My New Best Friend is a Hoe!

I know it seems a bit out there - but it's true! My new best friend is a hoe - as in garden tool - as in "I can weed without breaking my back!" Love this baby! I read about the Circle Hoe last summer and thought it was probably a nice tool to have, but not to the tune of $30. That was before I hurt my back, and had weeds up to my eyebrows. This simple gadget has one small flattened area that is sharpened. The rest is dull edged - so only the sharp part digs in under the weeds and everything around it goes unharmed. And it's more of a pulling exercise than hacking, so it's easier on me too. I am thrilled as are my Okra plants, who no longer share their bed with a tangle of weeds.
So, while we're speaking of Okra, have a look at the Burgundy. Isn't that color awesome? It adds eye appeal to my veggie garden, not only with color, but with the blooms, which when unfurled remind me of Hibiscus. This bud hasn't opened yet and has an almost reptilian look to it!My Tomatillos are heavy with husks! I love these - but cannot for the life of me figure out what to do about the insects (or worms?) that eat a whole in each and EVERY one! I can't find anything on the internet about it. This happened last year and I hoped that was a fluke...but no, here we go again. Guess its time to give the Missouri Extension a call.
And to finish up for tonight, have a peek at my lush and laden Marconi Pepper plant. I have very few peppers this year - only 2 plants are really producing so far. I'm determined to wait to pluck any of these beauties until they ripen to a nice rich red - so delicious!

Whispering sweet nothings

Looks as though the morning glory is sharing some juicy secret with the sunflower, doesn't it? The brilliant golden yellow and purple-tinged blue are striking together.

This view from across the garden shows not only the jungle that has sprung up with all the heat and rain, but the mass of morning glories that cover the cellar alongside the bobbing heads of the sunflowers.

Here a tomatillo has burst from its husk...many of these have burst out before the husk ever lightens in color or turns papery. Is there something wrong, or is it because of the nature of this variety? Either way, the fruits are small and waxy coated. The flavor is best described by my step-daughter who says tomato crossed with green apple comes to mind.

I love the okra! Especially the deep magenta stalk and branches of the Burgundy Okra. They are huge plants so I need to create a new bed just for them next year. I have this one and 2 green varieties, but we just aren't getting enough production to suit us, so hopefully next year I can have between 8-12 of them.

New Cast Members

I'm always trying to grow something new. Thanks to a generous valentine gift from hubby, I got to order tons of new-to-me seeds from Baker Creek this year. Meet some of the new characters growing here this year...

Painted Mountain Corn - my family struggles with blood sugar issues, so high-carb goodies like sweet corn are off the table. But growing pretty colored corn for fall decorating is do-able so I selected this variety, even though it is advertised as a "flour" corn.





Lemon squash seems to me to be nearly identical to any other yellow summer squash in flavor, it just has this fun lemon-like form. I have 2 of these in the garden, one full and healthy, but the other wilted. I couldn't ever find signs of vine borers, so I can't say for sure what happened. I feared it just wasn't getting enough water so I watered it well, mulched it heavily, and watered then watered some more. It continued to die a bit more each day for about a week - until the last few days - now it seems the few unaffected vines are growing new leaves! Keeping my fingers crossed it pulls out of it.

Hollyhocks and wild strawberries...odd combination but I'm proud that I started both from seed! The bed these are in have a mixed and unplanned variety of plants, including marigolds, petunias, sweet william, coleus and calendula. The hollyhocks won't flower for another year, and I doubt the strawberries set fruit until then.



I want to make salsa, with the majority of ingredients coming fresh from my garden. So, this year I added 2 varieties of tomatillos to my plant list. I love the paper-lantern look! The verde variety has these husks growing in large numbers. The giant variety has only one husk on each of the 2 plants and the leaves are curled up....too much water? Anyway, the trick is to be sure I have enough peppers, onions, tomatoes, cilantro and tomatillos all at once. We'll see....

Garden Progress

Being gone for 6 days at this stage of the growing season, it becomes evident how quickly everything is moving along. The Painted Lady Runner beans I sowed next to the cellar were up and starting to send out runners when we left. Now they have vined up the trellis as much as 5 ft. and have these beautiful red and white blooms.

The broccoli and cauliflower leaves have gotten huge and there will be broccoli for supper in just a couple more days.

I've never grown Tomatillos before. The blooms are small and yellow like a tomato, but shaped differently and more deeply yellow. And the leaves are riddled with holes that the tomatoes don't have. I'm thinking flea beetles may be the culprits. I can hardly wait to get fruits from these to use in making salsa. If I get good production I may need to search the internet for other ways to use them too.

Nearly daily rain plus high heat and humidity must be the reason the dill, cilantro and komatsuna have bolted. I hadn't even harvested any of the komatsuna yet! I have other plantings of both the dill and cilantro so I'll leave these to flower so I can save their seed. I think I'll harvest what I can of the komatsuna and then sow a new tub in a spot that gets lots of afternoon shade in hopes it won't bolt so quickly.



The summer squash I had transplanted into a new bed just before we left were all gone when I got home! Bunnies? Couldn't be sure, but since they were all chomped off at the base of the stem, I think it had to be something bigger than an insect. I'm going to try direct seeding these and then put some sort of bunny-safe contraption over them. The two "extra" lemon squash that I quickly plopped into a couple of bare spots in the enclosed raised bed (just wanted to get them into the soil before we left on vacation) haven't been touched!

And 4 or 5 of the tomato plants now have baby toms! This is the Pink Oxheart.