What's Going on in the Patio Garden (end of June update)

Small cherry tomatoes almost ripe.

Yes, I know it's more like a "One-third of July is over" update, but if you want to stay up-to-date on my harvest photos, you should follow me over on Twitter (link to the left above). That's where I'm sharing photos several times a week with all of the yummy goodness coming out of my patio garden and the gardens of two friends that I'm helping. Definitely, head over to Twitter if for no other reason than to see the massive Cherokee Purple tomato I picked this week.

The tangerine chard has been getting hit hard by an as yet, unidentified pest.

So the chronic problem in all three gardens, that is new to my patio area, is a pest control problem. I've been using insecticidal soap from my local Worm's Way that is organic, but this week I've gone back to adding some cinnamon essential oil to it. If this doesn't do the trick, I'll be trying a combination of dish soap (always my mom's recommendation) and cayenne pepper.

My first watermelon bloom. Yes, watermelon. Hopefully I will soon see some small Sugarbaby watermelons on this plant.

Because we live in an apartment and have no control over what is sprayed on the lawn, I am thrilled to see any pollinators! I have yet to see any cucumbers developing and have had problems with the crookneck and zucchini squash growing so I think it's mostly a pollination issue.

A beautiful bee in a cucumber bloom.

The Santa Fe Grande peppers are looking good.

I've taken to manually pollinating the squash myself. I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing. I just rub a Q-tip swab around the multiple open blooms everyday and then dust the unopened blooms at the ends of the squash. If I happen to catch one of the end blossoms open, I swab it and transfer the pollen between the male and female blooms.

FINALLY...a developing zucchini squash

The blooms have been prolific and I've charged Abbey with finding some zucchini bloom recipes and possibly nasturtiums too. We have plenty of both.

The latest development is replanting several greens yesterday and some new rosemary and oregano starts I hope to sell for winter use. It will be tough to keep my greens hydrated as the summer sun drops in the sky through August and September, but frequent watering will help. I can also set the plants behind larger tomatoes, etc. to provide cooling shade.

This last photo is of several herbs (rosemary, mint, oregano, garlic chives), green onions, a cilantro plant that I am drying for seed (and hopefully successfully used some of the seed for planting yesterday), a gardenia on the floor that I am struggling to keep alive and a very large amaryllis that I've never attempted to rebloom before. Apparently, it is almost ready to rest. I am using this site for information on how to accomplish this. I'm not very confident that I can time the blooming for Christmas as it is traditionally done, but any blooming will be great.

So that's it for now. Hope your garden is going well and if not, I hope you have found some great local farmer's markets or U-pick farms where you can get some of these delicious treats too!