I spent the mooring in the garden picking off the cabbage worms and squishing them.  When it is dry we dust to try and keep the worms out but when it is rainy the best way is to just pick them off and look for eggs and squish them also.  I like to count them as I pick, just to remind myself it is worth all the effort.  Today I got 85 worms of different sizes and 4 egg sacks so that is a couple plants the worms can’t eat!! Then I tied up the tomatoes and cucumbers and right after dinner I went down and took some pictures.  I have both vegetable and flower pictures.  There is aways something new coming into bloom. I will not put them into any order, just take them as they come on my desk top.

Of course the first one up is the one I have no idea what it’s name is.  It is one I got at the famer’s market 3 or 4 years ago and it just keeps coming up so I leave it in the rock garden.  You can see the red bud in the forground.  This is one Shanti gave me years ago and it never gets very big.  Most years it is just loared with pretty red roses but this year there are only a couple buds, however I am glad to have those as most of the roses died this year in the March ice storm.

This is a picture of the green beans in the corn.  As you see we have a bush bean plant between each corn.  Beans and corn are companion plants the help each other grow stronger and I get the additional green beans for canning- a win- win situation.

Here are the second plantings of plants I want to extend a little farther into the summer.  The broccoli we planted from seeds and will come in long after the other broccoli is done producing.  The beets are in the next row and only now are ready to thin.  Then beets in the kitchen garden are forming beets already.  We had beets and the greens for dinner today from that garden.  

These are the broccoli plants that we put in as seedlings.  They are beginning to head so it won’t be long now before we will have broccoli from the garden.  Beside them are more green onions.  The onions in the kitchen garden are getting good sized onions on them but most of them still has greens I use for my salads.  These are a second planting.  

This shows you the small head of broccoli.  This will get much bigger and greener before we pick it.  You can see how nice and healthy the plants are.  The cabbage worms have not invaded these yet, they like the cauliflower better so leave the broccoli alone for now. 

Can you see the blue/ purple butter fly on the small broccoli plant?  In years past every time I went to the garden the bees followed me to watch what I was doing to see if I uncovered any grubs for them but this year there are almost no bees around and it is only the butterflies that follow me.  We have lots of these and the yellow swallow tails. 

This garden is separate from the lower garden and is the squash garden.  There are not too many plants in the garden but they grow out onto the ground all around the garden as well.  These are butternut squash, which is a winter squash and take all summer to grow.

The cabbage is starting to look like a cabbage.  These are a smaller cabbage so are ready earlier.  The heads are nice a firm already so we will pick the biggest one Sunday and have some cold slaw for the family when they come up for dinner.

These are the cauliflower, they are a nice big plant but have not started to head yet.  I pick off all the worms I can find so those big outside leaves will be good enough to pull up over the heads when they start to form.  That is how you get a nice white cauliflower.  I hold the leaves up with a clothes pin.

As you can see the corn is growing fast.  We will need to hill the corn this week.  There is some small animal that still gets into the garden.  I think it is a skunk because he digs for grubs, he also digs a potato every now and again and eats about half of it.  One day he knocked down one stock of corn.  Broke it right off but it was only  one stock so I think it was an accident.  Something must have startled him/her.  One year we put out a trap to catch what ever it was in the garden and we got a skunk in the have a heart trap.  We go him out and on his way without getting sprayed but don’t want to push our luck so unless he does a lot of damage in the garden we just leave him alone, besides it is good to get rid of as many grubs as we can. 

The cucumbers are starting to grow up the cage.  These are the old tomato cages that Norman made about ten years ago, some have rotted away but this year we are using two of them for cucumbers.  I do have to tie the cucumbers up to the cage until they start sending out their little tendons, then they hold on by themselves until they hit the top of the cage.  This way the cucumbers don’t rot on the ground and they are much easier to see and pick. 

Back up to the house we have the grapes.  This week Norman weeded them for me and I pruned them.  Now they will put all the energy into making nice big bunches of grapes instead of growing longer vines.  

This is the second planting of green beans and they are just getting little buds.  

These are the first planting and they are blooming now.  In years past they have been full of bees but this year I didn’t see a single bee while I was taking pictures.  I hope they don’t depend on the bees to have beans, cause if they do I’m afraid we won’t get all the beans I want to freeze.

This is the kitchen garden.  The spinach is all gone and the middle rows are all planted with green beans.  The turnips are ready to pick so we will have some Sunday in the pot roast.  The beets are getting big enough to pick for beets now or almost so and the greens are still good enough to eat also.  

This is an over view of the lower garden, you can see how bigger the plants are than they were a couple weeds ago when I showed it to you before. The triple fence seems to be working as no deer have gotten into the garden this year.  Hope it keeps up!!

This is the second planting of lettuce and spinach.  The spinach in the kitchen garden is all done and frozen so now we will use this if we need spinach but with all the beet greens and Swiss chard to eat I don’t think we will miss the spinach.  Joe will need to take some home when he comes up. 

These are the only yellow summer squash we planted.  We don’t eat much of the yellow summer squash as we like the green zucchini summer squash better, but it is nice for a change and we do can both kinds of summer squash.  Both taste the same in the winter from the can. 

The sweet potatoes and growing well.  I had to take off the netting and the vines were getting tangled in the netting.  Now I have the string around and over the plants to discourage deer from just walking by and taking a taste or two.

Even the parsnips are growing fast.  I have a lot of trouble growing these but in with the broccoli and cauliflower they so seem to do better.  These take all summer and most want to stay in the ground all winter.  It is only the largest ones that are eaten in Nov.

The potatoes are still strong and green so we will let the mature for a few weeks more before digging.  We do reach under the plants and steal a few for the table every couple of days.  When the plants start to die down we will dig a row and plant green beans.

These are the Swiss chard and carrots.  Both of these need to get a lot bigger before they need to be picked.  We could eat the swiss chard now if we needed to but it should be much larger and the carrots are no good yet.  Both of these will be good in another month.  Swiss chard grows until frost if you pick it regularly so we will have greens all summer.

This is one of the tomatoes we put in early.  As you see it is fine and setting small tomatoes already. 

These are the regular tomatoes and they are just beginning to bloom.  With these warm nights we are having they should begin setting tomatoes soon.  Between the tomato plants you can see the garlic.  That has come up good too.  Seems to be a good year for growing so far. 

Here is the row of zucchini plants.  They are starting to bloom now but I only see female blossoms, I hope there is a male there someplace otherwise they just don’t grow.  

The pansies are still blooming.  They last well until the heat gets too much for them.  I love the color they bring to the front gardens. 

The only roses I have this year are the wild Georgia roses or as they are now called “Knock out Roses”  This last winter was really hard on the tea roses.

We still have some more weeding to do and each day I have to pick cabbage worms and check for squash beetles  other than that I guess things are going along great and we are ready for the canning to begin.  Have a great day.