Amaryllis progress and chili peppers

Amaryllis Seedlings

It's hard to believe I got more seedlings coming up. It's very very addicting. I should probably quit planting them because I probably will have too many to know what to do with! I'm still hitting them with a very weak fertilizer mix every time I water them because I want them to bulk up as fast as they possibly can before winter comes.

Chili Peppers

 I believe these are ghost chili peppers. They sprouted from some peppers that fell back into the pot last year. I didn't think the seeds could overwinter but apparently they can! So the plants popped back up and there's some new peppers.

Chili Pepper Bloom

Radish Seed Pods?

The only thing I know about radishes is that you have to pluck them while they're young or that they'll get too 'hot' to eat. I plucked one radish but it was this long root so I didn't bother dealing with any of the others. Eventually they grew very tall and had lots of white flowers which attracted butterflies.

Eventually I saw these weird seed pods. My first thought was that they were a lot like green beans. I went on Google and was surprised to see a bunch of articles where people say to harvest them when young and then eat them raw - such as using them as salad topping!

You always learn something new!

Cucumbers and Morning Glories

I actually have cucumbers growing. The plant isn't withering away in the humidity in the hot sun or full shade. The cucumbers aren't growing all weird and wonky. It's actually pretty neat! With how dry it has been around here and the humidity being lower than normal, I think I might have a shot at growing a batch of normal cucumbers this summer! And to think I complained about how it hasn't rained in a few weeks. (It did rain on Sunday and the humidity on Monday caused a couple of sunflowers to fold over and break. The garden struggled in Monday's humidity, that's for sure.)

I've been equally surprised with the Morning Glories. I don't know what kind these are except they're growing from a pot where I put Crimson Ramblers in the previous summer. However it's clear from the flower's coloring that this seems to be some other sort.

There are several sorts of vines growing. I don't want to say the leaves are dinner plate-sized but they're rapidly approaching it. I had the pot in the middle of the backyard but from how thick the vines have been, I decided to lug this pot over to the fence so that they can have some support. It has been wilting in the sun but I'm trying to keep the pot watered in the meanwhile just to see what all the flowers are.

What is also interesting to see is that there's Daddy Longlegs all throughout the vines. It's like they've positioned themselves at certain intervals and waiting...

Definitely not Birdhouse Gourd

In my previous blog entry, I posted about a vegetable-type plant growing in my bed. I was hoping it was birdhouse gourd making its weird random appearance but that wasn't the case. The plant has started sending out male flowers. I haven't seen any female ones yet...



If it is pumpkin, it's gonna be an ugly mess pretty soon once the bugs discover it. I'm not going to make an effort to save them. I gave that up years ago.

Volunteer Pumpkin?

Close-up of Sweet Banana Pepper bloom



Some are thinking this is pumpkin. I'm scratching my head and wondering where it could've come from. Sure, we dumped a few pumpkins in the woods in the backyard but that's far away. I really hope this isn't pumpkin. The bugs will kill it flat in no time! But uh.. Here it is... taking over the bed.




Guess we'll see in time of what it produces.

Vegetables

The vegetables are slowly coming along!





The squash are hit and miss. For some reason the plants sent out a lot of female flowers first so a good chunk of them rotted off before the male flowers popped out.





These tomatoes are uh... Not sure. The two big ones are Husky Cherry - I believe. The small flimsy one is Grape Tomato. There were two but one sort of broke off but it re-rooted and I stuck it in a separate pot. I know I should remove one cherry tomato plant but they're so big and healthy and.. I may as well let them stay and see what I can get away with. hehe.



Amaryllis seed pods! I may have to get another flower box and plant more seeds!

Vegetable Pots

Okay, cheating happens... like when you think the peat pot thing was a total disaster so you rush out to get something big and awesome instead. There's Spacemaster Bush Cucumber, Goldbar Squash, and Sweet Banana Peppers.




This spot here is in the shade. When I had this in full sun last year and the whole thing bombed, I just decided that maybe the plants will be less stressed if they had shade for a good chunk of the day. They will get evening sun though...



I am also happy to see that a couple amaryllis are starting to send these up... None in my grown-from-seed amaryllis though. :\ Shucks. Which means I'll be fertilizing them like nuts this year but I do want to get them in the ground since the flowerbox is warping from their growing mass.

Update

My vegetable bed failed horribly. They're all dead. Spaghetti Squash was the first to die as I knew it would. Zucchini was the next but I've never had any grow successfully. What *did* knock me flat to the floor was that the Yellow Squash was next to die. What made me faint was that the cucumbers died as well. I don't understand why they did so terrible this year! I've always had luck with the Yellow Squash and Cucumber. I feel so discouraged in this department...

At least I can say that the tomatoes are doing good. The cherry ones are producing many. My upside down Better Boy made around three or four red ones so I don't know whether being upside down helped it at all or if it's just my usual bad luck with regular-sized tomatoes.

Spaghetti Squash Flower

Pictures of a male Spaghetti Squash bloom from different angles

Cucumber, Coneflower

Just one cucumber taking off so far...

Close-up of Coneflower

Vegetables, Amaryllis

This is what an Amaryllis seed pod looks like when successfully pollinated. It swells up and will eventually open when its ready.



Added the lattice board to keep the vines on top and make the mowing/weedwacking easier.

Vegetables

The latest update on the vegetables. Every single vegetable plant experienced rust after a rainstorm. Even the grape tomato sprouts in the flower boxes had rust. It was peculiar. Most of the rusted leaves were removed as soon as possible.




Below is a picture of the Tiny Tim Tomatoes that are growing. Pretty soon I may pinch out the extras so that each one will just have one plant instead of three crowding each other.

Below is the Better Boy Tomato Plant. The extra tomatoes are growing in so the plant is now tugged down to the ground. All the better to get the water to go down and swell them tomatoes!

Picture below of the two tomato plants on the porch steps.


Close-up below of the tomatoes.

Picture below is of an unidentified plant. At least I know it's not a yearly return of the birdhouse gourd. It's made yellow flowers so no idea what it could be. I put up a brick circle to prevent them from being mowed down or weedwhacked.

Vegetable Garden

It's getting there! Slowly. Pretty soon there'll be a lattice board that'll be propped up over it so that the vines can be trained to stay on top and allow easy grass-cutting on the ground below. This is pretty much the same spot where I grew vegetables back in 2005. Except this time!, I'll be using a soaker hose to try to water them. I'm just concerned on how to get the soaker hose all up on that mess! Hmm... Easier said than done.

From left to right: Yellow Squash, Cucumber, Zucchini, and Spaghetti Squash.

I expect the Yellow Squash and Cucumber to grow like nuts and give me many vegetables. I've tried Zucchini before. It'll be a healthy plant but every attempt to grow a vegetable seems to get eaten by bugs. Spaghetti Squash - I fear will be too similar like trying to grow Pumpkins. I expect both the vegetables and the plant to be destroyed.

Right now it is very very muggy and thunderstorms are in the area. The bugs are at their worst so I think I'll tinker with the soaker hose stuff later.

Vegetable Garden

My vegetable garden is very slowly on its way. This is the latest update on the upside down Better Boy Tomato plant. It doesn't seem to have grown much in size but it's still there.



These two below are 'Husky Cherry Red' tomato plants.

These two below are Yellow Squash and Cucumber plants.

Pretty soon, I'll have them all rigged with the soaker hose running through them. That way when the plants are huge and the summer heat is in full force, I can use the soaker hose to keep them all comfortable and producing vegetables to eat.

Big Update - Lots of Images

I was asked to give my blog a brand new update since it's been awhile. It's just hard to do when it is way too hot outside and nothing is remotely pretty to look at.

But anyhow, hold onto your hats... Here comes a bunch of ugly.





Coleus


Bonsai - Ginseng Ficus


Sago Palm


Sago Palm - Close-Up. New Leaves?


Amaryllis Seedlings - Still Going Strong


Pumpkin Bed/Hyacinth Bean Vine


Various Squash/Gourds Mixed


Hyacinth Bean Vine


Don't Know - Purple Flowers


Thanksgiving Cacti and Christmas Cacti in Shade


Thanksgiving Cactus "Fruit"? "Pod"?


Pachira Tree (The only survivor from the Money Tree)


Stargazer Lily (Not very healthy)


Illustris Elephant Ears


Illustris Elephant Ears (Can't get rid of them from this spot!)


Blood Banana


That should cover a good chunk of stuff!