It was a rainy weekend

" Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball. So we sat in the house and did nothing at all..."

It was really wet all week here but not so cold. On Saturday we made it into Atlanta for a fun day at the zoo.

 It was a perfect day for an outing and the family had a wonderful time. The weather couldn't have been better. It was kind of overcast and not too warm.

There was a petting zoo and a wonderful little playground full of kids for the boys to play with. The carousel was a hit as was the train around the little train around the park. And of course they enjoyed seeing all the wonderful animals that the zoo had to show us. From tiny little parakeets to giant tortoises and all the primates and meerkats and reptiles one could hope to see in a day.

Sunday there was more rain, but not before we were able to harvest our carrots. As sad as the germination rate in the carrot patch was, we were still able to harvest a couple of pounds of carrots. I am hopeful that the fall planting will be even better.

This week there has been a lot of growing in the garden. The zucchini have started coming in; I have picked three already. The basil  is finally ready to start picking, although it will be another week or so before there will be enough basil for fresh pesto.
The first round of cilantro has been picked. I will be interested to see how many rounds of cilantro I will be able to pick before it bolts. The tomatoes are looking okay, not great though. The cherries are doing fine and the beefsteaks are not too bad off. There has been some dying off of the leaves but I don't expect it to be a problem. I believe some die off is normal. The romas are the ones I worry about. I have completely lost one plant and at least two more are looking like they might not survive. Also Something seems to be killing my yellow squash. They have all shriveled up and died. It almost looks like blossom end rot but not black like I am used to seeing.  I will certainly look into it to see what may be the problem.
Over the weekend I was able to start some endive seeds and I hope to start some more squash seeds to replace any that may die off. I have in the past lost all of my squash plants about midway through the season to what I believe is the squash vine borer. This year I hope to be prepared for that. Typically squash plants do not fair that well when transplanted from seedlings but I don't know what options I have at this point. Ideally I would have enough space in the garden to direct seed some new squashes in an existing bed, but space being somewhat limited I want to have some plants ready to go into the existing spots if they are needed.

 I was able to weed the okra and watermelon bed over the weekend, but I didn't bother with the lettuce. Since the lettuce has started to bolt I will just let it go to seed and see if I can get any seeds for next year out of them.

 My grapevines are really exploding. This is a giant tangled mess; a result I am sure of the lack of winter pruning. I will definitely take care and prune this winter.

Grapes

 This is Oliver's patch of garden. He was a little late in planting but everything sprouted almost instantly. There are zinnias and marigolds that he started in class and at the seed swap respectively. Bean stalks are at the top and watermelon to the right. The beans are butter-beans.

 The First bloom of my zinnia patch is starting to open up. I do enjoy fresh cut flowers.

 the cucumbers are taking their sweet time getting going. I have never grown cucumbers before so this may very well  be completely normal.

 I have been very pleased with the growth of the potato patch in the foreground. they are just about done with their growing and soon I will be able to harvest them. The sunflower patch in the back has gotten about as tall as I am but there are still no blooms on it. I thought for sure this would be the week that they would have begun to appear. Oh-well maybe next week.

 My tomatoes are coming along nicely. The beefsteak tomatoes are needing to be tied up up the fencing again. I think next year I will try to make tomato cages for these guys as well. All the other tomatoes are growing up without as much fuss as these guys.

 Here are my roma tomatoes. You can see the tomato plant that I lost is in the first tomato cage. I am guessing it was some kind of fungal blight or something which means that this bed will be off limits for tomato plants for a few years.

 The peppers here are not growing too quickly. I am not sure if I planted all sweet peppers or if there are some poblano peppers in there as well. I am hopeful that there are both kinds of peppers in there.

The Mayor

 The green beans are ready to be picked. I was able to pick enough over the weekend for a nice side of sauteed green beans. There are sweet pie pumpkins sharing the bed with the green beans and I am sure that they will enjoy the space once the green beans are gone.

Roma Tomatoes

I am so glad the basil is almost ready. I hope to have tons of pesto by the end of the season. It has always been my families favorite of all the garden goodies. In the background you can see what looks like a bean tee-pee but is in fact a support for the birdhouse gourd plants that I am trying to grow this year. I received the seeds from the seed swap earlier this year.

Lettuce Bolting

 Alfie just adores the chickens and never misses out on the chance to toss them a little food or collect the eggs.

 The hops are doing great. I divided them this year and being new at this I wasn't sure if they would survive. I was quite pleased that not only did these plants thrive, but the plants that I divided out also did very well.

Beefsteak Tomatoes