Stormflower

It's late September and many great garden moments have come and gone unblogged. While there's a backlog of a few of them captured on film which i hope to put up soon, for now all I offer is news that a tremendous haul of tomoatos and jalapenos has happened, and the prized sunflower actually turned into a hideous mangled and disgusting freak of a plant.

Here's a picture of one of the smaller, and more well proportioned beauties.

Mutiny from the GC

As some may already know there was an "incident" a couple weeks ago when I employed some family members, who will remain anonymous for their own protection, to water my plants while away on vacation for twelve days....lets just say their contract has been terminated.




Some of the members of the "GC" now rest in peace (aka worm compost)

Chlorophytum (aka spider)

Pilea (aka Artillery)

Another member was brought to her knees but with a little TLC and luck I may be able to rise her withered branches from the hungry critters inhabiting the compost who are already eyeing up their next meal......

 Myrocladus (aka west coast)

 Withered West Coast

I'd like to wrap up this post on a POSITIVE note as there was a significant development on team GC over the past 4 days. Upon the usual post midnight return from a long weekend away i routinely inspect the team before hitting the sack and especially my first production addition "Mr. Tomato Head". He is one thirsty beast and keeps me on my toes at the best of times. He was almost a victim of the above mentioned offence but survived with only a few losses. I didn't expect this after weeks of nurturing he seemed to be at home in the GC with all the other single hue members. Upon close inspection and to extreme joy he has left the GC and starting his own clan yet to be named. With 21 tomatoes in various sizes bursting from his tired branches 3 have made the transition to COLOR.

"It makes no sense at all, I saw red. I saw red. I saw red." quoted from our friends Sublime. It was an awe inspiring sight (well maybe not that crazy) that i could actually produce fruits from my labor which is sporadic at best with my schedule. Now i look forward to my first tomato salad (tomato head tomatoes, red onion, chives, xv olive oil, sea salt, white pepper and balsamic paste) grown on the patio and spare bedroom of my home. Look out 2012 as the garden blog has the sky as the limit.....Hawk

Double Complete Flower!

What does it mean?
It's a double complete flower!
Here's a unique speciman of a siamese zucchini flower. They are attached along the stems, with two flowers blooming. Much nicer to look at than their human counterparts.

This other double complete flower is a couple little guys from the rosemary plant.

The Squirrel is Stealing Zucchini Flowers!

The evil squirrel with the white spot on his tail is back again terrorizing the garden. This time he's got his eyes on the big and beautiful yellow zucchini flowers.

He's ripped off almost all of the flowers and now it looks like there are no zucchini's growing either.

Here's a little section of a timelpase video where I caught him in action:

Zucs and Cucs!

Splendid weather this past weekend and by that I mean it was terrible.  In between the rain I took a few pictures of the Zucchini and Cucumbers which are showing some life.  The flowers on the Zucchini are gorgeous when fully opened but I didn't manage to take this picture early enough in the morning to catch it.

Furry little Zuc

Only sign of life on the Cucumbers

Shortly after taking these shots I was joined by Mr. Kitty who spent the remainder of Sunday afternoon in this position.  Rough life, I just saw him basking in the final sun of the day in his other usual spot on the bedrock while I got a little bit of weeding done.

Summer Update

Most of the garden is taking off well. Here`s some baby beans just getting going.

Some sunflowers are getting really tall, but haven`t started to flower yet. Here`s a view of everything.

And 2 delicious strawberries about ready to eat. What a feast!

Mystery Plants!

One of the best parts of growing with compost in the soil is that your plants will get new friends that pop up from time to time. This sunflower has got a bunch of new mystery neighbors - little green sprouts that could really be from anything that ended up in the compost bin.

We pulled out one of the uninvited visitors and put her in her own pot. I think it's going to grow up into a cucumber.

This pot is a mini-ecosystem of mystery plants. Looks like a few tomatos and cucumbers.

Here's the full spread as of about June 14. The little pots in the bottom right are a mix of mystery plants and some poppies.

There has been one jalapeno plant that quickly met an early demise. The other three in the pot with him aren't looking so hot either.

The sunflower leaves have been hosting some sort of insect eggs. Here's an extreme close-up from just before they were washed off.