Hey Shorty! What's up Stretch?

My sweet peppers are too short. They are all under 14 inches. One has fruit and the others have buds. It just doesn't seem right.
I decided to check out the University of Minnesota site and I found a paper with basics about peppers. I think the plants are short because of all the weird weather we had - they need warm weather to grow and all of the flux, they just couldn't get in the mood. It warns, though, that high temperatures will cause the blooms to fall off. I haven't noticed anyone's pepper plants. The tomatoes are tall so maybe their peppers are short too. I'm going to water with plant food for the next couple of days and see what happens. It's over 90 again today so fingers are crossed.


The sunflowers are getting really tall. I've learned that the stalks are really tenacious. They'll do whatever they can to get at the sun and grow tall. They seem to grow from the ground up rather than the head stretching to grow up. One plant was growing through the mesh I've put up for the climbers. The "shoulders" of one leaf set were caught on a horizontal section of the mesh. The stalk kept growing from the base and the stalk was forming a "c" shape because it was pushing up, but was caught. It's free from the mesh now and the leaves that were hooked on the mesh died.

I have a clump of 6 or 7 sunflowers that are planted close to each other. I noticed early on that they were wrapping around each other to follow the sun and get the most sun possible. I put a large tomato cage around them to contain the stalks so they wouldn't fan out and shade the neighbor's plants. This has worked well. The plants are growing straight. They lean against the cage which reinforces it and keeps them all in check.

Four of the sunflowers are planted in a row on the border with Alexi/Valentina. They were blown by the big storm last night so they were leaning over the neighbor's plants. They are about 6 feet tall and since they are in a line, there isn't much I can do to keep them together. As a short term solution, I put a large zip tie loosely around the stalks, tied cord to the zip tie loops and tied the cord to a tall stake six feet away. There is a lot of extra cord on each tie so there is some flexibility as they grow, but I hope they will get back to straight, anchor well, and I can remove the cords. I'm mentally planning a Plan B, but no run to Home Depot yet.

Lovely, lovely weather

FINALLY the weather has turned to summer in Minnesota! No tornado warnings every three days. No 50F nights. It's been in the 80F's several days in a row and the garden is loving it. I always watered every night, but it's crucial these days. Crucial, but with good results.

The sunflowers are nearly 6 feet tall. One tomato plant is over 4 feet tall and the rest are catching up, even the tomato ball.  There is fruit on almost every tomato plant, but nothing to harvest yet. Peas are more than knee high. My Asian long bean plant is up to about 6 feet. Squashes are blooming nicely and starting to crawl. The peppers are still really short, but one pepper plant - less than 1 foot tall has 1 pepper on it that is 5 inches long and of good size. They maybe short, but willful. I'll focus on giving them plant food the next week or so.

All well and good. Alexi/Valentina asked me to take down the wild bird feeder. It's hard to get exact meaning but either it happened or they worried it would happen - the wild birds would/might/did eat Valentina's strawberries and may destroy all of our tomatoes. I think this is  a worry more than a fact.

I didn't see any fruit-eaters at the feeder and strawberries in unestablished gardens have not done well here at all. The birds are everywhere and can't be helped, they just don't want me to encourage them to come to the garden.

I've kept the thistle sock feeder though. Goldfinch and other thistle-eaters do not eat tomatoes. It's "fallen down" once, but I suspect Valentina knocked it down. She's lovely, but when Alexi asked me to take down the feeder, Valentina was literally at his elbow whispering in Ukrainian as though she was telling him what to say. When I left the sock feeder, she whispered to him again, he asked if it was a feeder and I said yes. She tsk'd me. It's back up in such a way it can't be blown or knocked down without effort. I have no ill will towards Valentina, I just think she's nervous for no reason.

I've been quiet and not in the garden much lately - nothing beyond the requisite. I hurt myself and I've been laying low.

More soon.  Happy Summer!

Don't forget the birds [update 7-7-1]

I'm doing what I can to get close to nature as I can. Tending my garden barefoot is one way to get close to bature, but birds are becoming another. The wild bird seed I bought earlier has only attracted little brown birds. I've seen goldfinches in the garden, but not at the feeder. I've learned they prefer nyjer seeds and they prefer a small, softish perch, so I bought a thistle sock. It works! The goldfinch have found the food and are singing about it.

[When I was outside the other day, Alexi told me the birds coming to my feeder were eating his wife's strawberries and would eat the tomatoes. Well, that's what I read from what he was saying. His English is pretty good, but Ukrainian to English means that he's not that great about using articles and conjucating verbs to indicate past, present, future. So technically, I'm guessing he was talking about the birds eating the strawberries in the past tense, not future. No problem, I took down the wild bird feeder. I left up the sock feeder. I think Valentina (Alexi's wife) is upset about this, but I know goldfinches aren't going to eat fruit. Does anyone need 7 lbs of mixed wild bird seed?]

What Character: Valentina

Valentina is also my garden neighbor to the south. Alexi is her husband. She was not too thrilled about this picture being taken because it was cold and windy. She'd been outside for quite a while working on rows and rows of her little tiny sprouts, and trying to save her larger plants from the cold wind. I think she looks great. She's teaching me the Ukrainian names of the vegetables I'm growing. I love my neighbors!

What Character: Alexi

Alexi is my next door garden neighbor to the south. He's from Ukraine, used to work in construction and is presently a Lutheran deacon. Alexi is the most fit and most fluent in English of the gardeners. Alexi is has tools, wood for walking paths, and stakes and miscellaneous bits to build with (ski poles, hockey sticks, etc) I love being his neighbor. He has 1.5 plots that he shares with his wife, Valentina.