End of June Update

Taz testing "his" path

Our back yard garden continues to thrive. Taz is enjoying it as much as we are. Here he is walking along the  planter wall, a path he considers his right of way regardless of what might be planted there.

All the sunflower plants are in bloom, even the largest ones. They extend 4-5 feet above the top of the block wall now.

Curious hummingbird

John was surprised by a hummingbird as he was taking photos of the sunflowers. He managed to get this shot before the hummer zoomed away.

Each green bean plant is heavy with ripe green beans ready for picking. We are now giving them to the neighbors since we can't keep up!

Bowl of corn ready to cook

As well as the corn did, we noticed that recently the ears of corn were starting to get a little chewy. Suspecting that the triple-digit temperatures we're experiencing were a contributing factor, we decided to pick all the edible ears of corn and bring them in out of the heat.

This morning John went ahead and pulled up the corn stalks. He'll plant another crop of corn this fall once it's cooled down a little.

Mid-June

The corn is doing well. We hadn't expected the stalks to stop growing, but there are plenty of ears ready to be picked and eaten, even if some of them are rather small.

Earlier this week, we decided to pick two of the largest ears and also a bowlful of green beans. We cooked them up for dinner and they were very tasty.

Here's Taz exploring the back yard near the corn stalks.

John ordered some "cages" for the cherry tomato plants and they arrived this week. I helped him put them in place Thursday evening. The great thing about these cages is that they fold flat for storage.

Here's a closeup of the cherry tomatoes that are beginning to appear.

John captured this photo of me while I was photographing the sunflowers.

June Update

John standing beside the sunflower plants

In just two weeks' time, all the plants are continuing to thrive. (Well, except for those sugar snap peas that never really got going.) As you can see from the above photo, the tallest sunflowers are well above the block fence now and still growing, although they are yet to bloom.

Fortunately, some of the smaller sunflower plants, like this one, have started blooming.

And we were very surprised to discover that we somehow got a couple of red sunflower plants mixed in with the seeds John planted. Here's one that just bloomed. It's so dark that it almost looks black in the bright Arizona sunlight.

This yellow sunflower plant has multiple blooms, with new ones opening every day. The flowers seem to be of the smaller variety.

The bush beans are also doing very well, and we have several beans that appear to be full sized, like the one above.

Last night John decided to sample one green bean and one ear of corn to test their ripeness.

He reported that the green bean tasted as though it wasn't quite ripe enough. We'll let them grow a few days longer and then pick and cook a few of them.

Here's John holding the ear of corn right before he cooked it for several minutes in the microwave with a damp paper towel wrapped around it. We both tasted it and the verdict was that it was delicious!  As you can see, these ears may end up being a little small, but we'll have plenty of corn to eat in the next few weeks... as well as (hopefully) green beans!