Cats and Dogs!

I know this sounds extremely familiar and I am so hoping that this summer is not a repeat of last because it has rained, almost literally, cats and dogs. Pouring, nonstop, for 4 full days. Not one stream or beam of sunlight in just as many days. It's been unbelievably gloomy, dark, wet, and humid. Luckily, those days occurred in April and I am attributing them to April Showers. That's all it better be because last summer was rain, rain, and more rain. The most rain in the DMV area in 20 years or something along those lines. Quite possibly it was the most rain in the history of the DMV because they ran an article on it in the Washington Post, it may have been 20 days straight of rain (I don't I'll have to look into it.) 

Good news, the rain made everything flourish. I thought it would drown my tender seedlings but it didn't. There were 4 inch deep puddles surrounding every raised bed. It was unbelievable when I woke up this morning to sunlight and warmth. I ran outside breathed in the warm air and headed straight for my boxes. Everything looked amazing! There were even red berries on the strawberry plants I've yet to install in their permanent spots! 

The radishes grew in groups and the lettuce seeds have popped through. The romaine seedlings are a vibrant green and the strawberries that are planted look, just, OK but that's good enough for me! 

Radish seedlings (L). Grew in tight groups. I'll have to do a fair amount of thinning. Romaine lettuce green as ever (R)! Lemon Boy tomato plant (Bg). 

Lettuce seedlings (L) popping through. Sweet basil (R) greener then the day I bought it. 

Ready, Set, Fruit!

Picture Update on Fruiting Plants...

Our first quarter sized patty-pan squash. There are several beautiful squash blossoms on this plant but the patty-pan's haven't developed as quickly. The plant is about a foot wide and 2 feet tall.

The infamous Tomato-berry plant. It took weeks to grown a centimeter then it shot up a foot and stayed that height for another week and produced maybe one tomato. Now its about 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide with at least 30 tomato-berries. The name describes the shape and size of this type of tomato, strawberry like.

Our first cucumber. One of many. The biggest of all. It is about 4 inches long and an inch wide. It's been growing in a container for about a month and a week. 

Super Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. They are starting to ripen in this picture. The plant is about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide with an unknown number of marble sized fruit.

Super 45 Hybrid cantaloupe plant in 10x12 container with a trellis. Picture are the first and 2nd melons growing. The closest is the size of a plum and the second is the size of a kiwi. There are at least 4 other flowers with tiny pea sized and yellow globes starting to form. 

Container cantaloupe plant with 2 sizable melons and several other tiny ones. I made a tepee with a more solid trellis to hold the first and provide more space for the plants growth. Several references said that if given vertical space cantaloupes only needed one square foot (otherwise they needed 4x4 sqft of ground space). So I'm hoping this will be enough trellis space to grow full size melons.

A Pregnant Girls Dream

Pickles and Watermelons...

I went out to check on things just briefly because it threatened to be a bad stormy day. I picked a few strawberries. Tried putting up some more fencing and noticed that in "container drive" things were finally starting to set fruit. The pickles and watermelons are finally coming in. The watermelons are much further behind but you can see those little striped rounds starting to form. It's pretty amazing. I didn't know if either would set any fruit at all. 

So excited! 

The little fuzzy striped ball is the first stage of fruit growth for the bush sugar baby. 

A baby that I found, fallen off. See the stripes? 

A bush cucumber, the first one. The one that looks the most like a cuc but I think it looks like a pickle more.

Second cucumber a little further behind and a little weirder looking.