August 22, 2009
The mid-summer planting of flower seeds has produced results–a beautiful sunflower plant has shot up already.
We’ve seen some strong growth in our garden as the summer has gone on, owing lately to a lot of consistent watering I think as a rainy spring and early summer in Northeast Ohio has given way to a fairly arid summer–to the extent that rain comes through, it’s usually part of long fingers of storm clouds that pass by eastward and release only about twenty minutes of precipitation on the area.
We’ve seen both tomato plants grow some fruit, the rose plant seems to have made the move outdoors well, and the flower plants in the front are thriving. We’re still waiting to see what the pumpkin and gourd plants will produce but they’ve certainly grown lots of leaves and vines. In addition, a few types of annual and perennial flowers have been planted in the late summer.
I’ve been happy with the progress of our garden. We’ve seen many of the seeds we planted sprout impressively (including seeds for lettuce, Swiss chard, pumpkins, and squash), and most of the small plants we’ve bought have grown well, including the two different tomato plants, some of the corn plants, and the two flower plants near the front of the garden.
Having planted a few weeks ago, we’re starting to see the plants we put in grow and the seeds we planted start to sprout.
You’ve got to wait pretty far into spring to start growing stuff in northeast Ohio, but that season has finally arrived. Although Jessica and I are experienced indoor horticulturalists, having kept flowers and plants in our studio apartment in San Francisco and our house in Lakewood, we don’t know too much yet about outdoor gardening. We’re putting in a handful of plants including tomatoes, corn, peppers, and flowers of different sorts. We’ve also planted a few seeds around the garden–it’s actually further along now than in the pictures, but it will be a few weeks before we have any idea how it will really turn out.