Garden Friday

 

Greetings and welcome to another edition of

Garden Friday!

We're sharing what's growing in our Piedmont Zone 7b garden.
 

 

With a couple of nice rainfalls,

our crops are moving forward.

Here, some melons begin to set fruit on the female flowers.

 

The okra in the straw bale definitely doubled in size this week.

We have more seedlings to add to other bales.

This is the Clemson Spineless,

but we will be transplanting a few of the Bradford Family variety.

 

The bees managed to stay hydrated this week,

and found our new chook waterers helpful.

 

Our largest pumpkin plant is now flowering

and looking very healthy.

No babies found yet on the flowers,

but it should happen soon.

 

The Jacob's Cattle beans are filling out nicely.

They are also called Appaloosa beans,

as they resemble the pattern on those beautiful steeds.

The goal is to have dry beans,

so these will be left on the plant until they completely dry out.

 

The mystery squash is probably the healthiest plant in the garden.

It decided to grow underneath one of the straw bales,

and it looks like nothing will slow it down!

 

Cucumbers were spied on several plants,

so it looks like I'll be making refrigerator pickles

and cuke salads all summer long.

No complaints from me!

 

Our garlic was harvested last weekend.

The crop yielded about 80 heads,

but many were quite small.

It's drying or "curing" in the garage for another week.

 

My order has already been placed 

for garlic seed to plant in the fall.

Our harvest lasts us an entire year.

 

Once the garlic was pulled,

we were able to put in our sweet potato slips.

We grew these from organic sweet potatoes found at the grocery store.

It looks like someone discovered how good the leaves are,

as several plants disappeared the day after they were planted.

 One of the areas around the two south raised beds

was providing me with too much work in the way

of weed management.

It seemed like a good time to put down

these huge cardboard boxes to suppress all that nonsense.

Wood chips will be added on top.

 

Summer is right around the corner,

and the sunflowers tell the story!

Our pollinator bed is filling in with 

all sorts of beauties.

 

One of my momma's favorite flowers were glads.

This and several others were planted here before we came.

It's almost like Mimi was waiting for us.

vitex

The vitex is starting to bloom 

and the bees are all over it!

There is also a mockingbird nest in its branches.

We are blessed with so much nature around us.

What's happening in your garden?