Future insights?

It is July... in fact, a week into July for that matter.  This is when I see people posting pictures of things they are harvesting and other gardens and I feel, well, like I'm way behind.  I know, I know, that's not how all this works, but I still feel like I'm just not getting it.

Then, after a day of couch dwelling after Fay ripped just west of us, I went down to do a quick water before getting on to the errand run.  I was greeted by a beautiful little flower on the Blue Adirondacks. 

It's so pretty and so delicate and reminding me, "It's OK.  Be patient."

The purple tinge of the leaves and the rich greens make me smile every time I see them, now I have these little flowers to look forward to when I go down and suddenly I'm not as worried that I only have male flowers on the summer squash and zucchini plants or that my squash keeps having to face all sorts of challenges this year.

But the truly exciting moment beyond that was the formation of my first tomato.

I planted my tomato seeds on March 1 and tended and watched over them for months.  They struggled when I first put them in the ground because we got hit with an unexpected, and quite unusual, heatwave.  I didn't think my tomatoes were going to make it at all.  But the Solar Flares and Yellow Pears fought back against the odds and this morning I spied the beginning formation of a Solar Flare tomato! 

Then I heard the whisper, "Patience, patience, patience."  A virtue, to be honest, I seem not to be entirely blessed.  Persistence and stubborn determination, absolutely, but patience not so much.

Another thing is that, as I study my SFG materials, I need to demonstrate the grids on my boxes.  As someone who started out as a mechanical artist, I'm more of an eyeball and, when necessary, just draw lines in the dirt kind of girl.  Grids are OK, but I don't like their aesthetic and I have my planting square to help me with spacing.

But I need to show my grids if I want to pass my class.

I looked to my tomato box for ideas.  I need to cage my tomatoes as they are really starting to do what tomatoes are supposed to do - grow.  I built a prototype cage for myself out of PVC - and I do love PVC - and started thinking: can I adapt this to make my "grid" for my class?
Hmm...

So I did some calculations in my journal and I think I can adapt this in a way that I can build higher if I need to per the individual plant and still show my grid.  I feel like I should imbed a meme of Groo saying, "Lightbulb." Now I have a plan, so when the weather cools a bit today, I'll start on that down in the garden.

My mini eggplants are really starting to grow.  There is something so pretty about a little eggplant just hanging out and growing.  I wish I had some full-sized black beauty eggplants this year, but the heat killed them off with my peppers early in the season, so this is from Agway and all they had left were the minis at that point.

The summer squash and zucchini are flowering, but as I said earlier, it looks there are only male flowers which, while are a lovely bite when breaded and fried up, doesn't give me fruit.  They're still little, so I am hopeful that I will get some summer squash of some type this year.

As I said, the squash has been through so much between the chipmunks and vine borers.  (The DE seems to be helping that situation and I saw one of my butternuts put forth another set of leaves, so fingers are crossed as tight as I can get them.) 

I am seeing lots of crickets and ants this year.  I know snakey is taking care of the crickets for me and I'll have to put out a borax trap for the ants.  I know they're pollinators, but they are bitey ants and they are EVERYWHERE!  So yeah, a borax trap to knock them down to a reasonable population is probably a good thing.

I'm trying to keep the words from today's Old Farmer's Almanac in mind: "The zucchini crop for which you had big baking plans may never come to pass.  Despite everyone's best intentions (not just yours, but theirs, too, no doubt!), annuals sometimes droop and die off before the season has barely started.  Perfection is impossible, but there are no failures - just insights to guide you into the future."

Here's to those insights... and maybe, if it's not too greedy of me, some zucchini too?