The daylily bed out front is finally getting cranked up, which is mighty impressive considering most of these were planted as bare rhizomes a few months ago.

I dunno, I think we have some bare spots, ya?  *runs off to find daylily catalog*

Busy in the yard today.  The abnormal rainy-ness has stopped, leaving a multitude of tasks to accomplish.  The crazed pumpkins were top on the list, as they continue their trek up the backyard towards, well, everything:

Only two fruits thusfar but everything on that longest vine there above seems to be female, so we’ll see.

And yes, the plan is to eventually mulch everything that has been fabric-ed, but until we have on hand the GNP of a small country it’ll just have to wait.

An important task to deal with before the full onset of rainy season is trimming the low-hanging branches from the tomato plants.

Once it starts raining every day all that dirt is going to splatter around a bit and letting it sit on leaves/stems is an invitation to disaster.  Yes, technically we should be mulching under the plants but see above re: GNP of small country.

The melons received a dousing of copper spray to try and stave off the inevitable fungus/mildew.  And the red rice beans were encouraged to actually go up instead of everywhere the heck else:

Here’s a better view of the madly spreading Gold Baby watermelon:

If we get even half the melons this thing is attempting to grow we’ll be set for the summer.

More fabric was laid down on the east side of the yard, and the criss cross melon planted to run down towards the Arapaho blackberry (which we’re going to attempt to espalier on the fence).

Yes, Mom, that’s your tree in the pot there, ready for traveling.

We laid down fabric on the west side of the house for the future tobacco plants.

I’ve always wanted to mulch this entire area anyway since keeping grass out of the roses is a freaking nightmare.

We weren’t the only ones with an Agenda today…

It seems Mr and Mrs Froggie had something to, er, accomplish as well.  Like we NEED more tadpoles in the rain buckets…

Sure, we’ve been harvesting a few things here and there since the official start of the spring planting season, but a quick look around the garden at the huge number of things growing, soon to be ripening, makes the mouth water…

Red bell peppers:

Paprika peppers:

Celery:

Whitney peppers:

Black Pearl soybeans:

Jacob’s Cattle beans:

Delice de table melon:

Black plum tomatoes:

Pumpkins:

Gold Baby watermelons:

The volunteer tomato, probably the vine type we buy at the grocery store:

Country Gentleman shoepeg corn:

Ropreco Paste tomatoes:

And the Black Cherry tomatoes:

Did some cleanup this weekend, removing the poor water- and fungus-logged cucumber vines.  In their place we started a handful of Virginia peanuts from the Edible Gardens gift pack.  Peanuts have a long growing season but our “summer” can last as long as November, so we have plenty of time.  All the tobacco seeds have sprouted, as well, so we’ll need to get those boxes ready to go.

We’re getting to the enviable position of having more than enough space for everything we want to grow.  We’re not going to know what to do with ourselves without any upcoming carpentry projects!

It’s been RAINING here for days. ..2″ Monday, 2 1/2″ yesterday, almost an inch today.  Hence everything is wet.  Sodden.  Mildewing even.  The dianthus, who were doing SO well on the front border, have bits that are actually turning black.  The cucumbers out back are a complete write off.  The mildew we were successfully fighting off with copper spray basically thumbed it’s nose at us this week and completely lunched all eight plants.

Most everything else is pretty happy with the constant deluge.  The butterfly ginger has grown a foot.  The variegated shell ginger has doubled in width and may yet decide to bloom.  And the agapanthus, oh the glorious agapanthus, has sent up a single stalk, which today opened to reveal its beautifully-shaped trumpet-like flowers:

Which just so happened to be nicely decorated with this afternoon’s raindrops.  Clever flower.

This is agapanthus “Elaine” aka. Lily of the Nile.

Passiflora coccinea’s common name is no surprise to me:

Red Passion Flower

Or maybe I’m the only one who gasps in delight whenever I see one of its $@#&-me red blooms on the vine.

Yeah, didn’t think so.

Today’s harvest, 1 lb 14 oz crystal apple cucumbers and soybeans:

Those very same soybeans boiled in salty/garlicky water and served with dinner tonight:

Cliched as it may sound, there are few things more satisfying than growing, harvesting, and preparing your own food.

One thing you learn about living in Florida…don’t bitch about the weather because it’ll change in the next 15 minutes anyway.  After doing some moderate whinging about the complete lack of precipitation over the past few weeks, we were rewarded yesterday with an epic deluge, 3 inches of rain in about an hour.

The planting beds were awash:

The enclosure was awash:

The pool damn near to overflowing:

But oh how the plantsies do love it.  Here’s the corn, heading on towards 8 feet tall:

The delice de table melon:

The more-scary-every-day pumpkins:

Then, as the clouds recede, the double rainbow:

“Sorry I made your corn fall over,” it says.  And, of course, all is forgiven.

Have I mentioned it’s crazy hot down here?  The daylilies are among the few plants that honestly don’t mind much.  Of course that could be due to the gigantic single-trunk crape myrtle that gives them some nice midday shade.  This is Hemerocallis “Grape Ripples”:
 

It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.*

*Bonus points, as always, for ID-ing the movie quote

My fren Caitlin says she wants to see the whooooole garden, and instead of telling her to drive her ass on down and have a look-see, I walk out back and snap a few pics.  Because I work from home, yes I do.  RULE.

Here’s the main area:
 

Up to the corner of the outside patio:

The long view down the backyard:
 

The three new planting boxes going in:
 

You can see the major problem we have down here is keeping the crap we don’t want out of the places we don’t want it.  The rose bed on the right was reworked last year, is going to have to be reworked again this year.  There’s no such thing as a permanent solution down here in the tropics.  Though I swear, mulching the entire area and putting in stepping stones between the boxes and roses is getting more and more appealing…

And finally, the pool enclosure, where most of the tomatoes live:
 

There, that should do you until you guys make the trip down…

Out checking on the world this morning – yanno, like a gardener obsessed with weather/rainfall/pests/etc. often does – and noticed a disturbance in the Force…  Or at least the mulch:
 

Yeah, the new echinacea are blooming (that’s Tiki Torch on the left and Tomato Soup on the right), but who has been futzing around here??
 

Further investigation shows even more disturbances on the east side of the house.  Digging around the coreopsis:
 

At the base of the Evan Saul echinacea:
 

And jiminy freakin’ christmas, the neighbor’s yard – which looks like utter shite most of the time anyway due to their policy of being out of the country for months at a time – is utterly holed:
 

Since they’re more divots than holes (and we’d have surely heard if there were actual golfers playing through) I’m thinking armadillo at this point.  They root around in the bracken looking for tasty bugs, and will dig the occasional hole as well.  I’ve nothing against the little guy getting his midnight snack on, but have you seen those things?  Seriously, they’re unweildy!  It’s only a matter of time before he squashes something for which I have a particular fondness, and then those useless weenies at our HOA are going to be getting QUITE the phone call.  

I sure am glad we have the backyard fully fenced!  An armadillo rooting around in the veg beds is not something I ever want to experience.