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Hi greeneyes and everyone! Sorry for being truant for past couple of weeks. Been involved in some projects and just couldn’t make it to the computer!

While my garden is really tiny this year, I do have some things to report:

ONIONS:
I have one surviving Walking Onion. With recent rains and hot days, and its present location, it seems to be happy, and the stems are quite fat and green.

Several weeks ago, I visited that gardener I think I mentioned who gave me some of her “winter onions.” I put them into a pot right away, and they survived.... but WOW! Several days ago, I saw lots of green shoots coming up! Had no idea they would do that!

LEGUMES:
The asian trellis beans are AMAZING! I think they are my favorite experiment this year. After the feeding which I think I mentioned earlier, they really took off and started trellising! The bean pods are about a foot long! I have not eaten them as green beans, but have elected to let them dry so I can collect the seeds. I made that decision, because since they weren’t climbing, I did not want to eat the ones that were trailing on the ground. Now that I have some forming in the air, I may try them green later. I harvested some of the dry pods yesterday. They look a little like small black eye peas.

I harvested some dried pods of cranberry beans and black beans.

OKRA:
The orange jing, eagle pass, and clemson spineless are starting to produce and I’ve been including them in my soups. Yum! So far not enough at a time to be needing to give away or store. But I think it’s early yet.

SUNFLOWERS:
They have headed, and one has opened into a dinner plate sized blossom. They just make me so unreasonably happy. Didn’t expect them to continue having that effect on me!

PLANTAIN:
Growing well. I chopped a couple of leaves for salad, and they were pretty good. Letting it seed.

FLAX:
Podding

DAIKON RADISHES:
Podding!

STRAWBERRIES and BLACKBERRIES:
I thought the strawberries were done, but found a bloom yesterday. The blackberries are very small this year, and birds have been getting most of them. However, the garden sprites yesterday saved me a nice little fat ripe berry!

HERBS:
Oregano and thyme hanging in there. Parsley and cilantro also hanging in there. I do realize that when the monarchs come, I may be surrendering them, but oh well! I didnt grow that many. I’m just tickled that they are actually growing this year! I had a couple of basil plants from seed scatter from last year volunteer! They only just recently made an appearance.

PEPPERS:
My one (hotter - not fire engine, but hot) pepper plant has two maturing peppers on it which have started now turning red. They also benefited from the feeding which I reported.

SQUASH:
My plants this year are much happier than last year. I’m actually getting blossoms this year, and do not seem plagued with pests. However, while I have blossoms, I’m not seeing any fruit yet. They are also among the grateful for the luch I provided them recently!

The T SQUASH have started climbing, but no fruits yet. My gardener friend to whom I gave some seedlings, shared with me one of hers. YIKES! It was fully two feet long and a little more! I took a 4’’ section and grated a couple of tablespoons into my chicken soup and froze the rest of the shreds. OH YUM!

The white bush scallop squash and the zucchini are blooming and not producing. Oh well, at least it is progress over last year! LOL!

TOMATOES:
I have 4 varieties, and only the Purple Cherokee and the Atkins are producing. The other two are blooming and have not set fruit yet. Again, these are all deliriously happy to have been fed recently! Perhaps the other two will set something soon. I shook the branches gently since that seemed to do the trick last year.

OTHER:
Another lily which we planted 3-4 years ago bloomed as a surprise. The echinacea and day lilies are blooming. Have not been to the back yard to check the asparagus. *Sigh* I am not able to easily operate the gate which Darlin set up to keep the neighborhood urchins out! I’ve developed a sort of “you’re on your own” attitude toward them. Oh well.

I was at the farm store yesterday and bought a couple of trellises, because after seeing my friend’s T SQUASH, I knew that what I had rigged up would never work, if mine decide to take off! I also invested in a soil testing kit and that will give me another area of research to explore!

As always, I hope that everyone is having fun, or least learning a lot in their gardens this year!

MUSICAL FRUIT:
I saw that utube about the carrot clarinet several days ago. That is so cool!