Growth

I thoroughly enjoy looking closely at each one of my plants once in a while. It is wonderful to see the details of these amazing plants. Here are some of my observations from today.


I have a random plant growing from my compost. I love random plants, it's like a bonus surprise that just gets me excited to see what it will become. I think it is a potato plant, which is funny to me because I have researched about planting potatoes and all the sites make it sound like such a hard task. If it is a potato plant, I hope I get something from it, but my compost will have to sacrifice being cultivated for a while.
Here is my surprise plant:

The cilantro is blooming and is not producing the cilantro leaves as much any more. I have picked off the flowers many times to try to get the plant to focus on the leaves that I desire, but it seems the flowers are winning. Cilantro flowers can be dried and create coriander, but I would rather have a supply of fresh cilantro leaves.


Here is the progress of the yellow squash. They are looking great. I don't see any zucchini growing on that plant though.

Lots and lots of growing cherry tomatoes! None are growing on the better boy tomato plant yet.

I plucked a carrot because my curiosity got the best of me. They are not fully grown but the aroma and flavor are wonderful!

The strawberry plants took several weeks off without any blooms or fruit. In the last few days, there are two white blooms on one of the plants, so we should see strawberries again soon.

One pea plant is still thriving, the others fried in the heat. I eat about one pea pod per week from the other and they are sweet and delicious.

The corn is getting taller and looks the same as the last several weeks. It is 4 1/2 blocks tall (measured using the block wall behind the two rows).

I fertilized the garden today with Arizona's Best All Purpose fertilizer. I also fertilized the citrus trees.

Today

Today I went and looked through my plants. I love to see how much they are growing.
The peas are getting too hot and seem to be frying in the sun. I don't think they will last much longer. I have eaten about 4-5 pods of yummy peas off them, right there in the garden. I am pretty sure peas should be planted in the fall.
The cherry tomatoes are forming and it looks like we should have plenty to eat in the next few weeks. The plants are looking healthy and I have most of them supported by tomato cages.
The corn looks just about the same as it has, just taller.
The cilantro has a wonderful aroma and taste and is ready to be used whenever it is needed in my kitchen. It is not as dark green as store-bought cilantro and has light green speckles. It has not flowered yet, which is when coriander is created.
Carrots have beautiful green leafy tops and I am waiting to see the carrot tops poking up to indicate they are ready for crunching. They should be ready around 65-75 days from planting, which would be in the next month.
Only one better boy tomato plant survived out of four, so I hope that it produces some juicy tomatoes for us. I don't see any growing so far, but the plant looks healthy.
The yellow crookneck and zucchini squash plants are going great, flowering and 2-3 inch vegetables growing below the flowers on the yellow squash plants. I just learned that they often need help pollinating, so I will be working the bees' shift tomorrow morning. To pollinate them, I will take a small stick and get yellow pollen from the male flowers and share it with the lady flowers (those with squash growing).
Bell pepper plants did not grow very well. Some are only 2-3 inches tall, while one reached about 4-5 inches. I doubt anything will happen with those guys.

Citrus Trees

My Orange trees started growing white blossoms beginning of February 2010. There was more rain than usual years. The Grapefuit tree followed shortly and then Tangerine tree a few weeks later. Blossoms are all gone and small fruit are growing by April. Harvest of Citrus should be in October.

What I have growing

Carrots

Cherry tomato

Cillantro

Citrus (orange, grapefruit & tangerine)

Corn

Bell Peppers (variety)

Better Boy Hybrid Tomato

Mint

Strawberries

Sweet Peas

Yellow Squash

Zuccini

The beginning

We have one grapefruit, one tangerine and 3 orange trees in our backyard.

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STRAWBERRIES! Seeing them brings me happiness. And my little girl loves them too. Creation of deliciousness.
Strawberry plants transplanted in early 2010, photo April 14th 2010.

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I had to replant many plants after cats and birds attacked my planted seeds. They wiped out my young growing corn and the seeds of all the zuccini, yellow squash, cantelope, watermelon and cuccumbers. If they only could understand how hard I worked to get it all ready just in the nik of time! Anyway, I really want a harvest, so I picked up some plants at home depot to make myself feel better about my losses.
I replanted corn, although it was a little late in the season, and I bought some netting and set it up using four stakes that we had lying around and some string. It was a great solution to the pooping cat and pecking bird problems.

My Garden on March 31st 2010