Fruits of Labor

It’s certainly a beautiful sight to see the garden start taking off and “knock on wood” looking healthy.

The herb garden is doing exceptionally well, the bugs certainly don’t bother them since they have a strong aroma.

Lime basils

I have to say that this is the first year my tomato plants look decent and healthy.

My first ripe tomato, can’t wait to taste it.

The cucumbers and sugar snap peas cover the metal A-Frame trellis.

I have lots of tiny frogs in my garden, they are small enough to sit on the plant leaves.

Sugar snap peas.

The okras got a lot bigger, they certainly love the Summer hot weather.

The chili peppers.

My bell pepper seedlings are taking off, this is one of the plants that loves hot Summer weather also.

The Asian pole beans start to climb the fence trellis.

The Chayote squash is coming along.

The Kaffir Lime tree.

Between all the 4 persimmon trees I hope to be able to harvest at least 10 fruits in the Fall.

Early June Garden

It has been raining a lot in our area, the plus side is that I don’t have to water the garden and the downside is that the heavy storm damaged some of the young plants. The weeds also grow a lot faster than I could weed them. The lemongrass is doing well, they repel mosquitoes and I planted them next to the bench.

I have many tiny black and green frogs in the garden and have to be careful not to step on them.

I think growing tomatoes in pairs is too much for them trying to grow inside the cage, now I know that they need more room to grow. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

The sugar snap peas are doing well. The heavy rains this week snapped a few wines but I was able to tie them back to the trellis, so far they are doing okay.

I had to help the cucumbers climb the trellis last week, hope to be able to harvest in the next two weeks.

My herbs are growing faster than I could harvest them.

This year I had a hard time locating the Thai Basil, I looked everywhere even at the local nursery and had no luck. We stopped by the farmer’s market the past two weekends and found a vendor that sell them. I was so happy and it was only $2 per pot, I purchased two and wish that I had purchased more.

Some of my pepper seedlings didn’t survive the heavy rains and I had to purchase young pepper plants to replace them.

I still have a few seedlings that are thriving. The weather is hot now, and they should be taking off.

PaNoy gave me some Asian string bean seeds and they are doing well.

I absolutely love the blueberry and since they are not so fruitful this year, I have to make sure I pick them before the birds.

The Okras are coming along a lot slower than expected. I recently learned that they like warm weather, and I planted them too soon.

I’m looking forward to harvesting the persimmons in the Fall, I have a few fruits this year.

The 20+ year-old Kaffir lime tree that Bo’s mom gave me is growing new leaves. This tree goes through a lot, it has moved 3 times and hope that this garden is a permanent home.

Early May Garden

We have been getting a lot of rain in our area, it’s raining again today so I couldn’t weed the garden. Fortunately, it slowed down and drizzled when I went out to take these photos. I planted the peppers yesterday and it was sunny this morning when I left for work. I covered the peppers to prevent the young plants from getting burnt from the hot sun and will have to cover them for almost a week until they are strong enough.

The tomatoes are doing well, these are store-bought and I will need to put down straw mulch to prevent the weeds from growing.

I planted a few tomatoes in pairs, this is my first year planting it this way.

The Sugar snap peas start to climb the trellis.

The cucumbers were sown from seeds and it took them a week to sprout.

They both share the same trellis, the cucumbers are in front and Suger snap peas in the back.

The Okras are coming out but not as pretty as I like for them to be.  I will need to put down straw mulch, Bo has some in his chicken coop and I’ll take the old straw and use it in the garden while he’ll replace the chicken coop old straw with new straw. These Okras were planted from last year’s seeds.

I assigned the mint boxed garden to my daughter Lee for her to care and weed, so far the progress has been very slow. It’s obvious that she is not a gardener, I wonder if this could be trained.

The lemongrass planted from stalks that I purchased from the Asian market are sprouting.

It has been 3 weeks since I planted the bare root dwarf fruit trees from Stark Bro’s.  They are doing a lot better than I expected, they were shipped bare root and no leaves and in just 3 weeks in the ground, all 4 trees have grown leaves.

The persimmon trees bear a few fruits and I hope that they will stick and I will be able to harvest a few persimmons in the Fall.

The Blueberry loves the rain, I do also but not during the hours that I need to tend to the garden. We’ll have a good weather this weekend, so I’m hopeful and there are still a lot of work to do in the garden.