Hello, everyone! I hope this post finds you well. I took photos for a garden update a few days ago, but I decided I would take a fresh batch on Sunday. Everything is growing quickly and doing very well for the most part.

We received 3/10 inch rain overnight and it was cloudy all day. These photos were taken from 1:27-1:34 PM. By early evening the sun was shining. There was more rain in the forecast a few days ago, but that has changed to sunny and 88-90° F through Friday. The intense sun causes the leaves to droop during the afternoon, but they perk back up once the sun goes behind the trees across the street. When the leaves don’t perk back up, I may have to water the next day (early evening). I don’t like to water when plants are in the sun, but I think that is just my preference. I have read the pros and cons of watering in the sun vs. early evening. Early morning could be better, but I am not an early riser…

The cluster of Elephant Garlic I planted a few years ago is spreading nicely. I really like it mainly for their flowers these days, but I do like using it in Italian cooking. I have A LOT in the flower bed on the south side of the house, so I will be saving some of the heads.

The row of tomatoes is in the same row as the garlic and the asparagus is at the end…

The tomatoes are doing GREAT for the most part. There are a couple that are kind of spindly for some reason. They are blooming up a storm and there are a few small tomatoes. Several years ago I read that tomatoes like growing in the same place year after year so that is what I have done. I think in 2014 I put them in a different area and they didn’t do so well. I was watching a video from Hoss Tools (they have A LOT of videos about gardening on YouTube) and he recommends changing locations because of soil-born diseases that affect tomatoes. I haven’t had any issues with diseases, so until I do I will keep putting them in the same location. Hoss is in a southern state and prefers growing determinate varieties over indeterminate varieties because they seem to provide better leaf coverage which prevents sun-scald. I remember when I grew tomatoes in Mississippi the flowers would fall off when it became very hot, then set flowers again once temps a little. That was frustrating because I would wind up with a lot of green tomatoes at the end of the season. My neighbor, who was also a gardener, put the green tomatoes in paper bags in a cooler where they would ripen. I set a lot of them on windowsills and they would ripen but they didn’t have much flavor…

I kind of screwed up when I planted the green beans which won’t happen again… I plant the sweet corn 36″ apart and normally do the same with green beans. For some reason I decided 30″ was enough between the green beans. I can barely get the tiller between the rows… That’s not really a big problem since once the garden has been tilled a few times the weeds and grass kind of stop growing between the rows. That is especially true this year with the lack of rain. If you look at the second group of beans in the back half of the garden, you can see a whacky problem… It isn’t really a problem but tilling took a bit of maneuvering.

The ‘Contender’ green beans are shorter and the flowers are growing under the leaves for the most part. The plants are still growing as well, so I will have to hunt for beans when I pick them.

The ‘Tendergreen’ plants are taller and still growing. Soon, all the green beans will fill the gaps between the rows. At least that’s what usually happens with ‘Top Crop… As the plants continue to grow, the vines get heavy with beans, and the wind blows, harvesting can become interesting…

So, looking at the second half of the garden you can see the fourth row of sweet corn (from left to right) matches up between the rows of green beans… I planted the second planting of corn 36″ apart, as usual, but they don’t line up with the green beans which are 30″ apart. Plus, I planted the greens beans from right to left, while the sweet corn was planted from left to right. Maybe I should say east to west and west to east… I noticed this when I was planting the corn but I couldn’t very well do anything about it. I pointed that out to my son when he was here and he said no one will notice but you. Hmmm… Anyone who sees it could tell something is off. Maybe they think I did it on purpose. Normally, everything I do is straight or level, so this is way off for me.

The ‘Tendergreen’ produces these “runners” above the plants where the flowers are produced. This should prove interesting making me wonder how many flowers will fall off in the breeze and rain (or watering). Heat will cause a lot of flowers to abort anyway. I am quite sure there will be plenty…

The ‘Sugar Baby’ watermelons are coming along but they are quite small. I need to how between the hills…

The package of watermelon seeds says to sow a “few seeds” over a hill 9-12″ tall and 2′ across. When plants are 3″ tall, thin to cutting to 3 plants per hill… Hmmm…  I’ll admit I haven’t planted many watermelons. I think I did get planting the seeds 1/2″ deep right. 9-12″ tall hills?!?!

In my opinion, this planting of ‘Ambrosia’ has been a little weird. The seeds were planted at the same time as ‘Incredible’ but they haven’t grown as well. Maybe they need more fertilizer…

The taller plants of both varieties are starting to tassel and…

The ears are starting to develop. Since most of the corn came up a week (or so) late because of lack of moisture, I may have to do some hand-pollinating.

Here you can see the ‘Incredible’ looks much better. The ‘Ambrosia’ and ‘Incredible’ need to be hilled up and de-suckered again. I should write a post about that… Sweet corn needs to be hilled up especially if you have nice loose soil…

One of the stalks of ‘Incredible’ has striped leaves. I noticed several when I thinned the ‘Silver Queen’.

That’s the way it should look! It rained the day after the ‘Silver Queen’ was planted, so germination was perfect and the corn emerged evenly.

Double oops! The ‘Provider’ green beans… They came up just fine and are doing GREAT. You know, when you look down the middle of two rows it looks like the plants are smaller at the end and the row becomes narrower. It is the same when you look at a street with a row of buildings on both sides of the street. It is a matter of perspective… In this case, the two rows are definitely closer toward the end because that’s the way I had to plant them. Somewhere, somehow, a row was planted crooked… I couldn’t even get the tiller all the way through. I had to back it down as far as I could go then till forward. Now I have to hoe 6-8′. Once the beans grow and fill it will look normal. These beans need hilled…

I almost forgot about the eggplant! The two eggplants have grown A LOT in the past week. This one has a flower…

I noticed a peanut hull in the garden this past week I thought was really strange. Half of the hull was in front of the green beans and the other half was between the tomatoes and the fence. Where in the heck it came from is a mystery… There were also rabbit tracks along the west side of the garden. I haven’t seen a rabbit here since last year. Rabbits don’t last long around here because of the foxes, hawks, and cats.

There’s always something to do in the garden every day. I am behind on re-potting the Alocasia, and I promised some of the succulents I would re-pot them as well. A weird thing happened with one of the Amorphophallus… One was starting to emerge and not the other when they usually emerge at the same time. I stuck my finger in the pot and didn’t feel anything, plus the Oxalis in the same pot weren’t coming up either… So, I decided to check out why.

I found the Amorphophallus and Oxalis rhizomes at the bottom of the pot like it had been knocked over and someone just tossed the dirt and everything in. The Amorphophallus had roots and it had sprouted… UPSIDEDOWN!

Well, that’s it for this post. Until next time, be safe, stay positive, always be thankful, and GET DIRTY!