Garden Update June 2008

The hay bale garden has been planted up for about 4 days. I finished putting the extra dirt on and planted lettuce seeds yesterday.

I started seeds this year at the time recommended on the package (ie 7 weeks before average last frost date etc). Next year I'd like to start them even earlier and then transplant them into larger pots so they will be larger at planting out time-more commensurate with the seedlings you would buy at a nursery. Maybe if I backed it up about 4 or 5 weeks. . .

For expenses thus far this year:

$90 30 Hay Bales
$10 water timer
$9 Potting soil
$28 2 bags garden soil and bean innoculant
$32.78 self watering greenhouse, coleus seeds, grow bulb
$22.90 self watering greenhouse, chamomile seeds
$38.75 wave petunias, 36 each (for flowerboxes)
$100 Petunias, geraniums, ivy, wave petunias (for flowerboxes)
$45 self watering window boxes for front porch
$50 hanging plants for front porch
$20 seeds and seedlings via mail for veggie garden
$24 raspberry canes


Obviously some of this stuff is reuseable.

6-21 Fertilizer

I bought some organic fertilizer and fertilized all of the vegetables in the back. I still need to hit the ground cherries, tomatoes, and peppers out front.

6-20

Thinned out the chard to 4 per sq foot. The thinnings made up a large bowl of sauted greens for dinner, as well as a few in the salad.

Pulled up 2 more heads of buttercrunch lettuce, and all of the measly spinach crop (must get that in MUCH earlier next year).

Planted carrots around the 2 back peppers in the second raised bed. Still need to interplant some crops around the eggplant and cabbage that went into the future asparagus bed.

picked about 15 more pea pods. The kids ate them!

No sign of germination for the scallions or the kohlrabi yet.

Started throwing scraps in the second compost pile. That will be the pile for the rest of the summer (dh will continue to mulch around the pumpkins and the squash planted into the old compost pile with grass clippings)

6-18 Update

Well, I have not kept up with what is going on!

This week a few of my petunias in the front circular bed have blossomed. Very exciting. The candytuft there looks like it will be blooming soon as well.

Something seems to have eaten my zinnas, I bought some wax begonias and impatiens to fill in that side of the figure 8 bed.

Last week I finished filling in the asparagus bed. tues I went to frog pond farms and bought dill, Summer savory, parsely (which went in the regular garden beds) and 4 red cabbage, 1 white eggplant and 1 purple eggplant (which went in the asparagus bed-asparagus will be planted next spring).

I planted the purple podded stringless beans on the 7th, they are all finally up and showing the first set of seed leaves. All the kentucky wonder and the few scarlet runner I planted next to the peas have been up for a while.

The bush beans and lima beans have been up for about a week.

I planted carrots (thumbelina) around the peppers, and plan to plant more in between the eggplants and cabbage.

Yesterday I finally go the soil mixed up for the tire tower and planted my seed potatoes (bought again on tues from frogpond, then cut and let dry outside for 2 days).

I gave up on the scallions I had planted originally in the old bed this spring. There are no signs of anything. I went ahead and planted in kohlrabi instead.

I had also harvested some lettuce and spinach, and re-sowed with slo-bolt lettuce.

I drew a small trench to the south of the purple podded stringless beans and sowed another packet of scallions. We'll see if we get anything from them.

Bought an ornamental gourd seedling and an acorn squash seedling. Planted them directly in the compost heap yesterday.

bough a new cherry tomato plant-planted it on the side of the house where 2 of the 4 ground cherry plants had died. Dug a trench and laid it on its side after pinching off the leaves to give it a better root structure. Also took the 3 in the back corner of the side there and buried part of their stems as well (they were sort of leaning down on their sides anyway.)

Have been reading "the 20 minute vegetable gardener" which has some good recommendations for spring salad greens I hadn't considered (for next year) and for some fall crops like asian radishes and asian cabbage. I'll post that info later.

Stuff is up

My scarlet runner beans are all up. My regular pole beans, lima beans and bush beans are poking their heads out in varying degrees. I planted the row of purple podded stringless pole beans today.

The row for the pole beans was totally dug in by ants yesterday. I mixed about 1/4 cup cinnamon and 1/4 cup cayanne pepper into the soil last night, and today they were gone. Yeah natural stuff! I didn't want to kill them, just to get them to move.

My NZ spinach is also up. I thinned it to 2 sprouts at each location, will thin down to 1 in a few days when I see which is stronger.

Need to transplant some of the chard. They are getting big. Also need to move the Lima beans (where I accidentally overplanted them with the pepper plants.)

Some of my candytuft in the bed nearest the house is blooming. The other two beds out front don't have anything that looks like a flower yet.

Memorial Day

A very busy garden day.

I transplanted 8 peppers, 3 cukes, Basil, Dill, Cilantro into garden beds. Transplanted 3 tomatoes around the clothes line, as well as some swiss chard (thinned from regular bed) Planted the Lovage next to the chives, planted up the "herb"pot and strawberry pot.

On side of house transplanted 4 ground cherries, and 5 extra tomato plants.

In front beds transplanted 4 candlelight peppers, all the pinks, all the zinnias, all the petunias.

In the wiskey barrels transplanted 4 pattypan squash, 4 acorn squash, 3 watermelon, 4 jenny lind melon.

Planted bush beans, kentucky wonder beans, trombucio squash, lima beans.

Last week transplanted 4 pumpkins behind the shed, and planted the scarlet runner beans in the window boxes.

5-24 update

Yesterday (the 24th) I planted lima beans, radishes, turnips, and kohlrabi. I also watered all the non germinated seeds down. I noticed that some of the slo-bolt lettuce is up, but no movement on the scallions or carrots.

growing blueberries link

Here is a good article on growing blueberries.