Yet MORE Planting (and pictures)

Today brought gorgeous weather, so we took advantage of it to finish the planting of our vegetable garden. Here is an inventory of our plantings:

In the large raised bed, we have planted:

• 6 tomato plants
• 2 pole bean "tipis" (many seedlings)
• 1 row each of carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, swiss chard, and broccoli
  
• 6 marigolds in a feeble attempt to ward off our local nemesis - the Eastern Gray Squirrel (I think I heard them laughing at me as I placed each plant)

I'm not sure you can see the tomato cages in the corners of the picture, but this gives you an idea of what it looked like after planting and watering this afternoon. You might be able to see some of the bean plants perking up around the dark poles at either edge of the bed. The sticks between each set of bean poles marks a row of vegetables. The small bits of yellow you may see near the bean plants are the marigolds.

In the smaller raised bed, we planted:

• 3 "hills" of corn (4? seeds in each hill)
• zucchini and summer squash
• pumpkins (can't remember the count at the moment)

On the side porch flower boxes, we planted:

• A LOT of basil
• a rosemary "bush"
• 2 types of lettuce - a red leaf and a green leaf variety

I didn't have to zoom in to capture the basil seedlings, if I can be bold enough to call the little leaves seedlings.

OK, this box is really crowded, but the guys at the nursery told Aaron it would be fine. The green leaf lettuce is to the left (I think it's a Great Lakes variety?), and the red leaf is to the right (and I don't recall its having a unique name). The tall thing in the middle is the rosemary. I'm planning to use the lettuce for sandwiches and the rosemary for poultry and soups. Yum yum yum... I love rosemary.

We also planted sunflowers along the back fence because sunflowers make me smile. :)

In other progress, our berry bushes are still producing flowers and SOME of the flowers might be making the shift from flower to fruit. Take a look at these pictures and let me know if you think fruit is coming soon.

The bottom flower in the strawberry picture seems to be missing petals. I *think* this means that the center will be changing to a berry soon. Thoughts?

The flowers on the blueberry bushes seem less petal like and more closed... almost like tiny bulbs. They aren't blue yet (duh, you can see they are the whitish things along the fence), but maybe some more time will transform them too.

Today also was the first week for our town's farmers' market! More on that in another post. The short version is that I know CSA season is coming soon!