Spinach mustard seedlings after the first round of thinning. I’m keeping the competition open to see who will be strongest. Arugula, not thinned yet. It is the first of the salad greens to be planted. Lettuce gets to be sown in about two weeks. Carrots, not thinned yet either. Soon. Not a seedling, but my sweet dumpling squash has bounced back. One plant was on the verge of failure after the rest of its friends bit the dust, but it recovered. I planted a few more seeds and they are doing well. The spaghetti squash I replanted is also doing well (photo still of the sweet dumpling). I’m beginning to…

Ignore the old masking tape tags there…. I started taking cuttings of my African Blue Basil in hopes of containerizing it for the winter and replanting in the spring. The plant won’t take a freeze, as evidenced by the plant I bought last fall dying last winter, so I thought I’d help continue on this plant’s existence in our garden by rooting cuttings. Since this variety of basil is sterile, it does not produce seeds and cuttings are the only way to continue its life. Previously I had tried rooting them in water only to have the leaves brown in a few days. This time I just stuck them in…

As I was putting plant materials on the right side of the bin yesterday evening I thought that I’d post a short update on how the composting is going. You can read how it was built and what it looked like when it was started for a frame of reference. As you can see we’re adding to the right now and the left has reduced considerably. The left was having difficulties getting going but an addition or two of grass clippings from my dad (thanks Dad!) helped speed things up this summer. Paired with regular watering and turning, I think we’ll be able to use the left side in a…

Our miracle fruit tree (Synsepalum dulcificum) is looking a bit like Christmas with the deep red fruits decorating the tree and contrasting greatly against the lush green leaves, like lights at Christmas. I went and checked on them last night and pulled this handful off the tree and there are several more that have ripened today that I will go pick in a bit. Nothing like a fresh lemon eaten after gnawing on a few miracle fruits first! Mmmm! I’m going to save a few seeds for our friend Christine who requested some to start and I think I’ll plant the others so maybe we can have a little grove…

The garden is in an in between stage right now. The melon bed is recovering from too much water with the rain a few weeks ago; I’ve been babying it a bit and hoping for the best. There was one melon forming for awhile but it ended up rotting and so far the most successful vine has been a moon and star watermelon. I harvested the yellow corn a few weeks ago but most of the ears were rotting or undeveloped and not good to eat. We also had a patch of strawberry popcorn and the same thing has happened, though there were two ears Chris found ripe enough to…

I tend to get locked up in using one lens for a long time and pair that with Chris having the macro for awhile when he was in the field, I didn’t have the opportunity/haven’t taken the opportunity to use the 100mm macro lens lately. I remedied that last night and went out and shot a few things in the garden. I’m going to have to dig this lens out more often! A close up of a zinnia. Next year I think we need to find a few more places for the white firewheel in the garden. In fact, I’m kind of in love with all Gaillardia species and varieties.…

I haven’t felt the urge to do a lot of writing here lately and that will likely continue for awhile. However, I was enticed by my garden when I got home at lunch today to take a few photos and share them here. Also, please stop by Sprout Dispatch today and check out the latest garden tour, my friend Matt’s garden. If you have even more time, check out the rest of the summer garden tour too! It’ll be wrapping up next week. White fire wheel, Gaillardia aestivalis var. winkleri Ascelpias tuberosa, the yellow version. The wild section of the garden, most of this is from wildflower seed packages. Cleome…

The placement of our vegetable garden was such because it had the widest area of open space but also because it let the most sunlight in below the canopy of the trees. This area just so happened to be at the very front of our yard near the street, not exactly the most ideal spot but it works out. While it has a lot of sun it also gets some shade which I think has benefited the garden during the heat of the summer. Full sun for plants during the height of Texas heat isn’t very good, so a dose of shade through some of the rougher parts of the…