Weedy July, Ground Cherries!

Life didn't used to be so busy =) Now, it's a regular thing to go a month without visiting my garden! Sad! But, thank goodness for automatic watering systems. From far away, the garden looks green and growing!
Close up, though, it's clear that a LOT of the green is grassy weeds. But, the good thing is that most other things are growing despite the weeds, including all of my berry plants! Not a single one died from the drought last time! Here, you can barely make out the basil among the tomatoes and the grass. Grass weeds are the bane of my garden's existence...
But, this tomato plant managed to grow mostly weed free. Pale tomatoes... I wonder what color they'll end up? The options are pink, red and blackish. Maybe these will be pink! They look too pale to be the red ones.
But this plant is also with pale tomatoes! 9 of them, to be exact =)
Strange things have also been growing in the garden. Apparently after a few years of runners and seeds or whatever goes on with the strawberries, they start going feral. Tiny strawberries in the middle of July! I didn't eat this one, but maybe I'll try it tomorrow.
Blueberries in July, too! I did eat this slightly damaged blueberry, the first I've ever tasted from my garden. And let me tell you, it was good...
More to come! I wonder if they are supposed to take this long to ripen.
And remember that strange volunteer I posted about last? Well, it looks like a little tomatillo plant! How odd! Still no idea where it came from. But, some of the husks fell down, meaning their fruit are ripe.
Cool!
And inside, a yellow fruit! Kind of like a tomato or cherry. When I came down to google, I decided it might be a ground cherry. One has to be careful with nightshade plants as some are poisonous. I ate this one though, and it was good and I'm not dead yet. Not even vomiting.
I'll won't eat them all at once though, because I'm a little nervous...
Also growing well, my squash and zucchini! The watermelons didn't make it and their pots are full of grass weeds, but these look like they're doing fine.
My first yellow straightneck squash. I think the timing is just about perfect as the seed packets usually say 45 days.
My first zucchini ever! I hope it grows nicely =) I want some yellow and green stir fry.
Gardening is good for the soul. I didn't finish cleaning out all the weeds today. Didn't want to get too tired in the heat. I'll do the other half tomorrow and maybe figure out what to plant in the several empty buckets I have at the moment.

Little update, Tomato Attacked!

I'll start with the bad news first. It seems like every year, I lose one of the tomato plants early, or at least it gets severely damaged, and thus stunted. Also, it's always in the same pot. I'll call this the bad luck pot from now on.... This year, it seems like a hungry pigeon decided it wanted to chomp the tips of each branch off. =( This will mean even later tomatoes from this plant.
Luckily, I still have 2 healthy tomato plants. I have no clue which variety each is any more. Good job documenting, Laura...
Strange things grow in the garden when you let them. This looks like some kind of squash or nightshade plant. It already has flowers growing from the center. There is another one of these growing in another pot and I don't know where they came from. I figure I'll let them grow and see if they make any tasty fruits.
The squash seeds I planted last week have sprouted.
Watermelon seed is juuuust starting to sprout.
And, the lilies are blooming =)

Note to self: June 5 is TOO LATE for setting up the water system

I had a visitor with me today, the first time on the roof since April 24th, and because there was a witness to the devastation in the garden, I feel it would be dishonest not to blog about it, too. My laziness caused this!! A pot of very dead raspberries.
There were a lot more casualties than that and some more that are on the fence and may still pull through. But as always, there are surprising survivors. A few of those peas I planted back in April grew all by themselves and had some peas the perfect size for picking =)
One of my blueberry bushes could be a goner... One suffered some damage, but is still alive. This one is still healthy with a few berries growing, but they're not blue yet =)
More small pea plants. Maybe with water and some more time they'll grow, but I'm not sure. We'll see. I also planted some swiss chard seeds in here, which should be grown and ready to pick by the time the pea plants are definitely expired.
This pot of had some pea plants and another plant, which could be a weed or perhaps a volunteer squash plant? I'm not sure, so I left it. We'll see what it grows into.
My visitor helped me clean up the dead and get new things planted. The empty buckets near the front are planted with zucchini, yellow squash, and watermelons. I planted some yellow and hot pink swiss chard. I'll be excited to eat those =)
I snipped the lower leaves and branches from my tomato seedlings and planted them low in the buckets with some egg shells and good compost that's been collecting in a bucket on my fire escape =) All 3 seedlings look pretty happy now, even if planted late. I'm optimistic I'll have some tasty tomatoes in August. I planted some basil seeds along with the tomatoes, too.
It seems like I let my garden fall into a disastrous state every year, but it's always ok to plant more and keep going! Starting over on some things isn't the end of the world =)