Garden Update

It's about time for a garden update. Isn't it? Maybe a bit overdue? Maybe I'm boring you already? .... hello?

It turns out the bag of tricks I brought home from Menard's that day didn't work.

The hawk was unsuccessful, though I sorta enjoy his company back there. I still move it around from time to time and it grows comical when I find it pushed over on it's side the next day. They toy with it. Shove it out of their way as they scurry back and forth under the thick growth of marigold.

The plant stand works! And proved my only successful purchase. And it's only been knocked over once...

The chimes? even less useful than the hawk.

The water dish... who knows? I think they may be drinking from it. The bees certainly are, so I can pretend I am helping the bees at least. But it definitely hasn't deterred the varmint from my tomatoes. In fact, I have been losing my zucchinis now too.

To date I have eaten only one tomato from my backyard urban farm. The one tomato that I cut from the vine and let ripen indoors. But man... was it good....

I am getting less sad about the squirrels utter and complete demolition of all that I worked for... cause I have a tomato fairy at work! I gave a few of my baby starters away and have been finding bags of these beauts on my desk from time to time. 

Those suckers are 1 lbs each!

 See, just goes to show you, complain loud enough and someone will hear you. Meanwhile, I've been cooking them up in all different fashions. Tuesday we made our own tomato sauce... from scratch!
 A first for me.

Back in the garden the marigold are big and getting bigger. They are starting to stunt the things that surround them. CORRECTION - that they suround! They have outright consumed the blue herb planter (seriously, it's like Where's Waldo in there... do you see it?). They tower over my kale to the point that the kale is hardly producing any new growth at all, but I suppose that is OK in the hot of summer. The leaves get too bitter in the heat anyway. They are beautiful and lovely and huge and brilliant in color and terribly stinky. The lightest touch wears on the skin for hours. I have to stake and re-stake them after every heavy rain. I've learned that these giants do better in a crowd where they can support each other. A single stalk has a hard time remaining upright.

                  

Lastly, my late season crop of carrots and radishes. 

They are still hard at it. The carrots have a few more weeks to go. I have pulled a few radishes and they all look like this.

 I'm not sure if I'm impatient or incompetent. Maybe a bit of both? But I can't seem to grow a normal looking radish. I don't know how to fix this, but at least they taste normal!

I can also report that the raspberries officially did not flourish. I'm convinced they will do much better next year. I have several long new canes and much more area for them to fruit on in 2015. Now I just have to decide how/if/whether I should weather them over winter?