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Patchwork Patio on Facebook

Blah blah plants blah garden blah blah words...

Pretty sure I said this a couple of posts back, but once again, it's freaking hot.

In other, more interesting news, I rearranged the patio completely.  I hacked down the mint because it was having problems with major yellowing on the lower/inner leaves, and it was starting to wilt.  So I whacked it down, and hopefully the new growth will be rapid.  In this heat, I suspect it will.  Anyway, since I cut it all down, I got to looking at the rest of my herbs, and I thought it was time to move them around.  They were pretty crowded and growing into each other.  So I spaced them a little more to encourage air flow.  I also pruned the oregano, which was looking scraggly; and the sage, which was being eaten.  I'm hoping that the diners have left.

Anyway, the heat is smooshing my creativity, so less writing, more pictures.

I cut a bouquet of wildflowers.  Love 'em!

Just brings a little cheer to the kitchen.

Hello, this is my new garden addition.  I call it Patchwork Countertop.

Patio spread, as seen from the top of the slide.

Flower bed.  Top of the slide.  Yeah.

Squash and beans.

My new view.

Strawbs.  And recently snipped sage.

Kale and Chard babies.  Amazingly, they are hanging in there.

The mint.  The bright lighting makes it look more yellow than it actually is.

The basil is so dang tall, it's hilarious.  I grew basil from a store plant a couple of years ago, and it did fine, but it didn't get half so tall.  This one is from seed.

For some reason I'm losing buds on my patty pan bush.  Going to have to research this.

Weird pattern on one of my zucchini leaves.  Also must research.  I hope it's not mosaic.

We're going to eat this tonight.  It will be our third garden zuke, and as you can see to the left, we have another on the way.  Hopefully.  I didn't hand pollinate this one, so we'll see.  We seem to have a lot of pollinators in our yard, though, so I think we will see this one grow.

Still producing, if you can believe it.

This one is getting away from me, because I keep forgetting about it.  It's all healthy and fine, but I just keep forgetting to deadhead it.  Looking pretty raggedy!

Yeah... I should probably pull that.

Pretty wild... get it?  Pretty?  And wild?  'Cause they're wildflowers?  Ahaha, I kill me.

The other flower box.

Spaghetti squash seems to be doing well.  Getting lots of blooms, but still all male flowers.

My second crop of squash is growing fast in this heat.  I should probably thin them.

This is what my steps look like now.  Remarkably, the chard and kale are still growing.  I didn't expect them to just keep truckin' along.  Pretty cool.

Garlic is looking pretty sad.  I think they are supposed to "die" before you pull them, but I haven't seen any scapes yet.  Although I'm not really sure what to look for when it comes to scapes.  I guess I'll add that to the research list.

The end.

Happy Fourth!

It's the fourth of July today.  I've been spending part of my morning thinking about how good we have it in this country, and how easy it is to forget just how blessed we are as a nation.  We have our problems, certainly, but I hope people don't forget just how valuable our liberty is.  With all the bickering that goes on and on... and on, I hope people are able to step back, take a deep breath, and say to themselves, "Wow.  I've got it made!"

But I didn't come here to make a speech.  I just thought, with it being the fourth and all, it would be dumb to not acknowledge it.

Anyway, this is a garden blog, so let's get to the garden!

A few highlights, which I don't think I've mentioned, but I'm not sure because it's been a while, and also my memory sucks, as does this run on sentence...  what was I saying?  Oh, yes.  Highlights.

-Broccoli got black rot, but we did get a harvest.  They are done now.  I pulled two, and Lasty will soon follow.
-The peas have produced a surprise second harvest!  I've been pretty happy about it.
-I'm going to harvest my second zucchini today.  I'm pretty happy about that too.
-Something weird is going on with the squash.
-New squash plants are coming up in the flower bed.
-Kale and chard seedlings are leggy.  Lesson learned.
-Onions are gone.
-Wildflowers are beginning to bloom.
-Herbs are out of control.

Now for some pictures, and perhaps further details.  Let's face it, that's what we're really here for.

I like to think of this as The Squash Boat.  It's being piloted by Captain Green Bean.

It might just be me, but it seems like the blossoms are taking forever to develop.  Not sure what's going on there.  I know that I have never grown this kind of summer squash before, so maybe it is not an early producer.

This is the questionable looking spot on my zucchini plant.  I cut it off.  Not sure what it is, but I don't like the look of it.  There were a couple of questionable spots on the crookneck plant as well, and those leaves went away also.

Soon to be good eats.

Another female bloom.  I don't know if they can be pollinated by winter squash, but I had a male spaghetti squash plant that also bloomed this morning, so I hand pollinated to see what would happen.

The chard that wouldn't die.  I keep expecting it to just stop growing back, but it's very tenacious.  You'd think it was a weed.

Flowers.  My pretties.

These wildflowers are about to bloom.  They look pretty ridiculous in this shallow planter.

Spaghetti squash seems to be hanging in there.  Cool!  It's been blooming for several days now.  I don't know what the female stems will look like.  It's all males so far.

Wildflowers are blooming!  This makes me happy.

Pretty.

The cilantro bloomed, and it was super tall, so I moved it down to the patio to give the oregano some space.

The peas are looking pretty sad.

But they never give up, apparently.

Look how many!

The kale keeps coming back, too.  Kale and chard are my new easy favorites.

I'm going to have to rearrange the herbs, they are getting too crowded.  You can see where my seedling cups are.  They got leggy inside.  I didn't realize that was a risk of planing seeds indoors.  So, I can't bring myself to pull them.  If they survive, hooray; if not, I won't be shocked or devastated.

The mint is plotting against the sage.

Lavender.  In case you didn't know.  This is one of the old blooms.

One of the new blooms.

It rained for a couple of days.  Then I went outside and was like, "Whoa, someone planted magic basil beans in my yard!  I hope a giant doesn't come down and squash my planters!"

Something really likes this green bean plant.  It is a different variety than the other two.  The other two are for the most part being left alone.  Interesting.

One of the "Other Two."

Did I mention they're blooming?

Pretty.

So, funny story.  I went out to snap a photo of the dead broccoli.  The ones I pulled.  And I took a closer look, thinking, "What is that up there?  Is that what I think it is?"

"It is!"  And then I laughed my butt off.  I cannot believe that my dead, pulled broccoli plant actually grew a side shoot during its death throes.  Hilarious.

New summer squash.  This time I planted them in alphabetical order so that I would know for sure what they are.  So, from near to far, we have crookneck, pattypan, and zucchini.  If there is something killing my other summer squash plants, at least I get a second chance with succession planting.

Almost done, I promise.  Strawberry plants.  I think with the pruning and babying, they are starting to get established.  The strawberries are pretty much done.  I'm not sure what variety these are, they were hand-me-downs.

Sage needs to be pruned, it's looking pretty raggedy.

And this is a picture to show what was killing the broccoli.  I cut the bad leaves off, and this is just now starting to take hold again, so it's not a very good example of what it was doing before.  But you can see the weird patches along the edges of the leaves.  Before, the patches were large and mottled brown and yellow, and spreading towards the center vein.  I later learned that this is known as a V pattern that is a classic identifier of black rot.  But we got broccoli out of it, so I'm happy!

And on that note, I am hungry, it's lunch time, and I have preparations to make for the evening festivities.  So, have a great fourth, everyone!

The end.