Memorial Day Weekend

On April 2nd I did a post that showed photos of what we'd done in the backyard for the summer. Here's some updated photos showing the progress of the plants.

My goal for tomatoes is to have the first ripe one by June 1st. This year it seems like everything is growing much slower than usual.  Last year our summer was awful.  We were in the middle of the worst drought in years.  Fred was recuperating from his injuries he sustained when he fell off a ladder so we didn't plant anything at all.  That was probably a good thing because it was so hot at night that tomatoes couldn't set blossoms.  Very few people around here had any tomatoes at all.

The tomato vines are loaded!  My goal every year for tomatoes is to eat the first ripe one by June 1st.  Looks like this year I'll have to have fried green tomatoes!

There are three different varieties of tomatoes in the raised bed.  I try to plant some early producers and then some that will ripen later so we don't get overwhelmed with too many at a time.  This year I've planted a couple of heirloom varieties.

The other raised bed is for squash.  If all the blossoms make, I'm going to be swimming in zucchini and yellow squash in a couple of weeks.

It's sort of a cockeyed photo of the long bed across the back fence.  Even my petunias are small for this time of the year.  They have lots of pretty blooms but the plants themselves are still small with very little foliage.

Behind the petunias are runners for Moonflower vines to climb.  I expected them to be up to the top of the fence by now and the longest ones only reach up about two feet.

At least my pots on the patio are doing well. See how nice the planter  that Fred made for me looks? this one is full of herbs and on the opposite side of the patio is one filled with lavender and daisies.

Last year was my first experiment in growing fresh herbs.  You cannot beat the flavor of fresh basil and cilantro. I have to have cilantro----can't make my salsa without it!

It's extremely hot and humid today and it's staying relatively warm at night so the squash and tomatoes should continue to put on blossoms and produce a good crop.