Plums growing too fast

Man......if it ain't one thing it's another. The plums on one of the trees have grown so fast, they are splitting wide open...... Not good at all - especially since I can't spray for the plum curculio bug now.....to do so would expose the edible part of the fruit to the agricultural pesticide I use called Imidan,  which I don't care to ingest.....Oh well, at least the other tree isn't experiencing the same problem.

Had to tie up the corn

It's reached a height of around 5 feet tall, I guess, and can easily be toppled by a strong gust of wind. So, it was tied up on Sunday afternoon before storms arrived that night. It was a good thing too, because the storms were pretty significant.

Butternut squash in May 4th

I haven't talked about these in a while, so decided to do a post on the current progress. There's 4 plants in this 4x9 raised bed - all growing toward the center, and the plan is to let all four vines grow the full length of the box. This will be a first, but I just know it'll work.....I'm hoping for at least 10 butternut squash harvested later in the season.

BTW, I wanted to point something out.....most of you know that my twin brother has a gardening blog now, but you should really check out his other one sometime. It's http://mayaruinsonly.blogspot.com  . He just started it a while back too, and I know it would interest you.

Squash flowers

An abundance of female flowers have shown up on both yellow crookneck and zucchini, but very few male - and no sign of a bee anywhere....... So, I did a little bit of hand pollinating this morning, and tomorrow will do the same. Anyway, these two were done, and I hope they turn out OK.

Megabloom

This information is really for my brother - as most other people that visit here already know that typically the first blooms to develop on a Cherokee Purple tomato plant are called megablooms, and rarely ever establish fruitset. Anyway, here's one of mine right now, just so you know what to expect.

Corn update

It's still growing nicely, and is the tallest in the county. With 3 separate plantings throughout the landscape, there are 97 stalks in all. That's alot of peaches and cream for the freezer later.....

Old compost system

I spent a little time over the weekend fixing up the old compost bin system that had almost fallen apart from 4 years of prior use. A few boards replaced here and there - might just allow another composting cycle to be processed before having to replace the pallets.

First time for apples

The apple trees are in their 4th year now, I think - and will finally produce a crop, it appears. Nothing remarkable - maybe around 20 or so fruit in all. But hey - that's a big deal to me.......Anyway,  here's one of them forming.....

The squash

The main squash section is doing pretty good, and tomato baskets have already been put in place to keep them in check. No bugs yet thankfully, and it'll be quite some time before any show up.

Cucumbers

They've began running finally,  and I've started helping the tendrils make their way to the wire baskets so that vertical growth can take place.

The onions to the left are also beginning to flower, and will be harvested very soon. Sadly, no nice bulbs have formed - despite the fact that heavy applications of nitrogen have taken place over the past month.