Greetings from the Deck Farm

Time for a garden update! Things are growing along nicely, and each thing is its own little surprise. For one thing, who would have thought that the corn would be the easiest and lowest maintenance?? I have ears coming out now, and while I don't think it's going to be a super high yield (I have seven ears at the moment, assuming all come out in good shape), it's been a fun experiment. 

My zucchini has finally hit its stride -- it had some issues early on and needed various TLC (more on that in the next entry) but now I'm harvesting at the rate of about 3 to 4 per week. Good thing we like zucchini!! 

 

The tomatoes have been finicky. The Black Krim are coming along, but have had issues. I haven't grown full-size tomatoes before (so why not start with a complicated heirloom variety?!), and as such wasn't prepared for issues like cracking and "ugly" syndrome. For the most part they're okay, I think, but still a ways from ripe. The Cherry tomatoes are doing fine - some are about ready to start picking, in fact. But! I had a rogue seed. There is one plant of the five that is DEFINITELY not a cherry. It's the oblong shape of a grape tomato or a plum tomato...right now it's about grape sized, but is such a pale green that I think it still has more growing to do before it starts ripening. This plant, coincidentally, has show signs of blossom end rot, suggesting that it needs less water than the cherries. As they are in the same pot I can't do much about that, but it does make me wonder if I'm accidentally growing Romas. 

 

In the non-produce end, the lavender is happy as can be - I've clipped and dried a few bundles already - and the gardenia, after months of dormancy, has suddenly decided it's time to bud again. Maybe it was waiting for temperature consistency around here...who knows. 

On we grow! 

Sunset from the cornfields...er, Deck Farm