In the Garden Today

An overview of the whole garden. I'm enjoying this so much, that I'm thinking of expanding next spring, maybe doubling the boxes. I'm currently in the process of laying the fabric and mulch. Only the pumpkin area is completed as of yet.

A La Roma II getting ready to ripen.

Better boy. It was the first to produce and looks like it might be the first to ripen. At this rate, I may have a ripe one by the end of the week!

Bush sugar baby. I'm hoping they produce.

Crimson sweet watermelon. I got these as a transplant to put where the sugar babies were, but then the sugar babies took off. I ended up digging a hole in the yard, but I'm not sure if they'll grow in the very clay soil. We'll see.

Baby cucumber. They sure show up fast.

The pumpkin is the garden bully. It's trying a hostile takeover.

My baby pumpkin. These have been rather easy to grow once they get more than a few leaves on them. I lost a few seedlings when I tried to grow some transplants, but the direct sown ones did much better.

The carrots are getting ready to be harvested. I've gotten a few of them. Will definitely be planting more.

My lettuce. I haven't really liked it much. Doesn't seem to keep well, but it may be my handling of it. I think I'll try some different varieties before I give up on lettuce entirely.

Cherry tomatoes. Looking good.

The corn is tasseling. Shouldn't be too long until we're eating corn on the cob!

A marigold I grew from seed.

The cannas have survived the transplanting. They're growing well and I hope we get blooms this year. These came from the same friend who gave us the lilies, and I believe they will bloom red.

Coleus. It got beaten pretty hard from a storm and I moved it to a more sheltered space. It's doubled in size since then.

My hanging begonias. They were looking a bit ragged, but then perked up all of a sudden. I'm not sure why, but I'm not gonna complain.

Daylily from the front yard. We didn't know if they would bloom or not. A friend divided hers and gave them to us, but they sat in bags for a couple of days before they were planted.

Today's Harvest

Today, I harvested four carrots, two cucumbers and a whole mess of green beans.

I haven't posted much lately, but I have been working on the garden. I'm in the process of laying landscape fabric and covering it with a wood bark mulch. Trying to mow around the boxes was not easy and it got overgrown rather quickly. I'll take some photos tomorrow.

My spinach is all bolted and the peas are gone, but the tomatoes are just starting to yellow up. I should have some ripe ones in the next week or so. The corn is tasseling and taller than my 7 year old daughter. The pumpkin vines are threatening to take over not just the garden, but the whole yard.

My First Harvest

Though not really much, I'm excited about my first harvest, because I've never grown anything before. I even had to look it up on the internet to figure out it was time to pick. Past time actually. I may have gotten way more if I'd known to pick quickly to get more blossoms. The dollar is to show size.

7 year old hands make great shellers.

After shelling.

Lettuce and spinach. The rabbit's done dug up most of my spinach plants. I'm putting out more for the fall rotation.

The garden this morning.

Baby better boy tomato. This is one of two that are forming. I feel the tomatoes are still so small and they are already setting fruit. But, since I'm no expert, I'm gonna roll with it.

A baby roma. Sorry about the blurriness, I'm not the greatest with a camera.

Front yard container lettuce. It was looking way better than the bed lettuce last week, but since then the bed had a growth spurt and passed it.

Spinach finally getting leaves. I direct sowed back in March. I think next time I'll start them indoors.

Carrots.....looking good if a little bit varied growth. The animals have dug around them so I don't think all of them will survive.

My big pumpkin. The birds/bunnies have decapitated one the the four I have. I'm gonna let them all grow and see which two survive best.

We'll start with some flowers. My porch gets almost zero sunlight, so I'm limited to shade lovers. This is my tuberous begonia. Love that shade of orange.

My wonderful niece gave me money to go buy flowers for my baskets. Impatiens thrive there.

The other basket. More impatiens.

A New Guinea impatien.

These fairy wings will be morning glories and cardinal climbers.

I put some lettuce in a container in the front yard. They seem to be growing lots better than the backyard ones.

Yay! Peas!

Looking like carrots.
This is the lettuce that was sown in march. It's not very big, but the leaves are tighter than the ones in the front yard.

This is the largest of my pumpkins. I was only supposed to have two. Guess I didn't wait long enough to see if they germinated.

Almost every one of my tomatoes are setting blossoms. Crossing my fingers for some tomatoes to develop.
The biggest of the corn is now taller than my hand.

Bless its little heart, this bush bean got all its leaves eaten right off....I hadn't gotten around to pulling it and it's getting new ones.

I still don't know what's eating my garden. I sprayed it, but it hasn't worked yet.

It's rained so much lately, getting out to the garden was almost impossible.

Big Update

The tomatoes all caged up. That'll teach 'em not to sneak out at night.

I thought they would be too small to start setting blossoms. Which is what the yellow blob is.

Another tomato blossom.

Corn is looking good. All of them sprouted too.

Lettuce. It needs to grow or something. I'm seeing too many other garden bloggers eating theirs.

I know that this is a baby's leaf spinach, but seriously....grow please.

Carrots are putting out the first true leaves. They sure do grow slowly.

The "killed" tomato has gotten bigger and more leaves. It's a cherry tomato, so I might just grow him in a large container.

Box #1

Maestro Shelling Peas (looking sickly at the bottom..may be pests...climbing the bamboo)
Short & Sweet carrots (yay! true leaves)
Nevada Loose Leaf Letuce (still there, seeing a little more growth)
Baby's Leaf Spinach (only one or two doing well)
Evergreen Long White Bunching Onions (no change in them that I can see)

Box #2

Roma Tomatoes (caged, not much difference)
Big Boy Tomatoes (caged, starting to get blossoms)
*Better Boy Tomatoes (caged, a couple with blossoms)

Box #3
Bush Sugar Baby Watermelon (two sprouted, one transplant with true leaves)
Silver Queen Corn (100% germination, tallest maybe 2-3 inches)

Box #4
Bush Blue Lake Beans (maybe 90 % germination, ravaged and eaten)
Pickler Cucumbers (2 transplants from seed, 2 sown and growing, 6 from Amish)
California Wonder Peppers (ravaged and eaten, may rip 'em out)
Gardener's Delight Cherry Tomatoes (I broke one trying to transplant it and they didn't get put in. I still have 2 plants hanging on. I got to decide what to do with them)
Husky Cherry Red (transplanted from Amish, caged)

*Box #5
*Triple Treat pumpkin (one sown, two transplanted)