It rained today! My garden drank it up and drew the slugs out earlier than usual. You don't want to hear about their untimely fall into the container of salt water.
This Garden Is Illegal posted a picture of her first baby tomato sighting on June 13th. I sighted my first two days ago, but didn't get the camera out until today, when I found more. I can't imagine they'll be ready by July 4th. My vegetable garden doesn't get direct sun all day - but each corner of the garden gets a good chunk of sun time at some point during the sun's journey. There are some tall and thriving trees at varying distances from all sides of the garden. As the weather gets warmer, the shade time helps with water conservation -- along with thick heaps of rotted straw mulch.
Check out the salad and herb bed -- it is lovely and lush. The echinacea is almost ready to join the nasturtium in a riot of blooms. The bed also contains: two varieties of thyme, basil, oregano, parsley, dill, three types of basil, chives and lavender.Notice the thick straw mulch as described above. I learned about this "no-work" method of gardening in the books by Ruth Stout, sister of Rex Stout, noted mystery writer. (I must pause to note with outrage that Rex has a Wikipedia entry but Ruth has none.) At Homestead.org, I found this long article about her methods, her life and her eccentricities. The article claims she liked to garden in the nude, but thought the garden itself looked ugly bare naked without a thick covering of mulch.
