Monday, July 11, 2011

This Year's Garden...1st Update

I know I haven't blogged much(if any!)about our garden this year.
I don't know....I guess I am just not much 'into' the garden this year.

Here's a shot of the side bed from April 30th when we were just getting to cleaning out the beds and prepping the soil....

Usually we have nothing to harvest until mid July at the earliest because of our climate/zone.
Well, the 2 weeks of unseasonably HOT weather in early June sped up the rate of germination and growth a LOT!
We've been picking radishes for weeks!

I've got them coming out of my ears at this point.lol

And here is a shot of the same side bed taken two weeks ago....
A few tomato plants, some squashy/cuke type plants(I don't even remember what kinds....see what I mean about I'm not into it this year!lol) and a few bean plants.

We are having a devil of a time getting the bean plants to grow.  We've planted different kinds(bush and vine type)in all the different bed locations with little success.  Hubs sewed some into the wooden barrels also and those were doing great!
Until a critter found them and had a munchfest. bleh
 Hubs thinks one of the resident bunnies is decimating the bean plants since we know that the bunnies have jumped INTO the wooden barrels in the past.  But if the bunnies are doing this, explain why just the tops of the bean plants are being eaten, like someone taking a weedwacker to the plants and leaving the lower/bottom foliage and plant intact?  I think it's a taller animal, like a deer, walking through the yard and eating the tops of the bean plants.
Either way, our bean plants are not going to produce any beans this year.  *sigh*

Doesn't this shot look very lush and promising?
It is.
But it's all WEEDS not veggies!lol

And we got our first blossom on the eggplant plants 2 weeks ago.  See the lavender flower on the left in the photo?  I don't know if it will produce a fruit however since I haven't see any bees around yet to pollinate stuff.  The tomato plants in the backyard bed have golf ball sized tomatoes as of this week so I know the bees are around.
I hope I don't have to resort to playing bee and go from bloom to bloom with a paintbrush on the eggplant and squash blossoms. ;-)

Here's something I do that you might find unusual.
Lettuces are an early Spring crop.  You are suppose to plant it early and it dies back by mid summer usually.
Since we can't plant an early crop of lettuces/greens while the weather is still coolish here due to our climate, I sew the lettuce seeds among the cuke and squash plant seeds at the same time I sew the cuke/squash seeds.
This way, by the time the weather gets too warm for the lettuces(the hot weather that makes your lettuce wilt, dry up and die), the squash leaves have grown large enough to shield the lettuce from full sun.  The lettuce continues to grow well into August.

Here's my squash type plants....

 But move the leaves back and look closer....
 See my salad greens!

That's my diversity garden bed. 8-)

How is your garden doing?

Sluggy

7 comments:

  1. Neat trick with the lettuce. Somebody around here must be doing something similar, since I saw several vendors with lettuce at the farmer's market Saturday. Ours is long gone, though.

    While our garden isn't a failure this year, it's not what it could be (or has been in the past). There's just way too much out of the ordinary going on for us this year to devote the needed time to our garden.

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  2. AnnieJ--I hear ya on "too much out of the ordinary going on" thing. I just can't seem to get into a groove this year...between the Daughter drama/senior year and the car wreck, things just haven't been quite right.

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  3. I will have to try for undergrowth salad greens. I have some ugly chicken wire strung around my pitiful "garden." But, i have seen too many rabbits around and there are the three hens for me to feel comfortable leaving it unprotected. Then, there are cats and dogs. No deer!

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  4. So what you're telling me is, that these "vegetables" grow out of the ground? Who knew?
    Looks good to me, Sluggy! m.

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  5. I had a nice harvest of asparagus in May/early June, and now my deck-container tomatoes are finally coming on more than just one little cherry tom at a time. I've also been enjoying a basil plant I brought home from a gardening show (good $2 investment there!), but I don't know if my container brussels sprouts will ever actually produce anything but leaves that the squirrels eat...

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  6. Mark--Yes it is a great magic trick! You should try it sometime in your copious free time.lol

    Pretty--My various squash plants can't seem to produce any female blooms, just male ones. I guess I have a yard full of 'gay squash plants', not that there is anything wrong with that....it just doesn't make me happy at dinner time. ;-)

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  7. I love it. I've got a few things going but nothing too promising but the little potted tomato plants that I got super cheap at Walmart.
    Keep up the good work!

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