Zucchini and Tomatoes Producing Flowers of Some Interest

I have been seeing some flowers grow on many of my tomatoes, but only a couple of plants have actually started opening with promise of fruit coming soon.  My cherry tomatoes are always the first to produce anything because they don't need as much care as the others do.  I still end up staking them up so they are not left on the ground.  It will probably be a few days until I start to see fruit on these plants.

As you can see there are only flowers and no fruit just yet.

Zucchini is very easy to get flowers rather quickly.  They are normally the first vegetable in the garden that I happen to harvest first.  Male flowers come first followed by the female ones which are what we are looking for because that is the part that we end up eating.  I have a couple of plants that have already produced female flowers and one of them was not pollinated while the other may have.  I am not sure yet because it opened up today and it will take a day or so before I can tell if it was successfully pollinated.

This is the only thing that has been exciting for the most part.  I did pick some more strawberries which has been a great benefit to me.  They are not going to last long while I keep eating them everyday. 

More Plants Added to Garden This Week

I still have some plants that have not been added to the garden due to the fact that they were planted a little bit later and their roots were not ready to adapt to the new ground soil.  I always wait a certain amount of time before embarking on this task of transplanting.  Once the roots are stable they then are ready to get into the ground as soon as possible.

This week the time had came for some later planted tomaotes, flowers, and herbs. The flowers and herbs were actually placed into the garden after I had the tomatoes in the ground.  I like to plant all the important plants such as fruits and vegetables and then I move on to herbs and flowers.  They are both important and play a crucial role, but the whole point is to have a great harvest.

These are just a couple of images of tomatoes and herbs that I planted this week.  You can get even more when you check out this post today.

Strawberry Harvest and Finishing Corn Planting

I finally was able to get all my corn plantings completed and was able to easily plant two successful rows of corn in simple five foot increments.  I now should expect to get corn in different times and they should only ripen throughout the season instead of all at once.

Not only did I finally finish the corn section, but I also had time to pick the first strawberries of this year.  I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do this because I didn't know if there was enough ripe strawberries to do anything with.  Luckily I received about a pound of these delicious fruits and enjoyed every minute of it. 

This is just the beginning and later on I will get more berries that I will eat and enjoy throughout the whole season.  I will keep you up to date on that aspect and let you know every time I go outside and pick these wonderful berries.

Cucumbers and Eggplant Added To The Garden and Sprouting Updates

Today I was able to get my eggplants and cucumbers into the soil and it didn't take that long especially with the rain that I am going to get tonight and tomorrow.  If I know there is going to be rain soon I always try to make certain that most of the important transplants are in the garden as well as all the seeds.  After a good rain they will grow very rapidly.

Corn is another seed that I had to plant in the ground as well.  I have now completed about four or five sections of corn planting.  I only have one left and then all the corn planting will be done for the season.  This means that I can soon start thinning them out and begin feeding them the nitrogen that these plants crave.

I showed you my bush beans that have begun to sprout, now I have discovered that my pole beans are coming through too.  They are pretty much the same as bush beans and there really is no difference in the beginning stages of their growth.  It is only later on when the pole beans begin growing taller before they start to produce flowers.

Carrot sprouts are beginning to come through as well and they are much smaller sprouts than most other plants.  It is important to know what they look like because you may mistake them for a piece of grass.  That is why if you are a beginner to wait until they have more than two leaves to be sure that they are in fact carrot sprouts.

At last I am getting to the end of planting corn seeds and I am left with just one more planting to go.  When this is done I can then focus on taking care of my plants and then remove the net over the garden as well.

What Has Been Happening in My Garden?

If you are wondering what has been going on this week with my garden, then you need to read the rest of this post.  I will be discussing a few things that have been going on including some events that have taken place and what plants I have left to transplant into the garden.  I also was able to accomplish some tasks this week as well.

Last week I was able to get my tomatoes, squash, and sunflowers into the garden with some great success.  This week I only had melons, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, and some late growing tomatoes left to be added into the garden. 

Melons and peppers are what I was able to get done because they can take a while to adapt to the soil compared to other plants.  This coming week I will finish up with the rest of my fruits and vegetables and after that I will add my flowers to the soil.

Watermelon

Peppers

So far only the bush beans and corn that were planted earlier have been showing signs of life.  The pole beans should be coming up very soon and I would think sometime this week they will begin their sprouting process as well. 

Corn

Beans

Other than this it has been a pretty normal gardening season to start the year.  Some strawberries are starting to turn red and they will soon be picked maybe by next week if the weather is good.  I will keep you informed of what is happening in the garden in future posts.