Tonight's Harvest, Cherry Tomatoes and a Looper

I picked up another 2.8 oz's today to bring my total harvest so far this season to 2.4 pounds.


I pulled another butterhead lettuce at 1.5 oz's. Leaf lettuce came in at 0.7 and four sugar snap pea's at 0.6 oz's. I didn't count the the two alpine strawberries.



While I was taking my nightly tour of the garden beds I saw three cherry tomatoes in bed 1. Looks like I'm getting a little pollination even with the low bee count.



On April 11th I found this female cabbage butterfly visiting my garden...



and on Sunday April 26th I found this guy in my container of red leaf lettuce...



Turns out this is a cabbage looper, the offspring of the cabbage butterfly. I found more than just the one in the container. I'll be keeping a close eye on everything now.


What I learned today... next time plant more sugar snap peas.

Watering Day

Now that most of the hard work is done I don't have a lot to do. I did get the compost turned on Saturday and I spent most of this morning watering and fertilizing everything.

After the watering I walked around the yard and took lots of photos. Ready for a tour?

Photo Below: The nectarine tree is doing very well this year. Last year I only had four . I'm way ahead of that this year.



Photo Below: Nectarine



Photo Below: Todays harvest.



Photo Below: Found this guy this morning while I was watering the red leaf lettuce.





Photo Below: The cherry tomatoes are getting so tall.



Photo Below: Cherry tomato blooms



Photo Below: Bush tomatoes.



Photo Below: I had two leftover bush tomato plants that I didn't have any room for so I planted it in my sisters yard this moring. One of the plants has a little tomato on it.



Photo Below: Bed 2.



Photo Below: Bed 2 english cucumbers.



Photo Below: Bed 2 baby cucumber.



Photo Below: Bed 2 watermelon.



Photo Below: Bed 2 corn.



Photo Below: Strawberry bed.



Photo Below: Potato bed 1



Photo Below: Potato bed 2



Photo Below: Sugar snap peas



Photo Below: Bed 3 spinach



Photo Below: Bed 3 bell peppers



Photo Below: Bed 3 mini cantelope.



Photo Below: Bed 3 pumpkin.



Photo Below: Bed 4 spinach.



Photo Below: Bed 4 mini spaghetti squash.



Photo Below: I did some hand pollenating since I don't have very many bees in the garden yet.



Photo Below: Bed 4 heirloom cutting lettuce.



Photo Below: Raspberries



Photos Below: Chives







Photo Below: Ladybug with no spots.



Photo Below: Bumble bee on raspberries.



Photo Below: Lemon blossoms.



The next few photos are of random flowers in the garden.













Photo Below: View from the livingroom.

Sunday April 19 2009

The only thing I didn't check off my to do list was turning the compost. It was just too hot!

I started my morning by picking some butterhead lettuce. I pulled three heads. One for my mom and the rest for us. This harvest weighed in at one pound!

Photo Below: Butterhead lettuce.



After pulling the lettuce I watered everything really well. We are having a mini heat wave with our day time temps in the upper 80's to low 90's. Sunday reached 90 degrees.



After the watering, installing the sun shades was next. I wanted to get them up before we had full sun in the yard. What a big difference it made in the temperature under the shades versus being in the sun.

Once the sun shades were put up and sweet husband was putting away the ladder he noticed a wasp nest under the top step of the ladder. It's a good thing the wasp wasn't in the nest when he got the ladder!





Now that the shades are up it's time for the fun stuff... getting the patio furniture out!

Photo Below: This photo was taken from in front of the garage...



Photo Below: View from the compost bin...



Photo Below: Taken behind bed 2 next to the corn...



Photo Below: This photo was taken from in front the the kitchen door.



It feels really good to get the yard all done. I don't have much more planting to do for the summer crops. Now it's all about maintaining... mostly watering and harvesting. With sqaure foot gardening/raised beds there is very little to no weeding. Now if I can keep most of the pests at bay I'll be in good shape.

Garden tour up next....

Photo Below: Bed 1



Photos Below: Bed 2



Corn is looking really good so far.



I know I have too many watermelons in this bed... but lets see how it goes. The cucumbers are growing like crazy.



Photo Below: Watermelon Bloom



I have cucumbers growing on four of my six plants. Each plant has a minimum of three.



Photo Below: Potato and strawberry beds.



Photos Below: Bed 3 That would be basil in the containers. I hope to plant them in the next week or two.



My pathetic looking spinach.



Photos Below: Bed 4



Photo Below: leaf lettuce



Photo Below: Bush beans and carrots



Photo Below: Spaghetti squash and zucchini



Photo Below: Spinach



Photo Below: Honey bee on raspberries.



Photo below: White angels trumpet



Inside bloom of angels trumpet



And last but not least my favorite seat in the garden...