Ho-Hu-Ha!

That's Rhode Island speak for the weather these days. Hot, Humid, and Hazy!

It's been a good start to the summer. The temperatures have been warmer this June than others that I can remember in my time here. And that means that it's making for good progress in the plot#10.

Here are tomatoes!

The cucumbers are doing well! (in plot#10)

The cucumber plant that's trying to survive up on the hill.

Another squash flower. We've had 3 full grown, ready to eat straight neck yellow squash out of plot#10 so far. This weekend we made squash chips with a few of them. They were pretty good, but took way longer to get crispy than the recipe said.

And... the surprise of the morning -- this pepper.
Yes, we've planted peppers but we have not grown peppers. This was found laying in the front of plot#10 near the sunflower. How strange. Is this some sort of "good-luck-green-thumb-token" that's to be passed around from garden plot to garden plot?

It's a jungle in there!

Saturday - June, 19th

It sure does appear that plot#10 is out of control. I've decided that I can't really complain though. I could be the first time "community gardener" with a dead looking plot and be ready to give up on it already. It's just the opposite! The garden is growing like crazy.

Today we spent time at the garden moving more things out of plot#10 and up to the hillside bed. Since no one has taken action on the hillside beds we're going to use the last one. We moved some of the sunflowers to the hillside bed along with one more squash plant and two cucumber plants. We're hoping that they survive the move- gave them plenty of water before we left tonight and will be back tomorrow to make sure that they aren't too thirsty!

Today was Pride Fest 2010 in Providence. Didn't make it down there but we did manage to get our rainbow spirals in plot#10 to support the tomatillos. (Who knew that those suckers grow up to 6 feet tall!) The spirals are going to be good for the tomatillos and the big bonus is that they don't take up a lot of space!

Holy Squash! Wow! We've got real squash. :-)

Some of our tomato plants are going to be growing with red tomato ladders while a few others have the regular silver cages. I suppose you can call it an experiment of sorts. Supposedly the red tomato ladders are supposed to help the tomatoes be RED! These are also space savers!

Just one more day of school-- which means then there will be more posts and more photos from plot#10. Stay tuned!

Monday, June 14th - Squash are making a Move!

Before I get started on the real post for today...Below are the new pots I got for my birthday from Tammy, Joel, Hanalei, and Heliana! I'm not sure what's going in them but they are just my style!

Monday, June 14th

Boy, did I get myself into it at garden plot #10 today. I've managed to get approval to use some of the hillside space for the yellow squash that's been growing out of control in plot #10. In a matter of minutes though I decided to take the bull by the horns and do the work that I not in the mood to do!

I went and went to the shed, got the wheelbarrow and shovel and got to work. Note to self: One should not wear flip flops while trying to shovel. With all my might I pushed that wheelbarrow full of dirt up the hill (only losing my balance and falling to my knees once) to the hillside bed that needed to be filled in. I don't want to be greedy of space up there, so I just filled in about a third of that bed. I then headed down to plot #10 to prepare the transplant the 2 squash plants up to the hillside bed. I tried my best to do what Terawould have done... I carefully dug up the plants, soaked them in the water bucket for a few minutes and then took them up to their new home. I dug them their own little hole, filled it in with dirt and gave them plenty of water. It's going to be a hot, steamy week for them up there, but I'm hoping that they survive thetransplant!

I spent a little more time getting some water on the plot, even though we had plenty of rain this weekend. I then cut some spinach (so it doesn't go to seed), swiss chard, and cilantro to bring home. I'm hoping to cook the spinach and chard tomorrow for a snack when I get home from school.

Keep your fingers crossed for the squash! :-)

Left side of plot#10 - l to r: oregano, cucumbers, squash

Front 1/2 of Right side of plot #10 - l to r: tomatoes (rear), spinach and swiss chard

Back 1/2 of Right side of plot #10 - l to r: sunflowers, tomatillos, sunflowers

There's other stuff hiding in there -behind the tall tomatillos!

The cool flower is from the tomatillos

Plot #10 when I got there this afternoon.

The hillside bed, getting ready for some dirt!

The squash plants that I moved.

The squash plants looking good!

A little recap...

Today when I was at the garden briefly, I was surprised again as to how much growth I'm seeing in such a short period of time. I was curious to look back to see what the garden looked like just a month ago and wanted to share without expecting anyone who reads this to scroll through ALL the other posts!

So here we go...

May 4

May 17

May 29

June 7

June 10

Everything is doing well. Tomato ladders are on the agenda for the near future. Gotta decide which ones to order and then figure out how we're going to snake them through there. The squash may be moving up to the hillside bed, when there's a chance to do so. That would give us a little more room.

I didn't spend a lot of time there this evening as it was starting to rain again (which the plants love, but my camera doesn't). Hopefully, the weather will be nice on Sunday and I can spend sometime there making sure that there aren't too many weeds stealing nutrients from plot #10.