Everyday I wake up and can't wait to go outside.

Flowers around here seem to understand the color wheel.

Beets, beets, beets.

I kinds wanna roll in the lettuce.

 
                                     

Tee-peas! (for the peas)

Every evening the sun slips away too fast.

The Sunshine Garden: Missouri Chapter

The Sunshine Garden has packed up and moved to the Midwest. My first crops have been fairly successful with the exception being peas. Somethings eating them. One of the biggest differences so far is that you don't HAVE to amend the soil, though I wouldn't mind a little mulch to keep the weeds down. Mostly watering isn't necessary, and you can't plant if the soil is too wet (which is often the case), and the weeds grow really fast!

Tomatoes Etc.

Pretty much what we are getting daily, although today we got twice that many cherry tomatoes.

Squash plant barely two weeks old.

Cherry tomatoes still wet from a good hard rain last night.

My favorite, Green Zebra tomatoes.

Tomatillos look like little green Chinese laterns to me.

The difference between ripe and unripe Green Zebras.

This should be a "How many tomatoes can you find?" game.

My first lima bean flower ever :)

Fennel Flowers

My slightly sad basil plot. I still have hope, but something ate all but one of the sweet basil plants right when they came up. The others are lemon basil.

Sunflowers

I am so happy with the sunflowers this year. This time I planted them close together, and in the garden. I didn't want to have to water in a bunch of different places, and they seem to do better when they can lean on each other. It is a nice mix of multi-colored, mammoth, and Primrose. I picked the Primrose for the name, because it is what my Grandpa calls his farm. At first I was not happy with the pale yellow color, but they have become a nice contrast to the darker yellow and orange sunflowers coming in now.

First Tomatoes

Slowly starting to get our first tomatoes. They have all been Chadwick Cherry so far, which are heavy producers. The next two days are supposed to be cooler and within the 75-90 degree range which is perfect for ripening tomatoes. Hotter weather inhibits the ripening process.

Summer Days, Summer Nights

Summer crops are doing much better than I'd dreamed. The tomatoes especially are nearly out of control. The late planting I did this year has had its obvious perks. I am not fighting squash bugs and aphids, and the late summer rains have freed me from nightly watering most of the time. I will have a traditional fall harvest, especially once the fall crops are in. I have never tried planting a fall crop before, but it would be foolish not to with our long growing season. The downside is that last year I had already harvested a significant amount of squash, pumpkins, beets, and carrots. This year I have only been able to enjoy greens and some herbs so far. So my focus is now on the distant harvest moon as I dream of the bounty to come.

The Year of the Tomato

Just got back to my garden after a two week visit to see my family in Missouri. Although, I hate to leave my garden, I love to see the amazing transformation that can happen in a small amount of time. Joseph did a great job keeping everything thriving and happy. I told him not to weed, and the wild ameranthus kept everything just shaded enough to not burn up in the intense New Mexico sun.

I first tried gardening, because I wanted to have my own flavorful tomatoes. There is nothing like it in the world. Grocery store tomatoes shouldn't even be considered the same thing. Unfortunately, I've never had much luck with them. Last year was my best year, and I only got about 40 tomatoes the whole season. I had a good feeling about this year, and I was right. It IS the year of the tomato. I left with some small, but healthy tomato plants (about 25) and was just hoping they would survive. I came home to 3 foot tall tomato plants with tons of flowers and a fair amount of baby tomatoes. The tomatillos are four feet tall, and on the verge of taking over. They will probably need to be cut back in the next couple of weeks.

Green beans, watermelon, and cantaloupes are all doing well, too. The only thing I am a little disappointed in is the cucumbers. They are small and shriveled. There's always next year!