Fresh Strawberries, and a Squash Coveter

It's been a couple of glorious weeks weather-wise -- rain, then warmth.  I've been doing a lot of weeding and working in other parts of the yard, but the kitchen garden is doing incredibly well!

My mom and Aunt Mary stopped by today on their way from Aunt Mary's home near Columbus, OH, to my parents' place in Southern IL.  They picked and ate strawberries right off the plant, and took some fresh picked radishes with them.  Mom was eyeing the squash, and suggested I plan a trip down to their place that just happened to coincide with when the squash would be ready to harvest.  :-)

The strawberries look great, too:

The tomatoes will be blooming soon.  I broke down, and bought another tomato plant:  German Queen.  It's another heirloom.  Of course, a matter of days after I bought it, I noticed that one of the Polish Linguisa (paste) tomatoes had sprouted.  So.....I'll have Hungarian Hearts in honor of Brigitte's year as a Rotary Youth Exchange student, Polish Linguisa in honor of my son Erick's year in Poland (2011-2012), German Queen for my husband's German heritage.  Now I just have to find something Czech to plant for MY heritage (half Bohemian/Czech and basically half German).  HMMM.....

 Here's the German Queen!

 Hungarian Hearts are looking great.  Once they get to be about 3 feet tall, I'll take off some of the lower branches to reduce the risk of infection, etc., from the soil.

I'm also going to start adding crushed egg shells to the soil -- apparently that is good for slow calicium release which can reduce the chances of blossum end rot









Let's see.....what else is there to show you?  Lots of carrots, and it's about time to harvest the Tennis Ball buttercrunch lettuce -- it's starting to bolt.

While cleaning out the garage, I found this wooden composter I had forgotten I even had!  So I set it up.  It's already almost full of weeds, etc., that I've pulled -- it was overflowing 2 days ago, and the level is already down one entire board.  Amazing how quickly that happens!

The pole beans are starting to twine up the bean tower.  A couple of the cucumbers are starting to inch out onto their frame, and the watermelon is sending out tendrils which I'm guiding onto the flat grid I set up for them.

I have more baby radish seedlings, and now some turnip seedlings.  The Giant Caesar lettuce is coming along nicely, and the basil FINALLY decided to sprout.  The zinnias are budding, and I have marigolds, volunteer and intentionally planted, blooming all over the place.

Have a glorious weekend!  Next up for me is weedwacking the ditch!

Fresh-from-the-garden salad

There is NOTHING like a salad of fresh greens.  I've been enjoying them for a week now.

So today was a gorgeous day to work and we have a weekend of impending thunderstorms, so I worked outside for more than 5 hours today.  The garden looks great.  I finally decided the mystery plant is a weed -- if one's definition of weed is "anything which is growing in the wrong place." -- so I pulled it.

Pole Beans

The Giant Caesar lettuce I planted didn't sprout -- perhaps old seed -- so I replanted one square and planted an additional square of it -- I love the taste and texture of it.  The pole beans have sprouted, but I lost two of the cherry tomato plants.  I may just plant 2 more beans on that tower instead.

The surviving cherry tomatoes look great!

Speaking of tomatoes, I have my tomato tower and bed set up.  I need to add a layer of composted cow manure on top of the grass clippings, and I make a well of soil for each plant.  Since I took this picture, I have planted 3 "Hungarian Heart" heirloom tomato plants from Cook's Garden.  I will plant three "Pink Brandywine" plants, and I'm not sure what I'll put on the two remaining poles.




I also planted one blackberry and one raspberry plant.  And the strawberries are looking really good:





I planted a watermelon "Sugar Baby" plant.  It's a small, seedless watermelon.  I'm experimenting with something different with it.  I put up a something for the plant to grow on to and to support the melon.  I used the wire grids from an old compost bin, and lashed it onto a bamboo pole support.  In the background are a number of different types of iris, including Louisiana Bog Iris and flags, in my rain detention bed.

I also got the rest of the lawn mowed today, and  used the grass clippings to mulch around a lot of stuff.  I planted an azalea to replace a butterfly bush that didn't survive.  In fact none of my butterfly bushes made it through the winter -- I have two dwarf bushes I need to replace.

And....just because.....more pictures of the garden: