Slogging Through

Things are looking good despite the heat. There are a couple of baby cantaloupes! (See direct center of the photo):

A lovely okra flower.

And the Mexican sunflowers are blooming. These are so high up I could only get a shot of their backsides. But there should be more coming all up and down the plant.

Midsummer update

Things are looking good! The zinnias are prettily lining the fence just like I'd pictured.

The baby cucumbers are growing up.

And there are tons of eggplants and flowers.

We even got an umbrella that (by luck) goes with the lovely picnic table Eric's parents got us last year (thanks Roberta and Ron!). Sadly it's about 50 degrees too hot to enjoy them lately. And, to be fair, I'm not sure my stomach fits into the table any longer. But they're nice to look at, in the meantime...

Jam Session

Just in case there was any doubt as to whether I'm in "nesting" mode: I made jam tonight.

Eric brought home a huge batch of blackberries from the garden. 90, by his count! I took one look and decided I had to make something. I thought of cobbler but it kind of reduces the healthiness of the whole fresh fruit thing.

I've always been scared of making jam because I thought it was really complicated. But I looked it up in my "How to Cook Everything" book, and it appears that making preserves is what's complicated - you have to have sterile jars and seal them and all that. If you're just making small amounts of jam to eat within the next few days, you can just make it and refrigerate it. And you don't even need pectin or anything special to make it jell - just fruit and sugar (the recipe called for lemon juice too, but we only had lime, so I threw that in). I also used a bit of apple to expand the volume and, as the book promised, make it jell better.

That and about 45 minutes of stirring got us this! I couldn't resist putting it in a glass jar (with the remainder in a less charming tupperware). I did refrain from tying a ribbon around the jar and writing something french on it.

Not In My Back Yard!

Well, actually yes in my back yard. Or, more accurately, our back patio.

The cool thing about this is that everything we planted on the patio was from seed. We had never done eggplants from seed, so that was new.

The cucumbers have soared up their trellis.

And look, a baby pickle! (at the bottom of the flower):

The cantaloupes are growing well too, but no baby melons yet. There were some flowers but I think they were all male and they all just fell off. Next round, hopefully! I have been craving cantaloupe almost daily, so it would save us some money to start getting some of our own here.

The zinnias look happy along the edge of the patio. I can't remember if these are supposed to wind up short or tall, so I guess it will be a surprise.

Okra seems to be happy wherever you plant it, and no matter how hot it is:

And the eggplants - first time from seed - look happy too. I started these indoors in little peat cups - they seemed so tiny and vulnerable.

Looks like a first eggplant on the way!

The beans, surprisingly, seem a bit finicky. They get withered and dry, and haven't had many blossoms. I'm wondering if they don't like being in pots, or if it was the early intense heat. Hopefully things will even out. I ate a few that did grow, and they were delicious.

The rose bushes seem to have stopped blooming, but here are two scragglers.

Primroses and a Poppy

We're back!

Sadly, the community garden is going to close after this year. We'll still have some stuff growing there (and some pictures). But fortunately, there are little tiny spaces to grow things at our new house, so we've been doing that!

In November, before we moved in, I planted a bunch of bulbs. Some little purple crocuses and reddish tulips, which came up around the same time in late March:




Then we went to see the cherry trees.

Then the next set of tulips came up. No closeup photos here because they seem to have been infested with some gross flies. They were nice from a distance, though.


And this week, the alliums, also from bulbs, opened up. They're quite tall (unlike me) and almost spherical (like me):

And there are a couple ranunculus flowers blooming. I'd hoped for more, and more colors, but maybe they're on their way.


So here's how the whole front looks right now, post-tulips, with alliums blooming, and the chrysanthemum bushes not yet in bloom. The pansies in front are nice, but sadly aren't perennials.

Meanwhile, on the back patio: beans!


And here's a rose from one of our two rose bushes, which we can't take credit for, but really like.

November in DC

We went by the garden today, expecting things to be pretty much done. We hadn't been by in weeks, and it's gotten quite cold. But in addition to three eggplants, we found tons of blooms!

These weren't ours; they're in a neighboring plot. But too lovely not to take a picture for you: