Garden update

Ok, this update is actually out-of-date, by about a month, but I've been busy...

Things have been growing and growing like mad because of all the summer rains we have had.  And now, since I have procrastinated so much for the past month, all the plants are even bigger!  Here's proof:

Turk's cap( Florida Native) to the left. Lion's tail in the center. 

Shiny, happy faces of Black-eyed Susans! 

Milk weed for the Monarch butterflies.  Some dead sunflowers that I have since pulled out.  On the right side of the picture is what's called Beach sunflower, it's a Florida Native and has yet to bloom, I think it does in the fall.  We'll see...

This whole wild flower area has gotten bigger too.  I have been deadheading the flowers and throwing the seeds back into the beds so they should be thick as theives soon!  Those orange coreopsis make such a pretty arrangement in an indigo blue container!  : )

Here's a closer look at that wild flower area.  Zinnias, Blanket Flower( FL Native), Beauty Berry( FL Native), Firebush( FL Native), Orange Coreopsis( don't know if it's a native or not..), Butterfly bush, and in the far left corner is a Duranta, otherwise know as a Golden Dew Drop.  This bush is covered in butterflies, bumblebees, and all manner of flying, pollinating insects all the time!!!  The lantana(not shown) is the same way, covered all the time!

Tomato bushes, as usual, they have been dissapointing.  The Topaz tomatos that promised good taste are bland at best, and I have only gotten one of the choco-stripes version that was blissful.  The bugs got the next one I was so looking forward to... A photo of it is below...I am kicking myself for waiting just one more day for a bit more ripening.....

Doesn't it look lucious?

These are the Running Conch beans.  Aptly named if you ask me, they have run all over the place!  They are LOVING this heat and moisture, and I have alot of beans to cook for this winter(think Black-eyed peas)!  I harvest them when the pods dry out, open them up and empty them out on a cookie sheet.  Then I pop them into the oven at a low temp for a while to dry them out completely. Usually they get put in after I have already baked something and turned off the oven, they get the leftover heat in the oven, and sometimes if I have forgotten them, they get the warming up heat too!  To store them, I got these great glass containers at IKEA(Sweds are just brilliant, and excellent at interior design/storage options!!) that I have been putting them in.  I sure hope my kids like black eyed peas, we will be eating them alot...

I pulled out the waning collards and kale and planted the pineapple plants my mom got tired of growing.  They may die if we get another really cold winter...  Oh well, if you can't survive what winter throws at you and fend for yourself, you have no place in my garden.  I don't baby plants planted in the ground.

I also planted the struggling swiss chard in the ground, but it was too hot for it.  I'll plant it again in September probably.  There is one that is braving the heat and defying the odds, I don't have the guts to pick any of the leaves for fear that it may up and die from the stress! 

This is the melon patch.  These didn't do well either.  They would get to the size of a pomello and then split if you so much as looked at them crosseyed!  One got a little bit bigger and just showed the pinking up inside and had great potential for taste, but it was not ripe enough.  I have to do some reading on growing melons, cause evidently I did it wrong.  I have since ripped out all the vines...  The loofa on the other hand is doing fantastic!  I have some giants out there!  I am planning on incorporating some into the soap I am going to make(one of these days, in my spare time...HA!)  Scrub-a-dub-dub!

I also have some work to do on the decorated bottles.  All the "grout" has melted off and the glass pieces I had so artfully grouted on, have all dripped off.  Maybe I should glue them first, then grout?  After I make the soap , I'll get right on that...

I would like to announce, that I have been accepted into the Master Gardner class here at our extension office.  It is a 13 week intensive course in gardening.  I am so looking forward to learning more about plants and how things grow!  Hopefully, I will be able to complete all of my homework and pass all the quizzes and tests and get my certification!  In the process I am sure I will learn what I did wrong... 

Wish me luck!