The raised bed is now almost exclusively gourds. Every day I think it's bad, the next day it's worse. Peas, beans, and cucumbers are being smothered out, and I'm afraid the corn will go soon. Who knew gourds grew so fast!? And so large! Every morning I go out and try to wind the new growth back into the garden, which only makes it that much more dense.
Until I can figure out how to fix the odd dates on the posts, I guess I'll just mention the date in each post. Today is 7/7/15. The raised bed is now almost exclusively gourds. Every day I think it's bad, the next day it's worse. Peas, beans, and cucumbers are being smothered out, and I'm afraid the corn will go soon. Who knew gourds grew so fast!? And so large! Every morning I go out and try to wind the new growth back into the garden, which only makes it that much more dense. I watered my tomato patch before heading off today. I snapped the photo below while at my parents' house today. it's the very beginning of a Solanum Spontaneum tomato.
I'm noticing that some of my posts are coming up with the wrong dates on them. I posted the one for the fourth of July and it dated the post 7/6 (today). When I tried to fix it, after two days of trying, I got it to date stamp it 7/5, but it won't give the correct date. This post (again. 7/6) already has a date stamp of 7/7 (which switched to 7/8 when I posted it), so I'm not sure what's up with Weebly. We survived the big storm last night. I wasn't awake for it all, but I know there had to have been some hail in there. The shade garden is completely smashed into the ground except the Russian Kale plants that somehow magically survived. The tomatoes apparently too this storm as a welcome to flower. Today there were six open blooms on one of the Silvery Fir Tree tomato plants, and one each on one of the Homestead and one of the Lemon Drop plants. Many more had buds that I anticipate will open over the next few days. The gourd plants have officially reached all sides of the garden now. I'm not sure what to do to keep them contained or if we'll end up having to mow around the entire area if they take over the yard too. I saw three yellow blossoms under all those leaves yesterday and they were still there today. Does anyone know if the plants will stop growing once they've started making fruit? I'm quickly losing hope that we will end up with any cucumbers, peas, or beans as they're all getting choked out by the massive gourds. Blue pumpkin, Baby Pam pie pumpkin, delicata squash, Fordhook zucchini... I hope we get massive yields of them all if we lose out on our other veggies for their size. The bunnies are about 2-1/2 weeks old now and are starting to leave the nest area and venture out to check out the food bin. I haven't seen any of them actually eat any or drink yet, but they are exploring. Some are more adventurous than others. I'll need to start taking some individual photos of them soon to show them off. They're all very adorable and unique little bunnies... all but the one solid red. Oddball, he/she stands out for lack of pattern. I picked up some seeds today. Menards only had one kind of seed kit left and they were on sale, so I got a boxed set with Beefmaster, Sun Sugar, Better Boy, and Sweet Baby Girl tomato seeds from Home Farmer.
Yesterday when I was out at my parents' house I did notice that the Solanum Spontaneum tomato plant was not only blooming (it had three flowers when it was planted), but now has two tiny tomatoes forming! The review from the lady I bought the seeds from said they were crazy producers, so I'm hoping we will have a lot more coming in soon. We are expecting some severe storms tonight. I'm hoping the gardens fare well. Tarps are down over bunny cages to protect them from the hail and 50 mph winds we're supposed to get. Happy fourth of July. I finally got around to bringing all of the peppers, the solanum spontaneum, and all three tomatillo plants over to my parents' house. I planted them on the North side of the dog kennel fence. It's one of the sunnier spots in their yard and hopefully it's close enough to the house that the local deer (and bear) stay away. I can hope anyway. Off the top of my head, there were really only a few peppers. I think I ended up with Anaheim, one bell variety (either Midnight Dreams or Purple Beauty, I can't recall by memory), Bolivian Rainbow Chile, Ring-O-Fire Cayenne, and Lipstick Pepper.
With the fires in Canada, the smoke has been drifting through Minnesota. Yesterday and today have been the first time we've had "air quality" warnings in as far back as I can remember. The whole area looks like we're in a haze, and while it's worse in open areas, it's everywhere. I hope they can get it under control up in Canada. Wildfires are no fun, and the "second hand smoke" the fires are sending our way isn't much fun either. It doesn't seem to be slowing the pumpkin growth at all, so I'm not terribly concerned, but it is slightly psychologically alarming to live in a haze and have the faint smell of fire at all times. This garden keeps getting comments. The neighbor stopped by with her sister today to ask what was growing in there because it's so big and lush! There are still squares that never came up. Looks like we won't be having any Lemon Cucumber, Ogen melon, or Minnesota Midget Melon. Well, stuck bunny is still alive, and both legs seem to be working just fine now. He can move around and acts normal. Unfortunately when I picked him (or her) up, I noticed there was an abrasion on the back of one leg and it looks infected. It didn't look bad yesterday, and there was no blood, but that may have been due to swelling. No blood now, just a crusty coating that reminds me of dried pus. I know rabbits can't have antibiotics, so we're going to wait this out and hope for the best. In the photo below the bunny in question is the tan set of ears on the far left of the pile. Tony and I are making progress with our business proposition. We now have a business plan in place and I scheduled a meeting with a representative from the Small Business Association tomorrow. I'm confused as to what to do now, but hopefully this meeting tomorrow will help point us in the right direction. I'm not sure if I'm more excited, anxious, or nervous. I'm sure thousands of people open small businesses every year, but it seems like such a huge step for us.
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