Backyard Update

Things are growing! 

Well, some things. 

In our little backyard experiment, we have gleaned some more useful information.  I have picked a banana pepper and Jack has picked about two dozen pickling cukes.  And we have lots and lots of cute little green tomatoes popping up all over.  Today I made a salad for Jack's lunch with our own lettuce.  I have repeatedly snipped from the herb garden for recipes.  I feel so cool homesteading from our little city lot!

Notes for future reference:

Pepper plants thrive in pots...I have a dozen peppers on my potted banana pepper plants.  My ground one has zero and my upside down hanging one has a tiny sprout.

Ditto for tomatoes.  My pot ones all have green tomatoes, all three varieties.  The supersweets are the biggest plant, easily 4 feet already.  The 4th of July and Romas are half that size but still have lots of green tomatoes.  My upside down tomatoes are growing leaf and stalk wise about half the size of the potted ones.  They look healthy and have flowers but no green tomatoes yet.

My upside down pepper plants are confusing me.  They are super tiny plants but two of them have little peppers started.  It will be interesting to see how they end up producing.  My peppers in the actual ground really vary.  They are caged to keep the dogs off but they still sustain damage so it is hard to tell which are not taking and which are attacked by canines.  So far the biggest actual plants seem to be the bell peppers, but the only one to produce a pepper is the habanero.  If I had to decide right now then I would not put anything in the ground next year and just do a collection of pots through that bed.  That way they are out of dog traffic and the warmth of pot soil seems to make a difference.  We shall see.

Pickling cukes are going gangbusters.  Two dozen pickles already and the vines are everywhere.  They are super sensitive to heat and I think the lack of super hot days this summer has made a difference.  It almost makes me want to try them in a semi-shady spot next year and see how they do.  Something to keep in mind. 

My herb garden is not having its best year.   Rosemary, oregano, chive, parsley are all doing well.  Cilantro and basil both seem to not be doing well at the top of my pyramid.  I think they have done better at the bottom where they could get a bit more bushy and where it was a bit cooler.  Dill is too big, I need to stop putting it in here.  On a related note, the dill I started from seed is not taking well.  It is only a few inches high and not flowering at all.  I don't have enough to make fridge pickles with.  Next year I need to either start the seeds indoors early or buy the plants and give them more space.

In the backyard, the inside fence of the west side seems better then the driveway side.  The northeast corner of the deck grows best for pots so far.

Flower notes:  Begonias did good in the shade by the front tree, not so good in my hanging baskets.  I don't like wave petunia hanging baskets, they get stem-y and viny looking by this time.