Garden on Memorial Day

Here is a photo of John standing in his corn circle. I can hardly believe that the corn is  now taller than he is!

This closeup shows the corn silk. Yesterday afternoon we counted 50 potential ears of corn as indicated by these patches of silk which must be pollinated by the tassels atop each stalk of corn. It's been windy lately, so we're hoping that the pollination process has been successful.

The sunflowers are doing well too. The tallest ones have reached the top of the block wall.

On close inspection, we can see that several of the sunflowers, like this one, are beginning to show signs of the flowers forming.

The cherry tomatoes (foreground) are looking good too. John is trying to decide whether to stake them as they get taller, or let them grow over the edge of the planter.

We're also watching the bush beans carefully since we noticed the small white flowers that began blooming on each plant. Hopefully, we'll soon see signs of green beans forming.

Here is Taz showing off his sleek summer coat. He had a trim at Hot Dogs and Cool Cats this past Saturday.

May Update

I returned from my trip to find that John's garden had really taken off. Plants that were little more than tiny sprouts when I left are now really flourishing! Here is an overall view showing the corn (foreground), bush beans (middle) and sunflowers (against the wall).

As you can see, the corn on the north side of the ring is nearly twice as tall as that on the south side. The amount of sunshine should be the same for the entire circle, so we're not sure why this is happening, unless the north side is getting more water. John "weeded out" the smaller, less thriving corn plants while I was gone, so that the remaining plants had a better chance of growing to their optimum size.

This is a better view of the green beans (bush beans) taken from ground level.

And here is a view of the sunflowers, which are also growing extremely well. All that Arizona sunshine certainly helps!

John also planted some sugar snap peas (shown here). However, after this photo was taken, he began to notice that the leaves were showing signs of being eaten, so he will have to watch these extra carefully to discover what is finding them so tasty.

The cherry tomato plants, which were planted much later, seem to be off to a good start.