Category: Hobbies

Things I do for fun

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July Garden Progress

We got back from vacation a few days ago to a veritable explosion of roses. They’re a few days past their prime now, but I was surprised at how many of them there were. Time for a bit of pruning I think.

A rose bush full of blooming roses
Full of roses

The butternut squash plants are still growing and spilling out of the raised bed, but aren’t producing as many squashes as they were. I suppose as long as they’re still growing, I’ll leave them alone.

The jalapeno plants grew a ton over the last couple of weeks, and I spotted some pretty good size peppers on them.

I think the biggest grower over the past month has been the fig. There are two fig plants there and they’re kind of swamping the blackberries now. That’s a lot of progress from how they looked in late June. I’m thinking now that I might have put them a little too close to each other. Seemed like plenty of space when they were smaller.

Fig plants at the end of July
Fig plants in late June

There are figs too! They’re still pretty small, but it’s exciting to see them. They’re only on one plant though so far.

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First butternut squash harvest

This morning, I decided to harvest one of the first butternut squashes to start growing.

A butternut squash harvested from the garden, next to some bananas for scale.
First butternut squash harvested. Bananas for scale.

Might be a bit on the early side, but it looked pretty ready. It’s a pretty decent size and weight. This one came out on the oblong side and not very butternut squash shaped. The other ones still in the garden are much more butternut squashed shape, although on the skinnier side.

There are a few more that look like they might be ready for harvesting too, but I think I’ll leave them for a few more weeks.

Looking forward to seeing how this one has turned out.

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June garden update

The leaves on the butternut squashes have been thinning out and aren’t nearly as dense as they were a few weeks ago. It looks like a few of the butternut squashes will be ready to harvest soon too.

The jalapeno plants (pretty sure that’s what they are anyway) have sprouted a few flowers. Maybe I’ll be seeing some peppers growing in a month or two.

The rest of the garden seems to be doing fairly well. The raspberry plants are getting eaten up pretty badly by the Japanese beetles. The blueberries have stopped blueberrying, but the blackberry plants still have a bunch of clusters in various stages of ripening. The two fig plants put on a pretty big growth spurt over the past few weeks, but no signs of any fruiting. They seem green and happy though.

Looking forward to seeing how the butternut squashes turn out. I think the first ones should be ready to pick in a few more weeks.

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May garden progress

In the past month, the butternut squash plants have grown and are practically taking over the bed. I’ve actually had to trim them back a bit because it was starting to send stems out of the bed and into the lawn.

Butternut squash vines growing in a raised bed
Butternut squash vines growing in a raised bed
A butternut squash blossom

There are also a number of butternut squashes growing now!

A butternut squash resting on the ground
A butternut squash resting on the ground

Some latecomers to the bed are these plants, which I think are the jalapenos I planted. They’re in about the same area I threw some jalapeno seeds into the ground at any rate. I had given up on them every sprouting until I saw these sprout up a couple weeks ago. I’ll see in a while what they turn out to be.

Possibly some jalapenos growing in the raised bed
Possibly some jalapenos growing in the raised bed

The potato plants got off to a good start, but they’re looking pretty sad these days. One of the things I learned is that potatoes like acidic soil, so I think that could be part of the problem. I might pull the plug on the potato experiment and let the butternut squash take over the bed.

Sad looking potato plants

One of the blueberry bushes had a bunch of these small aphid-like bugs and egg sacs on one of the branches. I don’t know what they are, but they were interesting to watch. I ended up cutting the branch off and tossing it out.

Small red and black aphid-like bugs and egg sacs on a bush

Lots of blackberry clusters on the blackberry bush. I think it’ll be another week or two before they’re ready for harvesting. The one early bird blackberry I harvested was pretty tasty.

A few clusters of developing blackberries
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April garden progress

The potatoes are continuing to grow and expand, although one of them seems to have lost a couple stems worth of leaves for some reason. Overall it seems like they’re doing pretty well though.

Potato plants growing in a raised bed
Potato plants growing in a raised bed

The butternut squash plants have grown quite a bit and have a bunch more leaves now compared to the two little leaves they had a few weeks ago. Some of them seem to have sprouted a lot more leaves than the others.

Butternut squash plants
Butternut squash plants

One of the raspberry plants got really bushy and practically exploded with leaves. No flowers or proto-fruits yet, but it’s really be growing like gangbusters and sending out runners through its half of the bed.

Wildly growing raspberry plant

The blueberry and blackberry plants, on the other hand, have flowers and berries all over them. I think in a month or two, there will be lots of blueberries to sample.

Blackberry and fig plants
Blueberry plants
Pink lemonade blueberry plant

Meanwhile, on the nectarine tree, some of flower blossoms have turned into these little things that look like might become fruits. There was one on the tree last year, but it disappeared and I think it got knocked off during a storm or something.

Little potential fruits on the nectarine tree
Little potential fruits on the nectarine tree