Bed 4 - Strawberries - Greenhouse

I finished installing the water line in bed 4 today. I just need to add the drip lines once I know what I'm going to plant in this bed. I still need to install the water line in bed 3. That one will take some thought as the water source is about two feet from the bed unlike beds 2 and 4 which were right next to the beds.

Bed 4

 I transplanted some of my strawberries into the 2x3 foot bed next to the kitchen and covered them with bird netting to keep the squirrels and mice out.

New Strawberry Bed

We were able to get the second greenhouse setup right before the next rain storm hit this afternoon.

Greenhouse

Sweet Husband built two sets of shelves for me while I was working on bed 4. All I need to do now is setup the lights and I will be ready to start my seeds.

Inside second greenhouse

Tomorrow I hope to get bed 3 done and install the lights in the greenhouse.

Thursday's Harvest

Just a quick post on today's Harvest.

Bush Beans 4.0 oz This is the first picking of the season.
Raspberries 5.4 oz
Strawberries 4.6 oz
Zucchini 15.3 oz I let one of them grow just a little to big.

I have been playing around with Google Doc's and posted my 2010 harvest spreadsheet. In the left sidebar where you see "2010 Harvest" Click on the photo for my harvest details.

Harvest

When I returned home from a girls weekend away the first thing I did was check on the garden. Sweet Husband took very good care of it while I was away.

Photo below: On Sunday I was able to harvest 1 small head green broccoli, a little bit of purple broccoli, 1 yellow squash, a hand full of strawberries and 1 zucchini. Totaling just over 11 oz's



Today was all about the greens. A basket full of spinach weighing in at 8.5 oz's and the rest of the arugula weighing in at 3.5 oz's

I planted some lettuce and carrot seeds when I got home from work today to take advantage of the rain we will have this week. Now if I can just keep the squirrels from digging up the seeds. I was thinking of hanging a bird feeder in the tree they climb down to get into my yard as a deterrent since nothing else seems to be working. Maybe I can fill them up with seeds so they won't need to look for food in my beds. At this point I'm welling to try just about anything.

A Sick Tree and This Weeks Harvest

Welcome dirtdigger. Thanks for following my blog!

Tuesday 1:30 P.M. I get a call at work from my son... "Mom, we have a problem"....

1:06 P.M. 1/3 of the magnolia tree in the front yard came down with no warning.



Thank God no one was hurt.
It seems the tree had been rotting for some time.



The rest of the tree will need to come down. I hope it doesn't fall before it's taken out!

~Garden News~

Photo Below: June 10 Harvest



June 10
Cucumber 9.6 oz
Cherry Tomatoes 0.7 oz
Pole Beans 0.7 oz
Bush Beans 2.2 oz
Strawberries 1.7 oz
Raspberries 3.1 oz

June 11 (not pictured)
Strawberries 0.3 oz
Butterhead Lettuce 3.7 oz
Leaf Lettuce 4.7 oz
Baby Cucumber 4.9 oz

Photo Below: Todays harvest and dinner. It feels so good to be able to walk into the yard and pick your dinner.



June 13
Strawberries (1 berry) 0.4 oz
Bush Beans 1.7 oz
Pole Beans 1.8 oz
Cucumber 7.8 oz
Potatoes 7.3 oz
Garlic 0.5 oz
Basil 0.2 oz

In my last post I had said the bell peppers and the watermelons didn't seem to be doing much of anything. Well while I was watering and feeding everything this morning I noticed 2 watermelons that seem to be putting on some size and most if not all of the bell pepper plants now have at least one pepper on them. I'll take some photos this week.

I posted this photo in my last post and asked if anyone knew what it is. Well Jenn over at Gamine's Garden came through for me. The photo below is Bird's Nest Fungi. Thanks Jenn!



"A member of the Nidulariales. Each of the "nests" is barely large enough to hold a BB. The little black "eggs" in the "nests" (the eggs are technically called "peridioles") are at first covered by white membranes, but at maturity the membranes rupture, exposing the eggs to open air. Then raindrops splash the eggs out of the nest. These eggs contain spores which will germinate and form new fungal bodies. Bird's Nests are not particularly rare or exotic."
This fungi feeds on bark causing it to break down and puts nutrients back into the soil.

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.