Garden Update - Late July, 2023

 I've been mostly silent (like a Wordless Wednesday) about this year's vegetable garden.  That's because it's not been a good year for vegetables.  Part of that is weather, part is my fault.  Peas went in too late.  It was hot, then cold, then hot again.  I just gave up on most of it.  Previous summers I had a watering routine.  Say, if I watered on Monday morning, I wouldn't need to water again until Tuesday evening.  This year, it's like I need to water morning and evening.  

I do have tomatoes!  The full size Brandywine aren't ripe yet, but there are fruit formed.

The Candyland currant tomato has scads of tomatoes.  

A lot of them are too tiny to bother picking, I just knock them off the plant.  They aren't as sweet as their name would have you believe.  They aren't very sweet at all.  It would be a cute plant to grow in a container, except only the tomatoes are tiny, the plant isn't dwarf.  

I got some Sungolds, which are sweet, but the plant just looked puny and I don't think I watered it enough.  I took it out.

Does garlic count as a harvest?  It's not much, but then again it just grew from one clove that sprouted in the kitchen a few years ago.  

It had pretty flowers.

The Pluot has been sick for years.  This year it had a lot of blooms, but when it was cold and rainy, so no pollinators were out.  There were a few fruits, but they all either fell or rotted on the tree. 

The plum sucker-tree has lots of fruit.  They are so small, so not much flesh on them, and plum skins are pretty sour.  I do eat them, near the tree, and spit the pits and skins out.  

It's a good thing I don't depend on my own growing skills to eat!  Maybe I'd try harder if I did.

Here's a video of lots of bees in an artichoke flower.  I did get artichokes earlier in the year, and left some for the bees.  And ants.  And earwigs.

Maybe I'll plant new bush beans next month.  And peas. Maybe.

If you're growing vegetables I hope they're doing better than mine!