Michele Lee

Last update is here, in case you want to compare, because the difference is pretty dramatic.

Especially in garden #1 (squash, corn, beans)

Seriously, these crop plants grow FAST.

The corn. Those seed-looking bits are actually the male pollen. It’s not mature yet, but it’ll be there soon.

The Squash. For perspective these leaves are large than my face. Easily.

The beans are more difficult because they got dwarfed by the squash. If I do this three sisters planting again I will give the beans a week or two to sprout and grow before I plant the squash. I’m just not sure how many bean plants are alive and well, but I planted scarlet runner beans, so when they bloom it will be clear, since they bloom pretty red flowers.

In the second half of this plot, where the corn never surfaces, I ended up planting some decorative gourd seeds, which are also doing well.

In fact between the corn leaves, which are painfully sharp, and the squah leaves, which are huge and also have a potentially painful edge, I can’[t quite weed this plot any more. However, that is the point to the three sisters planting. The corn grown tall, the beans climb the corn and the squash smothers weeds, growing anong the ground. I do think that the vegetable squash are about as tall as they will get because the new vines coming out of the center appear to be going more for length than height and size.

Garden two:

I am so please with myself for keeping this one so neat and clear. As you can see we lost one of the broccoli plants to a storm that knocked it over. It wilted quite a bit, but then it sort of stopped and I’m pretty sure I saw new growth on it when working yesterday. So who knows, it might come back or might not.

Cucumbers, coming a long nicely.

Broccoli, which will likely be harvested by the end of July. As it turns out there won’t be a second batch of broccoli because I do’t have any more seeds. Maybe I’ll buy more, maybe not.

There will be more of these, in fact there are already more in the two days between me taking these pictures and posting them.

The upside down planters are also doing very well, but I have to check them twice a day to make sure they aren’t drying out too much, and I water them with a 2 liter bottle daily, unless it rains.

I actually pulled this beauty and added it to a salad with some of the black peppers. Yum.

So, looking and doing great. This is the fun part of gardening where the plants are all established and other than checking for problems you pretty much just sit back and enjoy.