Planting a small vegetable garden

Today we spent a couple of hours working in pretty searing intolerable heat in order to prep part of my giant raised bed for plants. I plan on ripping this bed apart and create 2-4 small square beds in its place, or a couple of long, narrow beds. But it will be awhile before I can do that. So for now I decided to prep a portion of it for a small vegetable garden.


Katy was there to supervise our work.



We moved a bunch of the dirt out of a 10x3 foot area, and mixed in potting soil, compost and top soil. Then I planted the poblano pepper, jalapeno pepper, green pepper, cucumber, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe and two eggplant.



Plus the other day I potted an herb bucket and in another bucket I put a Rome tomato plant with sweet basil.

But looky here! I was surprised to discover a bloom on the old pepper plant from last summer! This has been totally neglected, unwatered and in a weed-filled pot, yet there it is!


Yes, I weeded it now that I see how hard it is trying to survive. And I still have a couple of strawberry plants popping up...


And my mango tree, despite the freezes we had this winter, is trying to put out a small harvest as well. So far I've spotted two mangoes...



Also the other morning I was out in the yard when I noticed that my mahogany have lost their leaves (which they seem to do this time of year). Then I noticed this...



I haven't figured out what the heck that is! It's webbing full of leaves, forming a basket. I don't know whether that was purposeful or what. But I did see some lovely new little leaves coming in on the mahogany...


My jasmine is in full bloom, and I love the smell drifting around the lanai.


I still don't know what these two trees are that are in front of my lanai, but I like the look of them, even if they are too close to the lanai. They kinda look like Shady Lady olive trees, but I've never seen any fruit on them.

So it was a day of hard work, and I should sleep well tonight! We'll see how the vegetables and fruit do. It's getting hot out there. I hope that I can get them through the heat and keep them well-watered!

Garden Update

First a few before and after shots:

Behind shed BEFORE


Behind shed AFTER




Side yard BEFORE


Side yard AFTER




Raised bed BEFORE


Raised bed AFTER




Southwest corner BEFORE


Southwest corner AFTER




Front yard BEFORE


Front yard AFTER



So we are slowly making progress.

While cleaning up the Bird of Paradise in the southwest corner, I turned up this bloom.


I also uncovered this scat on the deadpile currently in front of my shed.


You know, I'm always fascinated with animal scat, and trying to determine what left it behind. Since I have a privacy fence out back, I have to wonder what's getting in my yard at night, and possibly lives in my yard under the shed.

This swing is a new addition to the yard.


It was given to me by Mom's neighbor. We have it in a shady spot that faces the west, so we can sit out here and watch the sunset.

And Woodrow bought me a wheelbarrow for the yard work.


He got sick of hauling stuff out to the road for me using the little dinky cart that was given to me by my mother. :)

I also discovered these supports that were installed on the fence to support the bougainvilleas that grow against the fenceline.


My passion vine is blooming like crazy. Every day it throws up a new bloom.


And it is supporting a new Gulf Frittilary caterpillar that is growing like gangbusters.




I swear every couple of days I go out to find it substantially bigger than a few days before.

My mango continues to grow:


However the mango tree has dropped a lot of it's smaller fruit. But it does have a lot of new blooms and small fruits coming in. So I'm hoping that the fruit loss is normal.

The tomatoes look good. One is almost ready to harvest, and there is one other small one coming in.


However my eggplant is infested with aphids..


...and some have spread to the pepper plant.


My jasmine is beginning to bloom. Yeah!


And I'm trying to figure out the deal with the cauliflower. This cauliflower was planted a few months ago from a tray of cauliflower bought at Lowe's. Both the cauliflower on the left and right came from the same batch, had the same soil and by all appearances the same conditions. They sit right next to one another.


Yet one is obviously thriving while the other isn't. All I can figure is that the one on the left gets slightly less sun than the one on the right, and it likes it.

You see this guy?


This guy LOVES to chatter and sing! He actually seems to seek out people. He will land near me overhead, and sing like crazy, and sometimes mimic the whistles of me and Woodrow. I think that this might be the same guy who sings up a storm in the middle of the night. Woodrow often hears him between midnight and 2 AM. I even got audio of him recently, but the file is too large for Photobucket, so I have to find a different way to post.

The greatest miracle of all? I finally discovered the Guava tree!


The notes for the house mentioned a guava, but I could never find it. I finally discovered it, hidden away behind the wild bougainvillea next to the shed.


Now I just have to figure out how to move that bougie, so I can free the guava from its grasp!

So that's where we stand at this point. TONS of work to do yet, but it is slowly coming together.

Edibles Update

A brief update on my edibles. My mangoes continue to grow.

02-16-09



02-23-09



02-28-09


03-06-09


03-12-09


03-15-09


And there's a lot more of them coming in...






I have yellow peppers.


I have a tomato nearing ripeness...


...and a bunch of tomato blooms.


The other day I spotted an eggplant bloom about to open...


...and today found this.


I counted 18 passion flowers the other day about to open on my passion vine.


And I have this tiny little squash plant that has 8 blooms coming in on it.


I was hoping to finish up with the raised garden bed this weekend, but didn't get to it. Oh well. Maybe next weekend.