The Garden; Weekend of Carrots

I'm declaring this the weekend of carrots. I was hoping to eat two or three carrots a day (and we have been) until they were all picked. Yesterday I noticed these little rust colored beetles in the bin. I don't know if they'd harm the carrots or not but they killed my beautiful basil plant last summer so I didn't want to risk it. I pulled up about half of the carrots that were left and I'll probably pull the rest of them Sunday or Monday. Now to eating carrots! (These grew so well in the bin)

As for the rest of the garden my tomato plants have gotten huge and they are doing grand. There are little green roma tomatoes all over them. These little green beauties make me so happy.

There are three bean plants (that I didn't snap a photo of) that seem to be growing VERY slowly but they look good. And the two watermelon seeds I planted have sprouted and look really good, tiny, but good (also didn't take a photo). The watermelon seeds threw me for a loop. I planted two and one sprouted. The other did not, until at least two weeks later. Maybe it's our region, maybe it's watermelon but everyone I've talked to says they never had much luck with watermelon. What I hear from most people is, "I tried growing them one year." The two plants look good though so right now I am hopeful. Our strawberry bins are done producing but I know the u-pick strawberry places around here are done for the season too so my little guys had a very good run this year.

My sister in law, who I grew some tomato plants for grew some sunflowers from seed for me. She gave me eight plants and thanks to the neighborhood rabbits I have ONE left. I've never grown sunflower before and this plant makes me so happy. Now that it's made it to this grandiose size the rabbits are leaving it alone (Also I surrounded it with used coffee filters that I weighed down with coffee grounds. The rabbits have stayed away from it since the day I put the filters down. My theory was they wouldn't want to step on them and it seems I was right). 

Seeing this regal thing with such a hearty strong stem and large course leaves that grew from the tiny little sprout she gave me is just, hm, in a way it's miraculous. I can't wait for the flower to open either. It's going to be SO big. I imagine it's very much a novice of a gardener type thing but I truly love looking out the kitchen widow at different times of the day and seeing the sunflower tilted and bending this way or that depending on where the sun is in the sky, attempting to soak up as many of the radiant beams of light that it can get on the top of it's sunflower head. Makes me smile every single day.

Average daily spending for 2015: $18.11