One Month of Garden Growth

I haven't taken many pictures of my garden this year, but I happened to take some about a month apart. The first photos are from the Saturday before Mother's Day. The newest photos are from last night. A month makes a huge difference.

Pea Haven

Blocks

Front: Beets & Swiss Chard

Left: Turnips & Rutabagas

Right & Back: Herbs

Center: Oregano (front) & Snow Peas

Left Bed: Purple Hole Peas & Spinach (back)

Right Bed: Green Beans & Spinach (back)

New Annex Bed

Snap peas in back. Broccoli on left. Herbs, carrots, and radishes in front.

The rest of the photos are all new because these areas weren't planted yet.

Tomatoes - Eight pots with cherry tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, and Roma plum tomatoes

 Ghetto Pallet Bed - Spacemaster cucumbers in back, eggplant in front, and fennel in the blocks

Squash Ghetto

Zucchini plants purchased with blossoms. Hoping they survive long enough to make zucchini.

Four pots: Babybush watermelon, Tivoli bush spaghetti squash, Butterbush butternut squash, Long Island Cheese pumpkin

Garden 2015: Getting Started

I didn't get seeds started indoors as I did the last couple of years, but I tried winter sowing this year. I used soda bottles instead of milk jugs to make my little greenhouses. I cut the bottles almost in half, put drainage holes in the bottom, added a few inches of moistened seed starting mix, sowed a few seeds, duct-taped them shut, and put them outside. That's it.

They were buried under about a foot of snow at one point, but they're actually growing things now. I started cold weather seeds: spinach, kohlrabi, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, spinach, and lettuce. And several of them have sprouted. I've never gotten spinach to grow before, but this time it's doing great. I hope to transplant them to a new bed in a few weeks.

The new bed is in front of the house in the area I call the Annex. I previously had long deep planters there, but the planters were four years old and starting to fall apart. The planters needed to be replaced, but I haven't found similar planters in a while, and the closest I can find cost twice as much as the original planters. So I decided to make a bed out of concrete blocks. It covers about the same area as four planters, but it only cost me as much as two replacement planters.

While I'm waiting for the seedlings to mature enough to transplant, I started snap peas, lettuce, and celery root in the new bed. The snap peas are planted along the back, and the lettuce is on the left side. Both have started coming up. When the snap peas get bigger, I'll put up a fence for them to climb. I don't know if the celery root will do anything, but it's worth putting the seeds in the soil to find out.

The old broken planters are being moved to the Squash Ghetto. They still hold soil, so I'll use them until they completely fall apart. Most of the planters I had in the Ghetto last year are broken beyond use. It was simpler and cheaper to build a small bed in the Annex to replace the aging planters than a long bed in the Ghetto to replace the destroyed planters, so that's what I did.

Two years ago I started asparagus in containers, but I didn't know what I was doing, and overcrowded them. I had planted three four-inch roots per 2-foot planter. This year I took everything out and put one arm-length root per planter. The roots were 6-7 times the size they were when I planted them! I was concerned that I wouldn't get any asparagus this year because I traumatized the roots while untangling and separating them, but my first spear is peaking out. Hurray for perennial vegetables!

I cleaned up my rain barrels to get them ready for the growing season. I've put one of the barrels a little higher to see if I can get enough pressure to use a soaker hose on the new Annex bed that's right next to it.

The splitter I'd put in the faucet of one of the barrels was leaky after leaving it out all winter, so I replaced it. But then I found that the ends were stuck in the hoses that had been attached to them. I'm still trying to figure out how to get them out. I can replace the hoses if necessary, but I'd like to keep using these if I can figure out how to do it.

The Squash Ghetto needs a lot of cleaning. I have already planted onions, leeks, kale, and fennel in the blocks that line the Ghetto. I've got plans to plant corn, sunflowers, and squash-bug-resistant varieties of squash. I also hope to try planting compact non-resistant squash varieties under a mosquito net just to see what will happen. If no eggs are laid on the squash, they might survive. The complication is that there's no way for bees to get under the net to pollinate the blossoms, so I'll have to pollinate them by hand. I did that last year because I was getting more blossoms than fruits at the beginning of last season. We'll see how it goes.

It's with great sadness and a little smirk that I must announce that Hoedun died. The handle broke when I was trying to remove a row of weeds from around the Ghetto blocks. Rest in Pieces, Hoedun.

This is Hoedun's replacement, Genghis. Hoelun (which I misremembered as Hoedun when I named my first hoe) was the name of Genghis Khan's mother, so the name is fitting. And this hoe looks like a Genghis. The spikes on the back look vicious and are very effective at taking out weeds. Genghis Hoe avenged his mother ferociously by taking out the row of weeds that took her out. I will miss the wordplay that came with have a hoe named Hoedun.

The daffodils came up well again this year. Here's Lucy dancing on the sidewalk by the daffodils.

Dog needed to smell the flowers, too. Dog has been doing all sorts of things with us lately. He went to Rhyme Time at the library and to the grocery store. He even went swinging with Lucy. Lucy had refused cake in favor of swinging, but she reconsidered when I asked if Dog wanted cake. She would have preferred to go swinging, but she thoughtfully took time out for cake because Dog wanted it. :)

Swinging barefoot in the sunshine because it's finally SPRING!

Garden Update: Late June

Pea Haven
Filet-style green beans are on the right. Purple hull peas to the left. And weeds further to the left. The green beans are already producing beans. The purple hull peas have a ways to go. The front border has kale, chard, and a marigold. The side border has basil. The middle planters have oregano and thyme. I planted other herbs, but these are the only ones that have come up.

Front Garden
The snap peas to the right have produced fairly well. I've gotten a handful of pods every few days for the last few weeks. The vines are starting to die. The plant on the left I thought was a strawberry plant, but it may actually be a very large, well-tended weed. Some marigold seeds from last year sprouted as well.

 Annex
I've got a really good sage plant. My Brussels sprouts and eggplants aren't looking very good. I've got a surprise cabbage that was supposed to be broccoli. But it's doing better than the broccoli did, so it's a good surprise. I transplanted some store-bought celery leftovers, which have taken root and are growing pretty well. The asparagus is still putting out occasional shoots, which are still tasty. In the front planters there are a few beets, parsnips, and carrots. But mostly the annex is growing weeds.

The corner of the annex and squash ghetto is where I have six pots of cherry tomatoes. Three are red, two are yellow, and one is sun-dried tomatoes. One of the yellow tomato plants has blossoms. All of the plants are looking really good.

Squash Ghetto
The ghetto is doing OK. I've got corn, sunflowers, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber, spaghetti squash, butternut, acorn, pumpkins, and watermelons. They look good, but I don't get my hopes up too much when it comes to the ghetto. It tends to disappoint. I think I planted late enough that the squash bugs won't be a problem. Very little is planted around the ghetto. A few beets seem to be doing OK.

If I get tomatoes and green beans, I'll feel the garden has been minimally successful. If I actually get squashes, corn, and purple hull peas, I will feel very successful.

Mid-April Garden Update

I have pictures, but they aren't very clear because I was excited and took them with my phone.

 I was surprised and thrilled to see the asparagus I planted last year had come up. ASPARAGUS!!! It's a perennial, so I should continue getting asparagus every spring.

 This strawberry plant was already here and is doing good. A few of the ones I transplanted are sprouting leaves. I'm looking forward to strawberries this summer.

 The little green spots in front of and behind the white fence are snap pea sprouts. They've gotten taller and put out leaves in the few days since I took the picture.

 I scooped the marigold seeds left from last year's massive marigold plants and some of the dirt from the front garden plot before planting strawberries and peas. I put the dirt in a planter, and now the marigolds have sprouted. I'll transplant them throughout the garden to keep pests away and provide some pretty color.

The back planter has chives, which are also perennials. I planted lettuce in the back between the groups of chives and spinach in front of it. The front planter has mini carrots and a gourmet blend of radishes. 

I've got more things planned but not planted.  I've got seedlings to transplant. After the weather warms again, I'll get back out to my garden.

Garden 2014

This photo pretty much shows what has happened in my garden so far this year. My daffodils came up again this year. And Lucy sometimes joins me as I try to get a little done. I've already introduced her to my barefoot and big hat gardening style.

I do have plans for this year's garden, but nothing like the great expansion last year. I'm adding a couple of blocks of width to the Ghetto, and I'd like a stand for my water barrels so that I get better water pressure, but that's all the building I have in mind. I bought some broccoli and Brussels sprout plants to transplant into my garden. I didn't get seeds started in February, so I'm taking a shortcut. I am starting seeds for tomatoes, beans, and squashes that won't be planted for a while. One of my strawberry pots broke, so I'm transplanting the plants to the front bed where I plant snap peas. I plan to plant root veggies, hearty greens, and snap peas this week. Ater that I'll finish cleaning and prepping the Pea Haven, Annex, and Squash Ghetto for planting later this spring. And I'll probably remulch the blueberry patch, which is looking even more promising this year.

Lucy, Matt, and I are going to have to negotiate how much time I have to garden this spring and summer. I will garden. Not only do I enjoy it and benefit from the exercise and the produce I get, but I also read that there's a study that shows that digging in dirt helps with depression symptoms. That seems like plenty of reasons for my gardening time to be a family priority.

Mid-July Garden Update

The Squash Ghetto 

Spaghetti squash hangs from the trellis
behind the corn. The plant is withering,
and there are squash bugs everywhere,
but I hope the squash hangs in there
until it ripens enough to eat it.

The sugar baby watermelon is really growing!

Butternut squash is looking good.

The Annex

An eggplant bud is starting to turn into an eggplant.

The fennel isn't looking very perky.

I pick a couple of handfuls of really ripe
cherry tomatoes nearly every day.

The Pea Haven

Prolific purple hull peas. I'll pick some this weekend.

Similarly prolific green beans to pick this weekend as well.

It only takes one bloody pumpkin bite before you start carrying a stick to the ghetto

The garden is doing great. Produce production has increased significantly. So far I've harvested 6 cucumbers, 3 zucchinis, a pint of cherry tomatoes, a couple pounds of turnips, a few beets, more than a gallon of green beans, and outrageous amounts of chard and kale. I've been very impressed with the garden this year. That doesn't mean that I haven't had some failures; it just means I've learned from my past failures enough to see improved results. This year my lessons have been about feeding plants,controlling bugs, selecting better seeds, and using space wisely. Lack of nutrients was killing my tomato and squash plants a few weeks ago, so I started using Miracle-Gro on them, and they perked back up. I've also figured out that using Miracle-Gro on my plants will generate usable produce sooner, which is especially important for plants that bolt in the heat (broccoli, fennel). And in the future I will prepare the soil better by adding some sort of fertilizer in the spring before I plant. For the most part I haven't had problems with bugs eating everything in sight. Some were snacking on my baby green bean plants, so I found a recipe for a homemade concoction to spray on them. It seemed to work. I also wanted to avoid corn earworms. I hate those things. It's so gross to pick a pretty ear of corn and find that a fat grub has started eating it already. I read that a few drops of vegetable or mineral oil on the silks will prevent them, so I'm trying it. We'll see in the next month whether it worked or not. My other big bug problem is squash vine borers. Last year they ate my spaghetti squash before I could and decimated my zucchini plants before they had produced much. I recognized them infesting my squash ghetto and knew I had to take action before the entire ghetto was compromised. My research suggests that wrapping the base of young squash plants with aluminum foil to prevent the borers from getting in in the first place is the best solution, but it's a bit late for that now. So I found an insecticidal soap spray that's supposed to help control them. The soap is approved for organic farming. I'm not a nut for organics, but I'd prefer the veggies I grow to not potentially poison us. It would be a shame to increase the veggies in our diets and get sick from it. I started hunting for different varieties of basil seeds when my recent attempt at pesto was nasty. Previous attempts had also been nasty, but I thought it was because the basil I was using had already turned bitter. My basil isn't bitter yet, so I was hoping for better results. I was disappointed. So I researched a bit and found that there are basil varieties that are better for pesto than others. I just ordered Profumo di Genova basil seeds from Amazon and am hoping they will make good pesto in September. The last thing I've learned is that some plants get bigger than I expect, so parts of my garden need to expand a little next year. The purple hull peas are growing riotously. I had to put up a little fence to keep them from overrunning the green beans. They could use another block-length of width, which is easy to fix for next year. I will also probably fence them again to make sure they observe some boundaries. They have no concept of personal space. I also need to make sure that veggies in blocks don't interfere with veggies in pots and vice versa. My turnips and rutabagas in blocks have prevented my kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli in containers from getting the light and water they need. And the plants in the blocks around the squash ghetto are having trouble getting light now that the squash leaves are getting huge and growing everywhere. A little space would benefit all of them. The squash ghetto itself needs to expand its width by a few blocks. Some of the vines stretch the length of the ghetto and have had to be turned back to grow towards the plant again. It's crazy. I've put up tomato fencing around the perimeter to keep them from growing into the yard and interfering with Matt's mowing. They are growing so thickly that it's hard to harvest the produce or spray the vines with insecticide or add some Miracle-Gro. This is why I ghettoized the squash. They grow everywhere and are hard to control. I've already had to barricade them, and I recently had to start arming myself. I picked up a pumpkin vine the other day to move it into a better position, and it bit me hard enough to draw blood. I decided that what I needed was a stick to move the vines aside. I found one today, and it was very helpful when I sprayed for squash bugs. I hate to feel the need to be armed in the ghetto, but I also don't want to end up bleeding every day. I'll expand the ghetto and see if that helps. I also decided today that I should try to sew simple grow bags out of lawn fabric to put inside of the blocks in the future. It will be so much easier to get the soil back out to be mixed with fertilizer if I can just pull the whole grow bag out and refill it. Grow bags are available from Amazon; but I've got a plan in mind, and I have the lawn fabric and a sewing machine. We'll see how it turns out. Now that I've got empty spots after harvesting beets and turnips, it's a good time to try something new. The explosion of produce has led to a flurry of cooking which has made the kitchen a bit messy which has displeased Matt. (I'm not thrilled with the mess either, but I at least get the joy of making the mess in the first place while creating things.) But I expect some of the cooking to slow soon. The turnips and beets are requiring more processing than other veggies--for one thing, they produce both roots and edible greens that have to be cooked separately--and now they've all been harvested. I'll replant soon for a small winter harvest. The tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, and purple hull peas should come in at more reasonable rates because they are continual producers and don't have big one-time harvests. I also got the great idea to make borscht (Russian stew) out of my beets, but I chose a recipe that requires making my own beef stock out of marrow bones slow simmered for hours with carrots, garlic, and onions. The beef stock is fantastic, and I'll have enough to make both borscht and French onion soup; but it's also been another project to mess up the kitchen.

Quick Update: Late June

I found out this afternoon that I failed the one-hour glucose test by 5 points, so I have to go in tomorrow morning for the three-hour test. The doctor had told me that if the results were even marginal I'd have to take the long test. But I was disappointed. I'm an over-achiever and hate to fail.
It didn't help that I found this out after a short night and a long day at work. Matt had a boys' night with professors/fellow-gamers in Louisville last night. Elsie and I went shopping in Campbellsville. Consignment stores, Big Lots, Dollar General! We did it all! After Elsie and I got home, a rowdy thunderstorm moved in. Matt was still on the road when the electricity went out, so I scrambled to find lights and food and entertainment until he arrived. I was a little wired when he got home. About the time I got settled, Elsie decided it was party time... for four hours. I got about four hours of sleep and then worked an extra 1.5 hours at the church. So I was in no state of mind to be told that I had failed a health test, especially since I am very aware that my primary job as a mom is to take good care of myself and be healthy. And I was told I'm already failing. Self-flagellation is very easy when I'm tired. But I'm doing better now. Matt took me to Colton's for salmon and steamed veggies. Eating salmon always makes me feel virtuous. Then I took a nap, went swimming, discovered baby squashes and cucumbers and green beans while watering my garden, and took a long warm bath. I'm about to eat some tuna and celery (which also makes me feel virtuous) and then head to bed around midnight, when my fast starts. Tomorrow is another test. But surely the virtuous mom who consumes fish high in omega-3s, exercises, and grows her own produce can pass a test of sugar water and waiting around.

Fruitful and Multiplying

 The head of broccoli is recognizable as broccoli and is the size of a small floret.

The first cherry tomato of the season!

Several snap pea plants and a few peas. The big pea in this picture was promptly eaten as soon as the photo was taken. It was pretty yummy.

The blueberries are small but growing.

It took a few replantings in some spots, but I've got many green bean and purple hull pea plants that are thriving. The oldest plant is putting out flowers.

And the chard in the front right corner has grown since I harvested some last week.

And the squash ghetto is growing like crazy. I will soon need to put up some sort of trellis.

The tomatoes are already caged. I stayed on top of them this year.

Gardening is so easy I can do it from Missouri!

While I was traveling in Missouri last week, my garden continued to grow. (Thank you to Heather for watering and talking to my garden.) I had planted the Squash Ghetto a day or so before we left, and look at it now! Corn has sprouted and is 4-5 inches tall. And the squash, melon, and cucumber plants are well-established. Hurray!

I was also excited to see the peas and green beans I planted at the same time as the Squash Ghetto were doing great, too. These pictures were taken before I weeded. 

My oldest blueberry bush (which isn't very bushy) is actually making blueberries.

The snap peas are not only clinging to the little fence, but they are also starting to put out flowers.

My tomato plants grew exponentially while I was away. They now have buds on them. I expect flowers and tomatoes soon.

And all of my other veggies are looking great. I've got edible radishes. I'm looking for a good radish recipe to use my first produce.

AND MY IRISES ARE IN BLOOM! There weren't even buds on them before I left, so I was shocked to find them in full bloom.