By the time Garden Blog Death Day rolls around, I’ll have plenty to share. All the Roma tomatoes have ripened, not that there were all that many. The plants are just hanging around until I pull them out. Got some replacement stuff growing now, but it’ll be a few weeks until it’s ready to plant. I let the sickly zucchini expire, too, so that’ll be in the Death Day post.

The Heatwave tomato plants look awful, too, but they at least have a bunch of tomatoes ripening, if I can get them before the mockingbirds decide they’re ready to eat. The only thing that doesn’t seem bothered at all by the heat is the Lablab bean I planted. It just keeps growing taller, and has finally reached the top of the arbor thingy. Getting some side shoots now too, so maybe the arbor will finally start serving it’s intended purpose by the time I plant Round Two in early September.

The biggest thing I’ve accomplished is finishing the Excel seed-starting chart I got at I Wet My Plants.com. It was fine for Canada, but, boy, did it need a lot of work for South TX. Took me quite some time, and lots of tedium, to enter all my seeds, correlate the planting dates to the Texas Gardener magazine Planning Calender, and get it all set up for my area. Now, however, it is tailored to my garden, and it is really cool. Just print and plant…eliminates alot of the mind-breaking co-ordination two (well, really, 3) garden seasons requires.

That’s about it for now. Got dinner cooking and gotta get back to it…

As for the garden, just been keeping up with the routine chores. It’s been hot, so watering is critical, and been cleaning aphids off my peppers every other day. Been cleaning them off everything, actually, but they seem to really like the peppers.

Got a few more cukes coming along, one will probably be ready tomorrow, the other the next day, and more shortly thereafter. I did harvest an actual ripe Heatwave tomato, too, and more are starting to ripen. The Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes are a major disappointment. The tomatoes are tiny, and split every time we get a little rain shower. Admittedly, that’s all too rare, but still…

As soon as the few tomatoes left on the plants ripen, I’m pulling them out and replacing them with another variety of bush tomato I started a few days ago. They haven’t even sprouted yet, and won’t be ready for a while, but I’m hoping they’ll do better than the others.

And now a few pics of garden progress since my last post:

The Kentucky Wonder pole beans I planted to grow up the arbor thingy are finally doing so. The french filet pole beans are not doing well at all, and the bush beans are even worse. The Contender beans bit the dust a while ago. They look like they have some sort of disease, and something still keeps eating just the leaves. KY Wonder have some disease resistance, so that may be why they are doing better. I bought some bush beans that have good disease resistance, and have them germinating in paper towels at the moment. I’ll put them out soon as they sprout. The other ones will probably end up being my post for Garden Blogger’s Death Day this month.

As if keeping up with the watering, harvesting, and debugging weren’t enough, it’s already time to be planning my fall garden. I’m supposed to have planted tomato and pepper seeds to put out come late August for my fall garden. I did start the tomato seeds, but am undecided on the peppers. Mine are just now starting to blossom and fruit, and should last until frost, if we ever actually ever get one. Unless, of course, the aphids eat them before then! If I start more, I may have to pull producing plants; if I don’t and the aphids kill them I’m SOL. What would you do?

I have to be thinking about all the cool season crops, like lettuce, parsley, potatoes, etc, and still find room for the fall hot weather crops. Gonna be a tricky juggling act, for sure. Then there are all the perennials I want to start, too…and the herbs…Oy, giving myself a headache thinking about it!

That’s about all the garden news, so here’s a personal note…

Today is my middle daughter’s birthday, so Happy Birthday, Chrissy!

My son and his girlfriend were here from the Thursday before the 4th until yesterday. He’s moving back here, as he’s applying to a local police force. My brother-in-law’s son has a relation on his wife’s side who is already a cop there, and he says they really need people. So I guess Mike will be staying until he actually gets hired, goes to the police academy, and actually starts working. Be nice having him here; he’s my “baby” and I like having him around – most of the time!

Whew! Think that’s just about enough for this post. Didn’t start out to write a novel; hope you didn’t get too bored!

My shade arbor is done, SWCs filled and planted, including the pole bean seeds that are supposed to grow up the poles and shade my tomatoes.
Here’s a pic, even though you can’t see the baby plants in the SWCs.

The leftover part of the big blue SWC is planted with a sweet potato, while the blue SWC has two Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes. The white SWCs have Heatwave tomatoes, while the two SWCs in the back are watermelon and Kentucky Wonder pole beans. I put a couple gallon pots by the middle legs, on the outside, and put some pole bean seeds in those, too.

Oh yea, I put some more pins into the landscape fabric to hold it down better, too. The area will be mulched eventually, but before I can mulch I need some edging. If I just dump mulch, it’ll wander into the lawn instead of staying where it needs to be. Before I can do edging, I’d have to wet the ground, as it is so dry and hard it’s impossible to dig. In fact, in order to get the landscape pins into the ground, I had to poke a couple small holes in a gallon milk jug, fill it up, and let it drain. Then I could actually get the pins in the ground.

Ok, on to the tomatoes…one of the Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes actually has a blossom. I’m excited about that, even though I won’t be here to see it if it survives and turns into a tomato. Hubby will be happy, though. Here’s a pic:

I repotted an oregano and a sage plant, too, which I would have done at some point in the next week or so, but had to do it now. Don’t think they would have made it if I’d left them be until I get back.

Also had to put the cuttings from my SIL’s shrubs into yogurt cups; they rooted nicely in the Parks Biosponge thingy, except I used seed-starting mix instead. The sponge things don’t impress me at all.

While I’m thinking about it, remember when I told you I planted lettuce in a window-box under lights? Well, they are doing fine and growing well. I’ll post a pic if I have time before I leave.

This is it for now. Still got laundry and other stuff to do, and time keeps ticking away…

When I got home, I got started on my shade arbor, but it was miserable hot out there, as usual. I did decide where I want to put it permanently, got landscape fabric down, moved it, and fastened all the SWCs to the legs with tie wraps. It seems pretty sturdy, so maybe it’ll work.

Still have to get some wire fence over the top, to serve as the lattice support for the pole beans and whatever else I decide to grow. Hubby said he’d help me with that tomorrow. Could’ve done it tonight, but I suddenly realized I was very hungry and tired, so just called it quits about a half hour or so before I had to. I guess enough is enough.

I also got the squares in the garden bed amended, watered, and turned the soil over. Had to really soak the dirt, as it was dry as a bone. I don’t water unplanted dirt, naturally, so had to do a thorough soak. Was going to plant the peppers tonight, but the dirt was still too wet, so I guess I’ll transplant them tomorrow night. If I do it during the day, the poor things will fry.

Tomorrow I plan to fill the SWC’s and plant them, as well as sow the pole bean seeds. Hopefully they’ll survive and start climbing with Hubby’s help. Pics tomorrow, too, I hope.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far. I’ll post again, probably tomorrow, after it’s finished.