My Garden is almost all planted

I have spent the better part of the last 3 days working in my garden and I almost have it all planted. I almost said I was almost done, but garden work is never really done. Anyway, it is going to have quite a different look this year. I am adding two things I didn't have much of last year: color and height. I have planted many flowers. You can see the yellow Tickseed in the near right corner along with the red geranium and purple violet I got for Mother's Day. My chives and sage are still blooming. And I have planted Cosmos, Nasturtiums, Marigolds, Indian Blankets, Bee Balm and flowering herbs like dill and anise hyssop. Those beneficial insects will be swarming! I also have the pea trellises (you can see the peas are now half-way up the trellises I built). There are several small peas popping out on the plants and they should be ready to pick in the next week or two. I also had my 7yo son help me build the 7 teepees for the pole beans in front.

Besides the flowers and herbs I already mentioned, here's a list of what I've planted this year:

* Tomatoes - Cherokee Purple (3)
* Tomatoes - Brandywines (2)
* Tomatoes - Roma (4)
* Tomatoes - Black Cherry (1)
* Tomatoes - Golden Nugget (1)
* Tomatoes - Green Zebra (1)
* Tomatoes - mystery (1) - I forgot by the time I got it home what it is
* Pepper - bell "Big Bertha" (4)
* Pepper - Sweet Banana peppers (4)
* Pepper - Habeneros (4)
* Pepper - Jalepenos (4)
* Eggplant - Black Beauty (3)
* Peas - approx. 80 plants
* Beans - green bush "Blue Lake" (1 row so far)
* Beans - black bush "Black Turtle" (2 rows)
* Beans - green pole "Kentucky Wonder" (63 plants)
* Corn - sweet yellow "Country Gentleman" (4 rows in a block)
* Cucumber - (forgot the variety) (2)
* Beets - Tall Top Early Wonder (2 rows)
* Radishes - Crimson Giant (1 row inside pea trellis)
* Lettuce - mixture (1 row inside pea trellis)
* Broccoli - (1)
* Cauliflower - (4)
* Cabbage - (2)
* Garlic - (4)

I have to admit, I've bought Beauregard Sweet Potatoes, but they have been on the bottom of my priority list and I'm too exhausted to put them in tonight. But I will do it tomorrow definitely!

Here are some more photos I took today:
Sage in bloom.

Pea trellis with plants growing half-way up to the top. Also the sage is a lot bigger in this photo than the last one I took.

My one surviving broccoli plant. I don't know if it will produce much to eat, but isn't it pretty?

One of my eggplants. This photo shows two things I've done to organically help along my garden. First, I used bathroom dixie cups with their bottoms cut out to make cutworm collars for my eggplants. This should prevent cutworms from severing the stem at the surface of the ground while the plant is young and vulnerable. Also, I am mulching all of my established plants with grass clippings from lawnmowing. It does an amazing job of keeping the soil moist as the sun is already beating down on us. Unmulched soil is caked and cracked like concrete. But when I scraped away the grass clippings just next to the cracked soil, it was cool and moist and loamy. Perfect!

Today's local weather:
High temp: 78 F
Low temp: 58 F
Sunny and warm

Harvest and What I've Learned So Far

Here are some of my first harvested produce from the garden. There are two zucchini, three cucumbers, two green onion and one small yellow onion, my first ripe tomato, and my first green bell pepper. Most of these were for a salad for dinner and we ate them fresh from the garden.

I've been thinking lately about how much I've learned just in the last four months about gardening. There have been so many lessons that I think will help me as I plan next year's garden. Here's a list of lessons that come to mind:

* Not all bugs are bad - some bugs are "good guys"
* Organic fertilizer makes a huge difference in the growth of new plants
* When starting seedlings indoors, I need to provide them more space to grow inside (either transplant to bigger pots while still inside or plant in a bigger pot in the first place)
* When starting seedlings indoors, I need a bigger light so the seedlings don't have to stretch (and become spindly) to reach the light
* I need to have a cold frame or some sort of protection to harden off seedlings before setting them out
* Once the seedlings are in the ground and set in, mulch to prevent weeds and control soil moisture and temp
* May and June will require more weeding than July and later because the plants haven't grown enough to block the weeds' sunlight yet
* Flowers in the garden are not just a visual accessory, they are necessary for attracting pollinators
* If pollinators don't come and work for you, do it yourself with a small child's paintbrush
* Plant lettuce early and protect it from heat and sun
* Harvest as soon as the plant is ready and often
* Once a plant is spent, remove it from the garden to keep the garden tidy
* Make sure there is enough space in the garden for the full-grown size of the plants you choose
* Make vertical supports to maximize space, especially with sprawling plants.

Today's local weather:
High temp: 83 F
Low temp: 66 F
Partly cloudy

Signs of life

I just took this picture about 15 minutes ago. It is one of two zucchini plants that are getting huge. They each are 2-3 feet in diameter and now this morning this one has a huge flower. Yesterday I also saw these signs of life:
Two weeks ago I thought this cucumber plant was a goner. The base of its stem had gotten white and brittle. I posted a picture of it at its worst at the top of my May 31, 2008 post. However, I noticed that the leafy growth on top was still green and growing so I left it alone. Yesterday I noticed two healthy-looking yellow flowers on it. The other plant has flowers too. Talk about Phoenix rising from the ashes!

This muskmelon plant also has several flowers.


One of my garden tasks yesterday was to tie the tomato plants to the trellis. They are getting big and bushy (thanks to the fertilizer I added a couple of weeks ago) and will topple over soon without support. Anyway, while twining I found this - my first green roma tomato. See it there in the middle just below the horizontal trellis bar? All of my plants have blooms on them and one of the grape tomato plants has three little tomatoes. I'm expecting more every day.

I'm so overjoyed because I've tried gardening in the past, but I just wasn't doing it right. My plants, if they lived at all, were spindly, unhealthy, and bore little fruit. This year the plants are doing what they're supposed to! Everything is getting bigger and bigger each day. The things that I think have made the biggest difference are 1) the fence has kept rabbits out of the garden, 2) the organic fertilizer has really fed all the plants, and the neem oil soap has kept the little bugs off of the plants.

We have recently been deluged with rain. In fact, south of us towns were underwater. We lucked out and only got drenched and then the water ran off. It has been raining a lot more than usual for several weeks now. While this has had horrible consequences for many homeowners in my area, my garden has benefited. I haven't had to water my garden for a couple of weeks now. Mother Nature is taking care of it for me. And those steady, deep rains are far better than anything I can do with my hose.

Today's local weather:
High temp: 90 F
Low temp: 72 F
Partly cloudy, hot and humid.

Guano, fish, and blood

So now that I have just about everything in the ground in my garden, I felt it was time to add fertilizer. Yesterday we drove quite a distance to a store that sells organic gardening supplies. It's far enough away that we can't go there every day or even every week, but it is definitely the place to go to stock up on organic fertilizers and pesticides.


I bought two boxes of this organic tomato and vegetable fertilizer. We also bought one box of the variety for fruit and flowers for the berry garden. I went out and added it as directed to the tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and sweet potatoes. I'll probably go back and add it to other plants as they get more established.

I also planted my third succession planting of lettuces, spinach, carrots and green onions. I feel renewed hope for these veggies. The first planting of spinach never did come up and I assumed at this point it was too late in the season to count on much. I was ready to give up on the spinach this year. But now I notice that my second planting that I made a couple of weeks ago has come up. So I took that as a sign that I shouldn't give up yet. I also noticed tiny little carrot and green onion sprouts where, a couple of weeks ago, there were none. My lettuces are also looking good. I may have some good salad veggies after all. Now my only hope is that it doesn't get too hot too soon.

Today's local weather:
High temp: 79 F
Low temp: 63 F
Partly cloudy, scattered strong storms this afternoon

Prepping the beds

I've been busy with work since I last posted, but things have been moving right along with the garden. We had the guy come and plow our 20' X 24' garden plot. Then we bought materials and made a two-foot fence around the perimeter to keep the neighborhood wild rabbits out. Then I marked off my garden design using tent stakes and twine.

Today I bought 16 40-lb. bags of composted cow manure (that's 640 lbs.). While that sounds like a lot (and felt like a lot trying to carry the bags myself while everyone else was at school/work) it really barely covers the space I have intended for plants. I may end up sending Jeff back for more. I've opened all the bags, spread them out and have been using our garden claw to work the manure into the soil. I'm far from done, but my body is starting to give out. I'm in bad shape and I've definitely burnt some calories today. Here's how the garden looks right now:



Today's local weather:
High temp: 75 F
Low temp: 47 F
Sunny.