Anyone have any weekend garden projects?

~NB~

Cheer me up. Share your plans.

pugznploons

I have lots of grape tomatoes that I will probably pick over the next couple of days, need to figure out what to do with all of them!  Also need to weed around the garden.  We don't get weeds in the garden, but they are pressing in on all sides between the chicken wire and the garden boxes!  

here are a couple of pictures of our harvest from this week:

http://pugsnotdrugs.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/a-fast-week/ 

juno

Defend my sole ripening tomato from the marauding raccoons?  Does that count?  It started blushing yesterday.  I think DH and I are going to have to take shifts to stare at it 24-7.  I'd get the dog in on the act, but he's just as likely to take off with it as the raccoons and squirrels are.  I don't know how he developed a taste for vine-ripened tomatoes.  We've had a very cold summer here, so I can't sacrafice a single one to any of those bandits!  I'll probably spend my day netting everything up tomorrow (not that netting has ever stopped a raccoon).

Everything else is a chore, not a project (though raccoon duty is probably also more of a chore than a project I guess).  I need to weed, but I probably won't.  I probably will deadhead and refill all my birdfeeders. 

I also have to try to figure out why, two years later, things in my water garden have beautiful leaves, but not a single flower.  If you have any suggestions on what to add in order to induce blooms in water lilies and other water plants, feel free to share   I've read they need "fertilizer" specific to water gardens, but I haven't been able to find any such product.

~NB~

Pugz, those veggies are beautiful. And my gosh, you have interior projects going on concurrently? You are a busy woman!

Juno, what kind of flowers are in your water garden? I'm not a water garden expert, but I know someone who IS (with 30 yrs experience). I'm sure he'd know... I could get hold of him if I had a few more details. Is your pond only 2 yrs old? Is it in full sun?

juno

In addition to elephant's ears and horsetail rush (which I don't think are supposed to have any blooms), I have water lilies and one that I absolutely can't remember the name.  I think it's supposed to have white blooms.  It has ovate (?) leaves, alternating up the stalk.  I got it at a local nursery in their acquatic section, and I'm thinking it had "hood" in the common name, but I could be completely wrong on that.  The "pond" is acually just a 20-gallon container, up on a stand.  I've had it in for 2 years.  It's in hot sun from around 11am until sundown.  The greenery is lovely, but no flowers

~NB~

Can you post pics of the lily and the other one you mentioned? Need to have a positive ID.

juno

Here's the whole thing at about 6:30 pm (excuse the laundry line in the back):

Lily leaf:

Mystery plant leaves:

Now that I've looked more closely, I think I was wrong on the ovate description   I don't really know my leaf shapes!

curlydoglover

I started Friday.  Harvested and rinsed the last of the lettuce, one group of carrots, a bunch of excellent jalapenos, mowed the lawn.

Yesterday we worked on the legume bed - harvested the last of the snap peas, harvested the beans, which were partially decimated by bettles, picked some more zucchini (I think I'm going to make my garden minestrone today), harvested 3 kale plants (kale and white bean soup), then cleaned up the bed.

Today will be to finish mowing the lawn, make the soups (god bless having multiple stoves), weed the lawn, maybe make more zucchini bread muffins...

~NB~

Juno, nobody I talk to can be conclusive about why the plants wont flower for you. As you may have guessed, it could be a number of reasons. If you haven't been fertilizing, try that. Lotuses and lilies are heavy feeders.

The mystery plant is called "Lizard's Tail".

juno

Haha.  Oh well.  Thanks for checking.  I've looked for fertilizers specific to water gardens online and in store, but haven't found any yet.  Thanks for the ID.  I should have written it down (and knew that at the time, but I'm lazy)!

ETA: It has become urgent for me because I went to San Diego's garden a week and a half ago, and their water lilies were stunning.  I MUST have one of those blooms.  I saw some of their gardeners at work; I should have asked them!