Urban Homesteading on a Small City Lot: Garden Update with Better Pictures

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Garden Update with Better Pictures

I finally found and charged the better camera. The last post was done with the camera on my phone in low light, so the pictures weren't the best. These new pictures were taken in the morning sun with my husbands camera which is still just a point and shoot, but it has a great macro setting.

I have planted several alyssum plants around the garden because I have read that syrphid fles are attracted to them and use them as a food source while they are laying the eggs of the larvae that will eat all of my aphids. They are pretty to have around, too.

My larger blueberry bush is just loaded with berries this year. I can't wait to pick them and eat them.


I've already picked several Jelly bean blueberries from the bush that I planted a couple years ago. The two new bushes are a little behind, but that is understandable because I just planted them in the ground this spring.


One of the most exciting things that is going on right now in the garden is the broccoli. Some are getting very close to being ready to harvest:


The rutabagas are getting quite big already:


The beats are just getting their first true leaves:


I have been eating a lot of green onions, but not enough, apparently, to get these guys thinned out. Anyone want some green onions? 


The first potato blossoms are open today. Potatoes have very pretty flowers. My grandma always said if they are flowering then there are new potatoes under there. This is a good thing because the shelling peas are going to be ready in about a week.


I planted some new lettuce, a mix of romaines, from seed. They are doing well. I will thin them on my next day off.


As always, the fava beans are getting pretty infested with aphids. I think it works out well for the rest of the garden that this happens because it draws in all the aphid predators and gives them somewhere to get established so that they can keep all of the other aphids under control form me the rest of the year. The past three years this method has worked very well. I have gotten other aphids, but for the most part they never get out of hand until very late in the fall. Here is a beautiful lady beetle doing what she does:


If you look very close here you can see the baby lady beetles that have just hatched and are already munching on aphids:


And right next door is another egg mass that will do the same thing, hatch into a voracious aphid eating army:


When my mom gave me the pepper starts that she started for me, there was one that was much smaller than the rest. My mom even told me she wouldn't bother planting it out because t probably wouldn't grow. I planted t anyway because I just happened to have a space for it. It is really coming along. It hasn't caught up to its brothers yet, but I think it will:


Another beneficial flower I always plant around the garden. They are looking very nice.


The raspberries are looking so good:


And Molly's golden raspberries:


The Niagara grapes are looking like grapes already:


The red table grapes, however, are just beginning to flower:


The eggplant is just about to flower. I love how they buds look on these things. Their flowers are also very pretty:


Well, I have to get ready for work, so  will post more later, maybe, if I get around to it.


No comments:

Post a Comment