Raised Beds

The watermelon, tomatoes, and loofah are taking off and the okra is right behind them with radishes and nicotina bringing up the rear.

We’ve even gotten our very first watermelon on the vine!

The salvia and bee balm are doing well and the tomato, pepper, and basil are coming up. I’m especially excited about the loofah which is really starting to take off.

The beans are climbing and the cucumber and sage are making an effort. I tried planting some of my tomato suckers as well.

I’m not sure if they’ll take (or if I need that many tomatoes) but the tomatoes needed some pruning and no reason not to try it!

All the radishes are done. They were not doing well in the heat. I pulled them all out to make space for other things but evidently radishes are a good trap crop for aphids so that may have been a mistake.. Ah well.

I have zucchini!

I’ve been really lucky to not have any issues with my zucchini. The dreaded squash borer vine got my pumpkins on the other side of the yard.

I’ve had this volunteer come up through the weed cloth between two of my beds.

I don’t know how that happened. It makes sense with the flowers and grass but this is a squash or melon of some kind.

I’m interested to see what it is!

Flower Beds

Dahlias, calendula, and a native volunteer – tickseed!

I had a tickseed volunteer in this part of the yard last year as well and I loved it. They get big and bushy and they are great pollinators. I’m excited to see them back this year.

Lots of things popping off in the gas-main bed. More tickseed, more calendula, and the sunflowers are getting taller.

Border Beds

The lavender and butterfly bush are thriving – I need to find something to do with some of that lavender!

There’s also chamomile, sage, and thyme who are all small but hardy looking.

I think all the flowers I had planted in the front half of this bed washed down to the corner during all that rain this spring.

Cause y’all see this? That is a LOT of flowers in that front corner. They’re calendula and boy oh boy they got tall!
((Edit from The Future, they were not calendula))

I may need to try and transplant some things soon because they’re choking out one of my salvia, the lemon drop basil, and one of the okras.

Since this bed is still super sandy I went ahead and threw some carrot seeds and pumpkins in the empty space by the lavender. We’ll see if they take!

Weed Cloth + Mulch = Healthy grass?

I don’t know why I bothered with weed cloth and mulch when the grass came in this strong regardless.

On the upside, the grass is looking great..

I’m thinking I may try and pull up the weed cloth this fall, put down cardboard, and then bury the cardboard with more mulch.

Nathan says ‘why not just let it be grass?’ but I don’t want to be mowing around the beds. Either way, it’ll be a fall project not a summer project cause it is too damn hot right now.

More Border Beds

The marigolds have started blooming, the peas are considering it, and the pumpkins are 50/50.

Both my pumpkins have been chewed up by squash vine borers. (Boo).

I decided to cut the difference and pulled one pumpkin out entirely, threw it in the compost, and then left one pumpkin to see if it would bounce back.

I read that one way to defeat the dreaded vine borer is to just plant after they’ve finished their life cycle. I’m not sure if Oklahoma has a long enough growing season for that but I’m trying it.

Worst case I lose my pumpkin seeds but the best case I get some pumpkins in November!

A Month of Garden Growth – and A Baby!

Baby Ladybug has made her way earthside!

It was a long month of on-again-off-again false starts and pre-labor but once she made up her mind on a birthday it was a short labor.

After a month of pre-labor Beansprout and I are both a bit stir-crazy to get out of the house, but with a heat index of 105 and me freshly postpartum, we’re settling for backyard adventures.

That means kiddie pools and some good old digging in the dirt.

Beansprout is thrilled to see the zucchini and watermelon coming in – he’s ready to pick it! Miss Ladybug on the other hand is more interested in napping in the sun.

Next Up!

It’s time to start thinking about fall planting and filling in some of the dead space in my beds.

One of my beds is almost totally empty. Between the deluge and the heat my lettuce, spinach, and chard all failed to sprout. That’s my bad, I knew it was probably too late to replant the leafy greens.

But that’s alright though cause I learned some things!

Besides starting the fall planting planning I need to start learning about canning and food preservation. This’ll be my first year canning and I think I’d better start learning before I start harvesting!

That means the to-do list for July is

• Fall planting planning
• Research canning
• Garden Maintenance

And in non-garden to-do’s

• Figure out cloth diapering

What do you think?

Do you have suggestions on where to start with canning?

Comment below and let me know!

Curious about why we’re urban homesteading? Check out my post about Starting Our Urban Homestead or to catch up on what happened last month check out our May Update

Interested in what happens next? Head forward into July!