Thursday, July 25, 2013

It's a Watermelon!


Okay, so it's not quite so exciting as the recent "It's a Boy" announcement that set the world abuzz, but we are pretty proud of our little guy too! It's very small, but it's healthy, and it is growing up to be a big, strong, watermelon. (Did you guess correctly from Tuesday's post?) 

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Want more garden updates?

We're posting more pictures in a Picasa Web Album--if you'd like to see more garden photos (or want to learn what this vegetable is!), check it out by clicking here-- Our Library Garden.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Fighting the Weeds

Weeds have been a big issue in our Library garden, like they are for many people. The crabgrass has been the hardest to get rid of, and there are plenty of other weeds that grow really fast--well, they grow like weeds!

One gardener's remedy against weeds is to first get rid of them in an area and then lay down a layer of mulch. The mulch shades and smothers the little weeds in the ground and keeps them from growing too much. You can use ground cover cloth, wood chips, dried grass clippings, chopped leaves, or many other materials.

We've decided to use dried meadow hay. There is now a thick layer of it around many of our plants. So far it seems to be working! (Now we just have to pull the weeds in all the other spots.) Can you guess which plant this is? Leave your guess in the comments and we'll post the answer on Thursday.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Milkweed Recovery!

Remember our milkweed plant that had completely died because of a mole tunnel? (See the whole story here.)

Well, amazingly, after I pulled out the dead one, a new plant grew in its place. See how healthy and green it looks?

It's a very hardy plant, which is good news for monarch butterflies!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Cucumbers are all grown up!

Remember the tiny cucumbers we had in the garden just a couple weeks ago? (See them here.)

Now they're all grown up! This cucumber would be wonderful in a salad with tomatoes, olive oil, and fresh herbs. Yum!

I think we'll have some more cucumbers next week--look at blooms on the vine.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Tomatoes are tops!

Cherry tomatoes are ready for harvesting! Nothing tastes better than a sun-warmed, ripe red tomato, eaten right in the garden.

Almost-ripe tomatoes can be picked and stored on the counter. They will ripen and taste delicious! (This is a good idea if you think bugs or squirrels might eat your tomatoes before you do.)

Want to try a tomato? Come to the Library Garden this Tuesday, July 16, at 7PM for our Bug Out! program, and meet an entomologist, too! (The garden is at the Squaw Creek Community Gardens, 2 blocks south of 4th Street on Maple.)

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Weeds: Good and Bad

One favorite gardener's definition of a weed is "anything that grows where you don't want it to." By any definition, we have lots of weeds in our library garden! There's grass, vining weeds, trailing weeds, straight up and down weeds, etc. Every now and then, a plant grows that we didn't plant--but we still want to keep it. Milkweed was one of those (read more here), and dillweed is another one. You can see the dill in the left side of the photo--it's very feathery. Like all herbs, it smells great when you rub it. (Smelling it even made it more fun to pull the weeds!) There's a little yellow stick next to it to remind everyone that we'd like to keep this plant and see how it grows. Peas are what we planted in this section--you can see them in the upper right corner. The little strings are called "tendrils" and they help peas climb. We planted these pea plants from dried whole peas--and used the rest of the bag to make pea soup!