Sophia went to a garden-themed birthday party way back in May. Each child at the party planted seeds into a small pot and brought them home as their party favor. Sophia watered her seeds when she got home and after several days the seeds came up. We kept the small pot outside on our deck and made sure the plants were watered. Through several torrential downpours in June, the little seedlings survived. Sophia lost interest in them a bit as the weeks passed. We did make sure they stayed water, but they probably could have used some fertilizer and a big pot. Just this past week I noticed that there were buds forming on the small plants. Sophia became excited to see what kind of flowers the plants would have. She was surprised to see that the first two blooms were different colors. They aren’t the most exquisite of flowers, but we agreed that she had grown some pretty little zinnias.
Zinnia FlowerSide View
There are a few more plants with buds and Sophia is anxiously awaiting to see if they will bloom in different colors too.
I’m trying my hand at container gardening this year. I won the bid on a container gardening kit last fall at a silent auction for Chester Bowl. It came with 15 containers, stakes, instructions and seeds that were mailed to me in the spring. I also bought two tomato plants and a pepper plant to add to the container garden. It was a bit of a rough start with all the rain that we had at the end of May and early June. None of the basil from the first planting came up. I think it all got washed away when we had several downpours with many, many inches of rain. Luckily, I had extra seeds and replanted. Unfortunately, cutworms and slugs thrived during the wet weather and ate the leaves off the spinach and also tried their hand at the peas, beans and pepper plant. I’m not sure if the dry weather at the end of June and early July solved that problem or if it was the ground red cayenne pepper that I sprinkled on the soil that put a stop to their eating spree (my Mom’s recommendation). The spinach almost came back and then the 85+ degree temperatures hit. The leaves that had sprouted, began to shrivel up. Fortunately, everything else enjoyed the heat. We have already harvested lettuce and sugar snap peas. The cucumbers, mini pumpkins and summer squash are blooming. The tomato plants have lots of green tomatoes and the onions and carrots need to be thinned. Here’s a look at what we hope to enjoy on our table in the next few weeks.
Container VegetablesBaby PumpkinSquash BlossomPumpkinCucumberPole BeansSugar Snap PeasPepper Plant Making A ComebackBaby BasilCarrotsLettuceOnionsTomatoesCherry TomatoesHoley Potato Leaves
As I was taking the vegetable photos, I also got some shots of the grape vine, apple tree and various flowers blooming in the yard.
I wouldn’t mind a nice rain storm to give me a break from watering all of the plants with the garden hose or watering can. I can’t believe I’m hoping for rain after the flooding we had just four weeks ago. As long as I’m asking, it would be nice to have a day that is less than 85 or 90+ degrees. With no air conditioning in our house, a good (cool) night’s sleep would be glorious.
M. Sullivan Photography 