It’s hot outside. In fact, it’s 96 as I type this, and the little one is having some time with Mommy and new baby sister as I work. We came back in from some watering a little while ago, so I figured it was time for an update on The Rock Father Garden. It’s been a war out there, folks. We’ve had casualties. We’ve also had some wins.
“Drought” is pretty apparent here in Northern Illinois, as there hasn’t been a good rain (sans a tiny burst on Saturday night) in weeks. My formerly green lawn is now mostly a dusty, brown wasteland. It’s too expensive for full-on watering this year, so some parts are suffering. Between the lack of rain and the grubs, a huge part of the back looks terrible. Unless I plant again, we’re not having sunflowers this year, either. We started hundreds of them, both inside from seed and in-ground. The rabbits mowed them down and wiped them out – all of them. Just like Anakin and those pesky Tusken Raiders in STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES, those rabbits took down the whole lot. In their place, I’ve transplanted (and fenced) a pair of Grape Tomato plants that grew from the seeds of last year’s crop.
How about those Growums?
At this point, things are a little unruly. With her Kale wiped out from her pre-fencing raised bed, Addie’s Growums have been complimented by a bit of mint up front. The rest of the Pizza Garden (which we started from seed) is in one of the bigger raised beds. In fact, we’re starting to see some tomatoes this week, some of which are growing from a Growum known as “Coco.” You can see him (the clown) in the pic to the bottom right…
Our Pumpkins and Corn hadn’t been doing well – I’d initially thought that they were stunted from the drastic hot/cold of the early season, then hammered by heat. Well, some of them have turned around. Our Sweet Corn isn’t doing well at all (it’s tiny), but the Manden Bride Indian Corn that Story Laurie sent us from Woodstock, NY is looking good this week. I planted them Indian style with corn and pumpkins together. Initially, we’d grown 72 pumpkin plants from seed inside, but this is what’s left. The ones near the corn are doing far better than the ones to the rear. The Pumpkin Patch is a big deal here at our house, so I hope we get some fruit this year. Last year was awesome.
The salad garden (not pictured) is doing fantastic, with more salad goods than we can eat or keep up with right now.
Meanwhile… back inside the house…
— The Rock Father, June 20, 2012
