please excuse the blurriness of the following pictures. The batteries in my real camera died, so I had to resort to using the camera on my phone.

Black Cherry Tomato seedlings

Fooled You jalapeno seedling

Early Girl baby tomato

Cherokee Purple baby tomato - looks like it's split. hmmm

Lots o' soon to be squash blossoms

What a difference a little heat makes

Well, less than 48 hours after my epiphany, 5 of my tomato seeds have sprouted, and one jalapeno seedling is peeking through the Mel's Mix. Yeehaw! We may be in business after all.

Tonight we are getting some much needed rain. Not sure what our rainfall has been year-to-date, but I can only assume we're down for the year. It's been very, very dry, and today it got up in the 90's for the highs. The rain has cooled things off temporarily, but it probably won't stay that way for long.

They're back. I guess they never left.

I just thought I'd gotten rid of the little worm things, but I checked today, and they're back. Not in as high numbers, but they're still out there in my garden, and I still don't know what they are or what I need to do about them. Anyone out there know??

What are they??

My tomato plants are all starting to bud out, and so are the squash and zucchini. Still nothing from the eggplant though. Maybe they take a little longer to put off buds. I can't remember when my eggplant started blooming last year, but that was a different variety, and I got a much earlier start.

Blooming Cherokee Purple. At least I hope it is. But it could turn out to be a Green Zebra. It wasn't labeled so it's a crap shoot. Who knows I may like green tomatoes, but how do you know when they're ready to be picked??

Zuke covered in blooms. Can't wait to try out that zucchini lasagna recipe I found.

Speaking of starting on Tuesday I attempted to start some Black Cherry tomato seeds as well as some Fooled You jalapeno seeds. So far I've got bupkus on the tomatoes and jalapenos, but my dad told me peppers take a long time to sprout. The tomatoes should be up by now I would think. Part of my problem is deciding where I put them to germinate. We keep our house pretty cool, and though it's warm during the day outside at night it's still getting down in the upper 60's. I've read to put them on top of the fridge, but our fridge is cold.

Wait! I just had an epiphany! I'll put them in our entertainment center. It's always warm in there. I think I did that last year. I really need to go back and read some of my old blog posts. That's the whole reason I started this blog - so I could remember what I did each year and learn from my mistakes and my victories.

I also planted 8 okra seeds I saved from last year's neglected plants. I was pleased as punch when I went out to the garden this morning and saw that one had sprouted!! It's my first sprout from my own saved seed. How awesome is that?! Not sure how the germination rate is going to be, I just picked the old okra, put them in a ziploc bag, set them on the kitchen countertop and forgot about them til this week. We'll see.

Baby okra. Will it soon be joined by its siblings?