Pollinators at Work

The garden was buzzing this morning with three open zucchini flowers.  Two were female and one male. 

Time for Thyme

Delicate flowers of the thyme plant

Spreading thyme in the garden

My drip irrigation is really making a difference in the garden this year.  This thyme plant has a circular soaker drip at the center of the plant.  It really is giving it vigor to spread beautifully.

Sunflower Ready to Show its Stuff

New Sunflower Head Growing on the Stalk

Sunflower is about ready to explode open. 

Petalless Flowers of the Member of the Grass Family

Corn Silks Exposed and Waiting for Pollen to Fertilize the Ear of Corn

Tassels Heavy with Pollen

Delicate and silky but when magnified, the silks look anything but silky

 I have a total of six stalks of corn growing in the garden this year.  I know that hand-pollinating is a must for a crop this small because there's just not enough pollen floating down from the tassels to find the silks which lead to the corn kernels.

In searching for instructions to hand-pollinate, I learned a few facts about corn which I did not know.

First, corn is a member of the plant family Gramineae which has petalless flowers borne in spikelets, and fruit in the form of seedlike grain.  

Second, corn is a graass as is rice, wheat, barley, millet, oats, sugar cane, sorghum, rye and bamboo.

Throwback Thursday to the Tomato Hornworm

When you see these near your tomato plants...beware

Droppings like the ones in the first photo, usually mean this monster is noshing his way through your favorite tomato plants

As the summer kitchen garden is starting to take shape, be vigilant about looking for droppings on the leaves and ground around your tomato plants.  This cleverly camouflaged guys can look like a rolled up leaf on the tomato plant and you'll miss spotting them.  If they are left unattended, you will come back to your garden to find entire leaves and stalks missing from your plant.  They even can take a few good whacks out of the tomatoes, too.

Knee High By the Fourth of July

Despite the record breaking temperatures this past weekend, the corn is one of the vegetables in the garden which did not get any scorched leaves.

And for the record, this corn is shoulder height and it is only June 22.

Keeping Cool with Cucumbers

Oh, we're having a heat wave.  But you can possibly keep cool with these photos of cucumbers from my garden!

This cucumber looks ready to harvest.

Baby cucumber ready to grow.

Too hot.  Baked in the sun and heat.

I had to include this final cucumber.  Yesterday was so hot, some of the veggies were baked.  Sad face.