Sunday was supposed to be a full day at the Puyallup Fair with the whole family. Unfortunately we didn't finish up at my father-in-law's on Saturday, so I started out early to get it done fast. Thankfully we didn't do as much as we had planned, so by noon we were on the road. It took us 4 hours to drive a half hour to Puyallup due to the incredible traffic. We would be stopped for 10 minutes without moving.
When we finally arrived and found the family, the kids went off to play and I tried to find the gardening/farming section. I also wanted to see the chickens to compare them to SandyGoGreen's. Unfortunately, there were none. The food wasn't even that good. And the journey home was even worse, sitting in the parking lot for a half hour without moving. Maybe the Snohomish County Fall Farm Festival will be better. Not sure.
So anyway, back to my garden. You've seen the the box-o-corn that I gave away. Well, I didn't have an opportunity to give away a handful of ears, because they were not developed yet. Their silks were still white as snow.
I have tried shaking the stalks around it to get some pollen to fall, and blew on the leaves to get some off of them, but I didn't see anything. I may be too late for these last planted, slowest growing ears. We shall see. It would be good to see if they actually grow, if I can time the harvest right. These ears may very well be the deciding factor as to whether or not I grow corn next year, or buy it from Eastern Washington at harvest time. It does take up way too much space, even planted as close as I plant it. It will also determine if cross pollination was the cause of the poor taste. Either or both are possible. Time will tell.
I also took the first pictures of my new blueberry bushes. I described them to you last post, but here they are in a temporary spot waiting for me to dig up a spot for them.
Look good don't they? And where do you ask, am I going to plant them? Well, thanks to my Aunt, here is the perfect spot for them.
I figured it out generally that with a tight fit, one plant can go right on the outside edge of the kiddie pool, and the other in front of the downspout. With luck it won't crowd the kids window, which will eventually be the office again when they move upstairs. Unfortunately the rose will have to go, but it's damaged and has seen better days. I may be able to salvage it, not sure, but it will need to move in a few years when those blueberry bushes grow. By the way, about 10 feet to the left of this picture are the two existing blue berry bushes. Perfect spot for bees to travel between the four plants. I'm so happy that I'll have more blueberries! They freeze up so well once we get tired of fresh ones.
Oh yeah, and speaking of bees going from plant to plant, here is one of the main reasons I had bees to pollinate my blueberries. Look how HUGE this lavender's gotten!
Can you believe this is ONE plant!?! My aunt says it is and I believe her. So we'll hack it back this fall and let it grow again next year. Of course the garlic is going right next to it between the lavender and blueberries while I've got room for it. Someone I was talking to questioned the soil acidity for the blueberries vs. the garlic, but it's worth a try. Besides, I localized pretty well the acidity for the blueberries. It shouldn't transfer to the garlic too bad. I plan on giving plenty of room since the blueberry plants have very shallow roots.
Continuing over on this side of the yard, Judy asked about my canteloupe that she gave me the seeds for. Here is a good pic of the little guys hanging on.
If I thought I had enough season left to get a ton of production out of these puppies (they're growing well enough that I could if I hadn't planted so late), there'd be a trellis here and I'd have trained them to climb it. Look at those tendrils reaching for anything. You can't see the the flowers, but they're there. And even a tiny mellon or two that hopefully were hand pollinated sufficiently. Only time will tell. And if this weather holds. It's been in the mid 70s which is perfect weather for these Minnesota Midgets!
And right next to them is my last potato bin. The Butte's have the best shot for the 60 pound average production promised by Greg over at Irish Eyes.
Note that the middle is not holding up well. I've watered but I think they're dying on their own accord. They may not need the optional plastic hoop cover to extend the season for further fattening to 100 pounds. Bake potatoes are nice, but my wife always says the huge ones are too big for her anyway. I can always have two if necssary, hehe.
Lastly on that side of the yard, my aunt tasted the plums and said they're ready. Too bad last weekend was too busy. Maybe this weekend we can harvest plums and blackberries.
Ah, in a couple years, I can see my kids climbing this tree to pick plums for fun. To be young again!
Enjoy your garden!
P.S. That nifty number 1 on the Top 100 Gardening sites, well as much as I'd like it to be true, I can verify I'm still getting between 100 and 300 hits a day (thanks to my regulars I bore daily), and Judy claims similar numbers at her blog and her Ft2Garden.com site, so how we started getting 35,000 hits a day is beyond both of us. We'll take the publicity it generates, but I expect they'll figure out the glitch soon and we'll drop back to the 2,000 or so hits a day we share. /shrug
Tough luck on the fair experience. We have been avoiding the local fair for several years now - as they just seem to be the same things and absence for a few years at a whack make them more interesting when you do return.
ReplyDeleteThe potatoes look great - and it is normal for the tops to start having some die back at this point. Just part of the process. I will be very interested to see what yeild you get from the bin of russets.
Oh, I'm so jealous of the blueberries, lucky you! AND your lavender is much bigger and healthier looking than mine, WOW...very cool...
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