Growing Pains

Holy heat wave! It's been in the upper 80s the past few days, which is a bit unusual for early June. We've been breaking out the sprinkler and kiddie pool daily, along with making some new friends.

Sidenote- the friendship was VERY one sided.

My gardens have been coming up pretty nicely now. I'm always tinkering around with trying new kinds of vegetables. Of course I devote nearly an hour every day to weeding the gardens and the landscaping!

Tiny corn stalks! Or as my 3 year old says, TINY CONE!

Tiny sunflowers! So the neighbor lady behind us is a "collector" and while we save up for a privacy fence, a few rows of sunflowers will hopefully give us some colorful coverage this summer and fall.

Raspberries gone wild! This huge patch started out with a dozen transplants from my friend. It only takes two years for them to triple in amount.

Even the playhouse gets some gardening love.

I am beyond happy that our cherry tree, which we just planted last summer, will have a few hundred cherries already!

I pack as much as gardenly possible in this 10x10 space. I have green pole beans and purple pole beans. I have cut-and-grow mixed green lettuce. I have Italian parsley. I have green basil. Purple basil. Sugar snap peas. Roma tomatoes. Black cherry tomatoes. Yellow tomatoes. Roma tomatoes. Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes.

In the past I've made my own stringers with two wooden stakes and twine. Inevitably the climbing peas end up being too heavy and it sags way down. I invested in this expandable pea trellis from Gardener's Supply Company. Even with a slight accordion fold, it fits the garden perfectly. I also ordered their bean towers, as they advertise you can grow 2,400 beans in the 18 inch footprint. Coming soon: The Everyday Dietitian Eats Nothing But Beans.

I hope that you are able to have some sort of flowers, veggies, or fruits growing. Whether it be in a deck planter or a huge space, it is so fun to see things grow!