Our tomato plants have enjoyed a couple of weeks of rain mixed with bright, warm sun. We expect our first cherry tomatoes any week now - we probably have 20 cherry tomato plants, in a few different varieties, as well as a few "big tomato" species.
One of the many varieties of peppers we've planted this year. We usually buy six-packs of started plants and grow way more than we can eat or even give away; this year we found a little discipline, bought the same variety of plants we like (habanero, jalapeno, cayenne, banana, pequin, I'm sure I'm forgetting some) and only used 1-2 of each plant. We didn't have our act together to give them away, so we let them die. The horror! Now we have far more different varieties fitting into a much smaller space!
Snap peas
Lavender
Blueberries!
In the blueberry barrel.
We have some first-year strawberry plants that are doing very well in a raised bed, but our second-year plants are not up to snuff - lots of small berries that come out resting on the ground and get picked apart by sowbugs before they can even ripen. We'd heard that strawberr plants do best in their second year (and should be replaced after that). Not sure what's happening to ours - but it makes me want to replace them every year!
We know the feeling, Mel! We used a couple of kinds of trellis netting - one that looks like cotton or nylon string and the other that is a plastic grid type of trellis netting - held up by bamboo stakes. The twine is actually just a bottom layer to help them get a “leg up” to reach the netting - which turned out to be unnecessary, as they send up very tall stiff vines before they start to droop!
We just got our soil amendments and I ordered (too many!) berry bushes! I’m so jealous of your blueberries.
I’m puzzled about the strawberries though...my mom has had some major strawberry beds for years, and she only add new ones maybe every 5 yrs or so. We are in a different zone from you guys though (frost day is only today here). I know my mom said something about pinching off some flowers if they get particularly zealous w/ their production, so they put energy into root systems ( and runners, which is how Mom gets new plants) and into a fewer really nice big berries.
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How are you supporting the snap peas? Twine? I desparately need to support mine ASAP as they just started falling over this morning!
We know the feeling, Mel! We used a couple of kinds of trellis netting - one that looks like cotton or nylon string and the other that is a plastic grid type of trellis netting - held up by bamboo stakes. The twine is actually just a bottom layer to help them get a “leg up” to reach the netting - which turned out to be unnecessary, as they send up very tall stiff vines before they start to droop!
We’ll get a photo of our setup up this weekend.
We just got our soil amendments and I ordered (too many!) berry bushes! I’m so jealous of your blueberries.
I’m puzzled about the strawberries though...my mom has had some major strawberry beds for years, and she only add new ones maybe every 5 yrs or so. We are in a different zone from you guys though (frost day is only today here). I know my mom said something about pinching off some flowers if they get particularly zealous w/ their production, so they put energy into root systems ( and runners, which is how Mom gets new plants) and into a fewer really nice big berries.