1. Cassie: She's actually producing!!!!! There were a lot of flowers that actually set, and we haven't lost any of them yet - as opposed to last year when there were tons of flowers, they all appeared to set, and then over a two week period, all dropped off. Last year's harvest was one sad and slightly deformed pomegranate. Two of the three watermelons planted from seed in her base are still alive, but small.
2. Jill: I don't know what's going on with her. Some of her branches have lost all their leaves, but there is no evidence of leaf cutter ants. The leaf cutters stripped half of Wendy the first year we had her, and since then we have vigilantly patrolled the yard with poison and torches.
3. Peachy: She's great, she's covered in small peaches. The basil at her base is dead, possibly drowned. Her strawberries produced about four fruits, all of which were consumed by our toddler, so I don't know how they tasted. It looks like one of them is about to put out a few more flowers, so we may get more strawberries, but I doubt it. This heat burns them.
4. Quinto: She's heavily laden. Actually, no, one grafted section is heavily laden. The others have leaves, but didn't flower this year. I don't know if any of the species are fall fruits or if we'll just get nothing from them. The dwarf annas are almost ripe. We've eaten about four half apples, because there were bird attacks, and we certainly weren't going to waste the non-pecked parts. The damage to the apples all occurred while we were on vacation. We haven't had any new losses since Ryan hung his 'Shiny Flashy Bird Frightener Thingees' all over the place.
5. Wendy: Covered in pomegranates and CD reflectors. Even if we lose some to the birds, I don't care. Last year she produced so many that we literally just finished them last week. They keep really well in the refrigerator drawer. So well, in fact, that it is possible to completely forget that they're there until your toddler opens the drawer, brings you one, and you have to think for a minute to figure out why she's carrying around a pomegranate in the middle of May. Not that I've had that experience. I'd post a picture, but for some reason when I sent Ryan to take updated garden pics, he failed to get Wendy.
6. The Moving Herb Garden: It now consists of Rosemary. That's it. The dill went to seed, the cilantro and oregano just up and died. The peppermint, that's a tragic story. I recently discovered Watermelon Mojitos, which are fabulous refreshing drinks and an excellent use for garden peppermint. However, when you go away for a week and ask your father-in-law to water the garden, it's entirely possible that if you don't point out the pot of peppermint in the shade of the tomatillo, he won't notice and you'll come back dreaming of Watermelon Mojitos (and the juice waiting in the freezer leftover from your last batch) only to discover that the peppermint leaves are dead and gone. Well, not gone, but not good for anything but peppermint tea. Ryan thinks it might come back, but I'm not so sure. ETA: Also, toddlers love to eat dried peppermint leaves. So much that if you take them away, they'll scream.
7. Potato Bags: Another tragedy. Maybe we planted too late in the season. I just know that this happened:
8. Paulo's Circle: Holy crap, summer squash really produce. So far we've had a couple of loaves of zucchini bread, Zucchini Quinoa Rice Enchilada Casserole, some kind of weird zucchini stew with pickles in it (Ryan made that one), and grilled zucchini. Plus we've given some away, and we have more in the fridge and we'll be harvesting more tomorrow. The most recent picture is two weeks old - they've grown in the interim. Note that we used bush varieties this year. We didn't want to lose too much of the yard to vining squash like we did last year.
9. East Plot: This is another one that's really taken off. We have Early Girl, Black Cherry, and Sungold Tomatoes. On the center-left is a pretty large basil. On the center-right is a nasturtium which we planted as aphid deterrent, but later found out that it is also edible. In the front you can see two rows of carrots. We planted a third row, but it never came up. I don't know how to tell when carrots are ready, so I don't really know what to do with them now.
10. Central Plot: This is a mad jungle of tomatillos, which have taken over everything and produced exactly nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I don't think we'll be planting tomatillos again next year. There's also a basil and nasturtium in there that are doing pretty well, and two pepper plants (my last garden update says three, but I can only find two. The other one must have been eaten by the tomatillos) that are being overwhelmed.
11. West Plot: This has been a nice surprise - the Romas actually produced. We've tried them a couple of times and have never had any luck. Perhaps the difference this year is that this particular plant was a freebie, and we killed our only Roma seedling after we acquired it. I can only assume that this Roma is now afraid, knows that we are ruthless tomato plant killers, and will keep producing fruits in the hopes of staving off its own death and destruction.
Note the absence of spinach: it is now too hot. We'll have another crop this fall, but for now, it's gone (which sucks because we have so much basil and I have an awesome recipe for spinach-basil pesto orzo).
11. West Plot: This has been a nice surprise - the Romas actually produced. We've tried them a couple of times and have never had any luck. Perhaps the difference this year is that this particular plant was a freebie, and we killed our only Roma seedling after we acquired it. I can only assume that this Roma is now afraid, knows that we are ruthless tomato plant killers, and will keep producing fruits in the hopes of staving off its own death and destruction.
Note the absence of spinach: it is now too hot. We'll have another crop this fall, but for now, it's gone (which sucks because we have so much basil and I have an awesome recipe for spinach-basil pesto orzo).
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