Wednesday, June 18, 2008

What is "growing on" in the garden today...

The green and wax beans are sprouting now.












This is my little bit of dill that Bill saved for me. We had such an overabundance of dill that volunteered this year. Most of it had to be removed. We kept a bit here and there.












Not a very good picture of my mini pumpkins. I was not sure if the seed would even sprout. I am trying to use up a lot of old seed this year. I cannot bear to throw away any seeds or anything green.












The cucumbers are doing pretty well. I am still waiting for them to start to climb.












Peppers on the other hand are not doing as well. Their growth seems to be stunted. Others in the area are also saying that their plants are not doing well this year. My plants are starting to get some flower buds though. Any peppers will be as big as the plants.












Two more raspberries are becoming red. They are not quite ready yet though. I sure am!












The potatoes are starting to flower. This is another plant that is not doing well. Some did not come up at all and others wilted after coming up. I lost two plants this way.
I must say that we are very pleased with the way that the raised beds are working out. Weeding seems much easier. The beds will take a couple years of compost to get a better soil, but so far, so good. It will be interesting to see over a few years how the more intensive gardening works out with harvest amounts and disease/bugs.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Today's garden work

Tonight Bill and I worked in the garden. The weather was so nice! We were able to turn the air off in the house, and the temps outside were great. There was enough breeze until sunset to keep the gnats away too.
I planted more tomatoes...yellow pear, red lightning, roma, jelly bean, and marcellino. I figured that I now have 48 plants. I figured that whatever we don't eat or can, I will take to work. There are plenty of people that are always willing to have free produce. No salmonella here!
We also planted sugar baby pumpkins that are supposed to be good for canning. Bill is hoping for canned pumpkin and pumpkin butter. We planted two plants; we'll see what happens.
The green beans, wax beans and Jack Be Little pumpkins are starting to sprout. No sign of the Baby Boo pumpkins, gourds or zucchini or squash yet. I am hoping that they will come up. I over planted the seed hoping that even though it was old seed, they would come up.
I picked the first red raspberry of the season yesterday. It was so delicious. The seeds almost melted in my mouth. I hope that the rest of them will taste as good. This will be the first year that we have picked them. Last year was the first year for them. Our wild raspberry on the fence is starting to turn red too. Earlier than the others.
The strawberries are on their way out. There are still a fair amount of berries that are almost ready but once those are done, that will be all for the season.
The fruit tree are still doing well also. Our Honeycrisp apple looks like a straight stick with no leaves. There are really no out branches. Maybe next year.
Good night and garden dreams!

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Newest veggie garden pics
















Here are the newest pics of the veggie garden with almost all of the raised beds in. I did not think that we would get all of them done this summer, but Bill was busy and finished them for me. I have two that need placed still and the straw placed, but the look is there.
We planted more seeds. I know that it is really late, but I thought better late than never. We planted Baby Boo pumpkins, Jack Be Little pumpkins, gourds, pic-n-pic yellow squash, zucchini, wax beans, green beans, and 16 more tomato plants (total of 32 now with more to go!!)
The flowers on the border are doing well also. I planted some more seeds hoping to fill in some of the more bare spots. I like the wild look of the volunteer plants.
We staked up the taller raspberries with old hedge poles. Bill used wire to connect them and used a technique that he used on the farm to do fencing by twisting the wire together. It gave it a really rustic look that we were hoping for. The pictures all turn out better if you click on each one to expand the view so it can be seen better. Someday I will get a nicer camera so I can take some of the great pictures that I see on other blogs.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Vegetable garden
















I finally have pictures again! Here are some pictures of our garden that I referenced in the previous post with the cattle panel in the last raised bed for cucumbers. Putting the straw around made a huge difference! I hope that it keeps the weeds down. Bill has enough wood for one more box. The rest we will probably do next year.
The weather has finally warmed up and I will be planting the rest of the garden this week. I am anxious for the seedlings to pop. I still would like to plant green beans, gourds, maybe some black eyed peas and okra, beets (I know, these should have been going by now), tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, basil, garlic chives, baby pumpkins, maybe a plant of larger carving pumpkins. I could go on and on. So much to plant and so little time!