Tuesday, July 21, 2015

The rain was welcome, but not the heat.

We were to get a few scattered showers now and then over the weekend but ended up with over 1 1/2 inches of wet.  Just a few miles West of me they had large hailstones banging on cars and into the lakes.  At my house we were lucky and missed those since we just got t-showers with huge, fat raindrops instead.
Today its nice out, sunny with a breeze and only in the 70sF which I prefer.
I had my first tomatoes from the garden today, two Totem (patio tomatoes) that are growing in my Back40.  Very tasty and much enjoyed with lunch today.
I was happy to see my David Austin Rose, Fair Bianca, a stark white, blooming today.  Now if I can keep the Japanese beetles cut back to a minimum, I might enjoy this rose for several months.
The bees are very happy these days since the Raspberry Monarda is coming into bloom.  They are flitting from flower to flower gathering pollen.  My flower garden has many of these flowers which I'm happy to share.

At last I'm seeing blossoms on one of my cucumber plants, the Spacemaster, above. 
In checking on a couple of my bagged tomato plants, from which I am saving seeds this year, I am happy to report that little green tomatoes are already forming inside.  Above is one of the Red Zebra plants.
This above is the Li'l Pink tomato plant, also with greenies.
 
In the north we don't have a very long growing season, so like many others, I'm eager to see things harvested but still we have to wait a bit longer.  I've learned that its better to start tomato seeds that have an earlier maturity rate than most.  I can't be waiting for one that takes 90 days.  That would mean no tomatoes before nearly Labor Day, which is getting too close to frosty nights in our part of the continent.  Even those that mature in 70 days I would be cutting it close to blight season, that time of the year when the blight takes out so many tomatoes.
Luckily there are several varieties that mature in 56-70 days which makes it easier to garden for us northerners.
Happy Gardening!
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. Steve FinnellJuly 21, 2015 at 3:46 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJuly 28, 2015 at 7:30 AM

    I am going to try and grow some Monarda next year. I planned on doing it this year but I asked for the wrong thing and so they didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about, lol. I messed the name up, I cannot recall what it was that I asked for but I still can remember the puzzled look on the ladies face, lol. Did you know rasberries are a favorite of mine and so I really like that there is a Rasberry Monarda!

    I am curious as to why they call it that? Is it because of the color or is there a scent or maybe a combination of things? I can see that it may be named that for the coloring because from your picture it does look like a juicy raspberry color! How magnificent it would be if it smelled like them too!!

    Once when I was very small we went picking rasberries and I got left alone with them for well ....enough time to eat almost the entire BIG blue bowl they were in, lol. Amazingly I actually didn't get into trouble about it, for they couldn't even fathom how a little itty bitty girl could eat all of them berries and still want more and let me tell yah it was a BIG bowl!

    Have a wonderful day!! :-)

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)