Rainy and Cloudy Days

Finally!

After all those funny dances in my backyard.... And the neighbors looking at me like I'm a crazy woman... (No, not really. But isn't that a funny image?)

The clouds have been angry, the sky cried, and the thunder rumbled. The earth was blessed by the wet rain drops, and my plants drank it all up.

IT RAINED!

(And of course, I have to take a zillion photos! Hehe!)





I have not been so excited for rain in such a long time. I did rain once last week (and I think it rained when I was on vacation), but for two days in a row, the rain has come and I've noticed! This means, no watering on my part. No need to get out and facing the nasty bugs that love to bite on my legs and crawl all over my arms and take my sweet blood. (Mosquitoes are getting quite a problem in my neck of the woods...)

My plants don't have a problem with all the rain. They are loving it up! Especially the melons. I'm still waiting for the day when I can pick those sweet watermelons and Freddie....

And by the way, Freddie has a new sister. More on her, next week. I shall call her Betty. I hope she survives her childhood diseases and grows up big and strong!

Now to show you what one of the cucumbers looks like, once you cut it open:

The seeds are a little larger, but not any larger than the ones I tend to buy at the grocery store. And you can taste the freshness of it. So yummy and delicious. And remember those five, long cucumbers I had last week? ALL GONE! I never had a chance to pickle it. My family eats those like they are candy.

My father says that the plants are not producing enough for us, and we have about eight cucumber plants, and all are producing pretty regularly. Isn't that crazy? Maybe next year, we'll plant two beds full of cucumber plants... So you think 14 will be enough to satisfy the cucumber-crazed family?

Zucchini Surprise and A Solution to the Drought

Well I had a surprise waiting for me when I arrived at Cam's house today. I've been so preoccupied with the garden at my parents' house, and the past week has been especially busy for me, full of birthday parties and a big project I've been working on. I neglected to check on my SFG... To my shock, I found a nice size zucchini had grown out from one of the flowers!

It's not a full size one, but it's a good start. This zucchini had grown from a flower that seemed to never bloom. Each time I checked on it, the flower was closed up. It never opened. I was distraught and thought it was a male flower. But tada.... I was wrong!

Below: First zucchini of the year!

This zucchini plant is the largest in the garden. It was the first one to be planted and has been growing much better than the others. It's located in SFG Box #1 near the tomatoes and carrots. Unlike the other zucchinis, this one never succumbed to horrible disease (the splitting of the stems). I'm so excited... Just think, in a few weeks, I'll be able to harvest this squash and taste it!

Below: Let's not forget Luka, who enjoys hiding in the foliage near the zucchini! She's getting so big. *sighs* Soon she'll no longer be a kitten.

From the looks of the carrots (next to the zucchini), they should be ready to be picked in a month or so. They are just filling up that square. They are growing so slowly though. This might be due to a watering problem--or lack of water--that I've encountered.

Although Cam and I will most likely get married next year, I'm still living in Nashville. So I don't get to come over to visit my SFG as much as I would like. Cam is the one responsible for watering my plants each morning and afternoon. (He is also the financer of my garden project.) Unfortunately, his work has been taking him away and my poor plants have not been getting the amount of water they need to thrive.

But we have solved the watering problem. Becuase the weather isn't cooperating. There was a little bit of rain last night, but light showers. It's been incredibly hot in middle Tennessee... lots of sun and very little rain.

Cam and I have set up a sprinker to water our plants in the mornings and afternoons. It's small, but it does water back and forth and all of the SFG boxes are getting covered with water. I think this will help with the drought problem that my plants are experiencing. Now, they will get their 1 inch of rain a week. Hopefully more.

Below: The new sprinker

Haircut and sinking deeper into the end… Plus a red bell pepper

I have to write more about the weather. It’s driving me bananas. It rained today . . . for about 30 seconds. And it wasn’t rain, it was sprinkles. Looking outside around lunch time, I saw hope of rain and cooler weather. Unfortunately, my hopes for my plants were dashed. The sun came out a few minutes later.

Funny how Tennessee weather is! I normally love sunny days and Tennessee summers, but ever since I took up gardening, I’m not such a fan of the hot, humid days. My long, black hair could not take all the heat. My head gets way too hot! So I decided to cut about 8 inches off! Now I have shoulder length hair.

(I'm not looking my best, and the lighting is horrible because we were inside a restaurant.)

Enough of my random musings! Thanks to everyone who pointed out that peas are a cool weather vegetable. I probably should have researched that before I decided to plant it. But I’m an impatient gardener who loves to experiment. Sadly, the peas are doing worse today. They are one day away from death.

See for yourselves! (In the first picture, you'll see that I tried to add "plant food/fertilizer" to the soil, hoping it would make a difference.)

In happy news, my red bell pepper in the front is starting to turn red. It’s only palm-size, and I’ve decided that when it gets completely red, I’ll pick it and make one fajita!

Below: The bell pepper last week

Below: The bell pepper gets more color this week (you can see my shadow looming over it)

Even if this year’s crop is a bust, I’ll still have good memories of crisp lettuce and palm-sized bell peppers to remember. Plus, I also harvested spinach a few times. But unfortunately, we waited too long and the plant flowered and then died. Maybe next year we’ll have better luck.