Garden Update--May 17

• Who can find a virtuous woman? her price is far above rubies


• ...with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard

It's been a couple of weeks since I showed an update on my garden. Right now my container plants are doing well...

...the New Zealand spinach is coming right along. This is a vine that can be harvested and eaten raw or cooked, just like traditional spinach, but doesn't bolt in hot weather--and important factor here in the deep south!

At the top is rosemary--sprouting at last(!) and then basil, ready to burst--I've pulled a little of this to thin it and share with my mom, and am planning to pull some more to share and possibly transplant to one of the raised beds. Bottom right is another New Zealand spinach.

I moved the morning glory/periwinkle combo to the eastern side of the house, to get the full morning light...

and the paint plant and hostas are growing the doing well, too. They're next to the patio this week but they'll be relocated to the front porch tomorrow, where they'll have lots of shade and indirect light.

Unfortunately, the rest of the garden doesn't seem to be doing as well. While the rest of the country is flooding, we're hurting for rain and the wind is blowing like it's March, drying everything out even more.

This bed looks pitiful--my plan of attack for it is more fertilizer, more plants, and maybe some mulch to keep it from drying out so quick.

Last week hubby was home an installed a little "fence" for the cucumbers to climb--it was originally supposed to go right in the middle, but the ones on the back side were climbing the tomatoes, so we moved it back a little. They were looking great, but for some reason they are really droopy looking today. There are lots of blooms underneath the leaves, but so far no signs of anything else.

Tomatoes are growing--on a combination of some old tomato cages and a stake...

...and can you see the one cute little tomato? The rest have blooms, but no tomatoes yet.

I have a few blackberries starting to turn---and no ripening blueberries, the birds ate into my little cluster I was nursing along, so my husband and I ate the last two, just to keep the birds from getting them all!

And last but not least, the new space-age looking sprinkler we got this week--it has a wide enough path to cover the garden beds and the berry bushes--and only $29.95 at Tractor Supply!

I think everything needs a little feeding--a friend posted on her Facebook wall that someone told her to mix up powdered milk and water her plants with it, and that it made her garden grow like it was on steroids, so I'm going to try that this week and see what happens.

How is your garden going this week?

This post is linked to:

Tuesday Garden Party at an Oregon Cottage

Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer

Frugal Gardening 101 at Amy's Finer Things, Getting Freedom From Debt, and Smockity Frocks

Get Your Garden Growing at It's a Blog Party

Until next time...