From the back porch - 6/19/18

Ahhhhhhhh...porch sittin'.  Nothin' like it. 

We've been gone for a few days - took a trip to east Tennessee to pick up our camper (which you could read about here ( http://susanshappytrails.blogspot.com ), if you're interested).  Things had changed when we got back home. 

For one thing, it's suddenly BLAZING HOT, pretty near too hot to sit out here until it's plumb dark, and even then the air is sticky and thick. 

For another, my daylilies and phlox and bee balm have begun to bloom.  Last fall, I divided some of the daylilies and scattered them around the yard.  They are showing out this year.

My "yard tomato" - one I planted in a bucket in the back yard - was lush and beautiful and had a golf-ball-sized tomato on it when we left.  When we got back, it was a skeleton, thanks to the four cigar-sized tomato worms I found on it.  They'd also eaten the bottom out of the one tomato.  :(  I put on some gloves, pulled the worms off, and drowned them in a bucket, for they were far too big and juicy to stomp, and instant death was too good for them.  I hope the plant recovers.

Last Sunday morning before we left, I planted 12 hills of yellow squash seeds, and they're all up, which is something of a miracle since the seeds were about 3 years old.  Nanny said that we got a big rain on Tuesday; I guess the warmth and moisture reconstituted whatever spark of life remained in those old seeds.  Amazing.  Now I need to dig through the seed bucket for some okra.  It should have been in the ground for a month, already, but my stash of "'round tu-its" has been scarce.

The cucumbers and green beans are growing like crazy.  Tomatoes are looking good, so far.  The butterbeans continue to be contrary; only half of the seeds sprouted, and they were fresh seeds!





 

Beans and cucumbers up! 6//5/2018

We've got a good stand of green beans - looks like every seed we planted came up.  Ditto for the cucumbers.

The butterbeans . . . well, they're being persnickety, as usual.  Yesterday, it looked like about every other seed came up.  I'm going to give the laggers a couple more days, then I'm going to replant the skips.

Still haven't planted the squash.  It's just been too stinkin' wet. 

The tomatoes are looking good.  I need to spray them again, for blight.  I also need to get the hay and the compost from my yard to the garden, but that's been a problem. 

And if I don't get all that stuff done before the weekend is over, it probably won't get done for two more weeks.