The zucchini are growing, but very slowly. I’ve never grown these before, so I’m not sure what to expect. The red onions seem fine. All else is gone, with the exception of my two tomato planters on the other side of the house.
The elephant ears are doing well, in spite of our having to water them manually.
The tomato plants were looking dry, so we ran the watering system for the back manually to make sure all was working as it is supposed to.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
My zucchini are doing fine, though they are growing a little more slowly than I expected. The only things left in my raised bed, square foot garden now are sweet red onions and zucchini.
Our tomatoes seem to be doing fine. No sign of disease or bugs or worms yet.
I’ll spray the tomatoes and the zucchini today with EIGHT to protect them from pests. Otherwise, I’ll try to do some weed whacking. I didn’t do anything after the last time my husband mowed, so maybe I can say I’m AHEAD of him THIS time… Weed whack, and then spray with KILLZALL to try to at least keep up with things, if not get a little bit ahead of them…
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
After a week or so of not being able to work in the garden, things are pretty out of hand. My tomato plants are looking healthy, but I’ll need to get serious about pruning this week. I’ll concentrate on trying to be outside early in the morning, or before dark in the evening, or both, until I get things under control. I’ll try to carefully prune, then anchor the plants to the supports.
The veggie garden has exploded. The onion stalks are now over a foot tall. The zucchini plants are huge and blossoming. The record heat has almost done-in the broccoli before it really had a chance to get started. It’s starting to bolt, so I’ll harvest what I can today. Weeds are rampant. The lettuce leaves are huge.
I’ll be doing a lot of careful harvesting this weekend, one thing at a time, between rain storms. You would THINK with all this rain the temperature would be cooler, rather than like a sauna…
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I didn’t realize when I told you earlier I planned to spend time outside today, working in my veggie garden and pruning my tomatoes, that the veggie garden by itself would need so much attention.
About 1:15 I went out again. The sun is quite strong and it feels hot when you’re working. I got two of the six 4’x4′ wooden planter boxes weeded before I needed to come in to rest and drink some water. It’ll probably take me two more half-hour-or-so sessions to finish the weeding. The tomatoes will have to wait until tomorrow, or the next time Mother Nature is in a cooperative mood.
In the foreground of the picture above, the zucchini plants are thriving.
I’m going to rest for while, cool off, and drink water like a camel before going out for another session.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
It’s too rainy to be out working in the garden or the yard today, but –
“Save a boyfriend for a rainy day – and another, in case it doesn’t rain.” ~ Mae West
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
The forecast is for thunderstorms EVERY DAY between the 17th and the 27th. I’m going to try to get a nice harvest in, either today or tomorrow, before all the rain starts.
I’ve been covering my veggie plants and tomato planters with sheets for 4 nights now, and so far, things seem to have come through the freezes all right. The Zucchini has had the most reaction. I’ve had to cut off several leaves from the plants. They blackened with the frosts and freezes. There is enough left of the plants that still looks good I think they will make it.
According to the weather website we are now past the freezes. This is really unusual here. Usually, our last frosts are April 5th, and that is even pretty late since I have been trying to grow things. We are supposed to get rain tonight and all day tomorrow.
I have the sheets spread out on the fencing around the garden, trying to dry it out during the day today so I can bag them up and put them away.
I HOPING that things will get back to normal for gardening soon.
Although the veggies seem to be doing all right, my elephant ear bulbs did not make it over wintered in the garage. I have finally given up on them and ordered more bulbs. I am hoping those will arrive soon so that I can get them into the ground.
I gathered my first harvest of the year recently, and we enjoyed a main meal salad last night, featuring our own spinach and lettuce! It’s been quite awhile since we were able to do that. I loved it!
Things are looking very happy right now. We are under a possibly severe storms warning most of the day, so I’m HOPING that the storms are just rain and wind, rather than hail.
123RF.com
After Lunch Bunch yesterday, we went to the co-op and bought a bunch of veggie plants.
This is the way my raised bed square foot garden has looked all winter. I did an experiment this year. Hoping to avoid having to spend a day or two weeding the boxes before I could plant, I cleaned out the boxes when the growing season was over, filled up the boxes with Mel’s Mix (soil alternative), put a pail in the middle of each box and covered each box with a tarp, held in place by bungee cords. I really wasn’t sure what to expect.
Happily, this is what I found!
I planted Buttercrunch Leaf Lettuce, Head Lettuce, Spinach, cabbage, yellow crookneck squash, zucchini, and red onions. I will add radish seeds and some celery I’m starting in the kitchen.
We discovered we needed to replace a section of the hose. Then we discovered that the sprinklers’ pressure setting parts in the center of each were broken from being in the weather too long, so we have ordered new sprinklers.
Today I need to weed the two brick planters we converted to square foot gardening and plant the tomato plants we bought yesterday.
I can’t tell you how MUCH my spirits lifted to be outside in the sunshine digging in the dirt, planting my spring garden!
I hope that you are enjoying some nice weather, too.
Happy Saturday!
Yesterday’s tomato harvest was really nice. We’re still getting all different sizes of tomatoes, since the plants are stressed due to our weather. We’re getting deeply into summer now, so hopefully we can give them enough water to keep them producing. We are beyond spoiled, looking forward to having fresh, ripe sliced tomatoes with lunch and dinner every day. :0)
Yesterday we were checking on our irrigation system since it’s lethally hot and we haven’t had any rain in awhile. We found one planter that we had rebuilt recently where the holes have NOT been drilled into the PVC pipe that brings it water! We will remedy that today. (I moved my elephant ear plants from the front porch where they were not happy to the newly rebuilt planter. It would be NICE if I also provided water.
My plants in the garden continue to get larger and produce blooms, but no zucchini or yellow crookneck squash yet. I’m starting to think the ‘plants’ are all I’ll get…
Filed under Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
sayingimages.com
My husband is out mowing now – even though it’s too wet – because the rain has been such that there is NEVER a good time to do the job. It will have to be enough. Since the heat index today will be in the area of 110 degrees F., I’m glad he is out there getting the job over with now. (The weather people says it will get REALLY hot this coming week!) Right now, though, it is still cool enough to have the doors open and the ceiling fans on.
My zucchini and yellow crookneck squash plants are still looking healthy, but no actual veggies growing yet. The celery I planted is still alive and I have two more celery bottoms in water in the house. The onions continue to look good. I’ll go out later to see if we have more ripe tomatoes.
I worked on painting a new design of wooden earrings yesterday in my art room. I’ll post pics later.
I am hoping for a quiet day today.
I hope that YOUR Sunday is a nice one, too.
The zucchini and yellow crookneck squash plants are looking pretty good, though none have started to produce actual veggies yet. I will have to make time to weed out there very soon. The sweet red onions are continuing to get larger.
This is today’s haul of tomatoes. I really don’t know why we’re getting so many little bitty tomatoes, but I’m grateful we can enjoy them with our meals.
It’s really humid out today. It’s 80 degrees now, which would be wonderful, but the humidity is 78%, making it feel like a sauna the minute you go out. We have had the doors open to enjoy the morning, but are going to have to close up, or I will melt into a puddle onto the floor in front of my computer…..
I recently got caught up on weeding our raised-bed, square-foot garden. In this picture, you can see that I have onions in most of this planter box and part of another. I read that the ones which have shot the greenery up and have bloomed are the ones we should eat first, because they won’t dry and store well. I have also read that it doesn’t matter that the others are losing their greenery. They will continue to get larger if I just leave them where they are.
This is another wide shot of the garden. It’s hard to show you the whole thing at once. What you are looking at is SIX 4’x4’x8″ wooden boxes with drain holes set into metal supports about my chest level. They are tied together with hoses, with a sprinkler in the center of each box, so we can water each day for a specified time. (Later on in the summer, the sun will be so strong that it doesn’t matter how much you try to water, things will simply burn up.) For now the plants are happy.
I have planted zucchini and yellow crookneck squash. I will add some radishes at some point, but I’m keeping things simple this year. The plants have gotten larger, but haven’t shot out vines yet.
It took me two days to get everything weeded and under reasonable control. You can see the size of the onions.
I also have empty, weeded squares now, where I can plant radish seeds. My two little bitty celery plants are still alive. I have no clue when I am supposed to tie them up (this is supposed to result in the nice celery stalks you get at the grocery store. I’ll see if I can find some information.
I showed you the tomato plants yesterday. We are looking forward to enjoying some sliced tomatoes with our dinner tonight!
Today will be hot and humid. Right now we’re enjoying have the doors open and a nice breeze coming through. Later today, though, we’ll close up, not only because of comfort, but because the dust cloud from the Sahara is due this afternoon and tomorrow.
Yesterday I spent about an hour weeding in my raised bed, square foot veggie garden. We built six 4’x4′ boxes and installed them on metal supports, so they are like tables. They are about my chest height, so I can do almost everything I need to do, from planting, feeding, weeding, and harvesting, without having to bend over double or get down on my hands and knees.
We mix up “Mel’s Mix,” a soil alternative that is a combination of peat moss, vermiculite, and as many different kinds of compost as we can find or create.
The garden is as protected from critters as we can make it, having a high fence around the perimeter, and then chicken wire around the bottom. We have a door gate.
We fixed an irrigation system on a timer, so the veggies are watered each day for a specified time.
Right now I’m trying to grow yellow crookneck squash, zucchini, and sweet red onions. I will also try some radishes soon. Yesterday I planted some celery that I started in my kitchen.
I got three of the six planters weeded yesterday, and will try to finish the job today. So far, the plants look happy.
This is one of the two celery plants. I never really thought of celery as “cute,” but I think these are. :0)
We also have the two brick planters of tomatoes. We have bright yellow blossoms and lots of small green tomatoes. We are hoping for a good crop, because fresh, sliced tomatoes from our garden is one of our favorite things.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Yesterday I planted three yellow crookneck squash plants and 4 zucchini plants in the garden after weeding and prepping since I pulled the spinach and lettuce plants out. I gave the new plants LOTS of room because the vines of all of these spread out all over the planters. I want to give them all the room they need. I have developed a taste for both of these since I spiralize them to use in place of pasta and rice on my keto eating plan.
I can clean and use the spiralizer on them, put them in individual serving sandwich bags, and then put the bags into a gallon freezer bag. I can then pull out what I need and quickly microwave MY ‘pasta’ or ‘rice,’ and cook the regular stuff for my husband when I making spaghetti or one of my ‘sauce over pasta or rice dishes.
I listened to a video that taught me more about growing and storing onions. He said that the ones that grow tall and make a flower are not good for long-term (over the winter) storage. Those should be eaten whenever you’re ready, but should be eaten soon after pulling. The others are fine to try to dry for storage. (You can see my onions in this picture.)
Here you can see that some have a ‘bulb’ on top. These are the ones the man was talking about that should be pulled and eaten soon after harvesting, rather than trying to prep for storage.
With all the rain we’ve had, the tomatoes got really big and bushy quickly. They do have some bright yellow blossoms, and if you look carefully, you can see a tiny green tomato. At this point, I’m just going to prop them up the best way I can and hope for the best.
This is the ‘nook’ planter, where 4 plants have also exploded in growth. With three weeks or so of pretty steady, heavy rain, things got out of hand. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we actually get tomatoes, rather than just a whole lot of greenery.
Getty Images
Our tomato plants are looking good, with several bright yellow blossoms, but no green tomatoes yet.
Today while we were out, we went to the co-op to see if they had any good plants. I’m delighted that we found yellow crookneck squash and zucchini!
We have finished lunch and I just finished cleaning the aquarium, so I’m having a cup of coffee before going out to make the garden ready for summer plants and then planting our treasures. I’ll try to get pics before I come in. :0)
Filed under Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I just came in from taking a quick look at the garden, and then to the other end of our house to the tomato planters. This is today’s harvest, but it’s obvious that the super-hot weather lately has brought a halt to most of the harvests now.
We have had a wonderful time this year. We had a LOT of lettuce, radishes, and tomatoes, and were able to share some of each of these with our friends. The zucchini made big plants, and we harvested several zucchini, but I’ll read about how we can do better on these next year. I also want to plant yellow crookneck squash next time.
The cantaloupe was fun, but all we have are either green or yellowish small ones, all hard as a rock with vines spreading everywhere. I have no clue if they’ll actually continue to grow and ripen or not. Another subject for a lot of reading. The red onions are still looking good. As soon as the weather gets a bit cooler, I’ll start looking to see if any are ready to come out of the ground.
Beautiful World
Of course when I was the farthest away from the house, the rain started. I toweled off when I came in, but it’s a very good thing I’m not water-soluble. :0)
Filed under Gardening, Mother Nature, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I’ve been working on our garden, trying to get it cleaned up after I had to neglect it for about a week. My husband came out there with me today – a rare and delightful thing – and we did a good amount to prune and clean up. I have another session to do out there, but it will wait.
There is always more to do in the garden, but we improved things a lot today. I pulled up my radishes a couple of days ago, the last time I was out there. For some reason, they didn’t make successfully this time. I was disappointed, because I got spoiled with a really super crop with the last batch I planted in the spring, having enough to give to my friends and having lots for me to enjoy. I’ll concentrate on trying not to be greedy. I’ll plant another group soon.
The zucchini plants are still looking healthy, although I’m having to read everything I can get my hands on to figure out what I’m doing.
We have lots of these small cantaloupes! I didn’t know they start out green, but we made sure each one is now sitting in a plastic bowl to keep it out of the dirt, as I read they like. Fingers crossed that they actually grow into something delicious to eat!
Red onions.
Our weather has been really different this year. Our tomato plants are looking pretty sad right now. I have no clue whether we’ll get more or not. We’ve had such a good crop this year. I hope I can extend the season some.  I took bags of ripe tomatoes to our friends at Lunch Bunch this morning, and then another bag to our hairdresser on the way home. I love it when we can share the wealth!
Obvious Fun
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
It’s been about a week since I’ve been able to get out to the garden. Needless to say, there is a LOT to do out there now.
I did some weeding and harvested this zucchini and some tomatoes. I’ll go back out there later and prune a bunch of stuff and do more weeding.
We have some cantaloupe! I used several plastic ‘bowls’ with holes in them that allow the cantaloupe to grow while keeping them off the soil. I have no clue if we’ll actually get anything edible, but I’m like a kid waiting for Christmas watching them grow!
I’ll try to get some pics of the garden later to share.
Filed under Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Good news and iffy news from the garden today.
GOOD NEWS – more ripe tomatoes and it looks like lots more to come. The radishes and sweet red onions seem to be doing fine.
IFFY NEWS – I have a lot of ‘greenery’ and blossoms from my zucchini and cantaloupe plants, but the actual veggies and fruits are looking wimpy. In three days of my concentrating on other parts of the yard, the weeds are trying to take over. The heat index is 105 today, so I’ll have to wait until dusk to do anything out there. I’ll weed as much as I can and then put some extra fertilizer over things and see what, if anything, happens.
I absolutely LOVE trying to grow veggies and fruit. I have a wonderful set up, with chest-high wooden 4′ x 4′ planters filled with Mel’s Mix (peat moss, vermiculite, and several kinds of compost) and an irrigation system for consistent watering. I have unlimited hope and enthusiasm, but little expertise, though I’m reading and learning what I’m supposed to be doing on a regular basis. Thus far, the list of things NOT to do again is growing much faster than the successes, but my motivation is still strong.
Each lunch and each dinner features fresh, ripe tomatoes from our own garden. I ‘spiralized’ (made spaghetti-like stuff with the aid of my kitchen gadget) from one pregnant-looking zucchini from our own garden and my husband pronounced it ‘yummy.’Â Next year I plan to grow yellow squash, too. We’re spiralizing that, too, and my husband is shocked that he enjoys both of these. He did say, though, that he’ll TRY some as a substitute for actual pasta, but doesn’t hold high hopes for the idea yet. I’m hoping I can convince him. :0)
After we got back from relocating the raccoon this morning, I went to check on the tomatoes and the garden. I harvested these from the larger planter – the plants I thought were going to croak earlier because the leaves were turning yellow and falling off. These plants still don’t look ‘healthy,’ but they are producing delicious tomatoes. The nook planter beside the house has only two plants in it and they are HUGE, green, and leafy. I’ve only gotten two ripe tomatoes so far. There are lots of green ones, though, and lots of blossoms. There might be a lesson here somewhere, if I can just figure out what it is. I would appreciate some opinions from people who know what they are doing in the garden.
In the larger square foot garden, I couldn’t do much because the irrigation system was going. I have large, leafy-looking zucchini plants now with large yellow flowers and a few actual zucchini! I harvested one pregnant-looking one so far. I have several now that might get large enough to harvest.
I also have the cantaloupe plants whose arms are spilling out over everything with lots of blossoms. There is one small cantaloupe that I have supported by a plastic round thingie with legs and holes in it. I have no clue whether we’ll actually get anything worth eating, but it’s great fun to watch the progress. \
The onions are expanding, even though their tops were so damaged in several storms I elected to cut them off.
I need to do some weeding out there and then I’ll take pics to share.
Filed under Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
This is our garden, minus two tomato planters on the opposite end of the house. It’s a raised-bed, square foot garden.
“Raised bed” – because we built six 4’x4′ wooden boxes, put them on top of metal supports (like tables) at about my chest height, so I don’t have to get down on my hands and knees, or bend over double to garden.
“Square foot garden” – because the only ‘soil’ we have up here on top of our ridge line was trucked in so we could have grass around the house. We tried to have a regular garden, enriching the soil, etc. and it was a dismal failure. After several years I was delighted to find Mel Bartholomew and his book, Square Foot Gardening, where he explained that we could ‘create’ a growing medium much like soil ABOVE the ground and grow veggies!
We surrounded our garden with fencing, since we do have deer running around. Usually I have bright neon-colored tape running around the outside to warn the deer so they don’t run into the fencing. The rains and sun deteriorated the tape and I haven’t put more up yet. We have chicken wire around the bottom to deter rabbits and other cute critters from breaching the fencing, although I would think it would be difficult for them to climb up the metal legs to get to the veggies. Our garden door is looking a bit sad these days. We’ve had so much to deal with after losing so much of our electronic goodies in the recent storms that I haven’t bothered my husband with it. You might get a giggle out of the sign on the door. We did that when we first got the CNC set-up in the shop, where we can do computer-guided cutting of sheet metal. That was one of the first things we cut out. The poor thing is rusted now, but it’s one of my favorite things.
This sweet, oddly shaped thing is probably the world’s smallest cantaloupe. I have no clue whether we’ll actually get anything edible, but it’s fun to try.
I’ve never seen zucchini growing before and I’m fascinated. We may not get much of a crop, but I’m eager to check what we have each time I go out.
With all the rain and strong sun we’ve had, I can’t keep the weeds out of here, but I’m trying to keep them down as much as possible so the sweet red onions have room to grow.
This is the latest group of radishes. I’m hoping they do well. The last crop was better than I’m able to get at the store.
Here is today’s harvest. I was so pleased to see more ripe tomatoes. And these, except for one, all came from the plants in the long planter that had yellow leaves and were looking spindly recently. I added bone meal and some tomato food, and they have responded well, although they don’t look as healthy as the two plants in the planter beside the house. MAYBE it’s a good thing to have much less greenery – leading to better production of tomatoes….
And this is my first zucchini! I have no clue why this one looks pregnant. The ones at the store don’t look like this. It’ll be interesting to see if it tastes good or not.
I was planning to spend more time outside this morning, but the wind picked up, the skies darkened, and I heard rumbling thunder. I hurried inside, closed the garage door, and prepared for the coming storm. My phone was even sending me messages about lightning and heavy rain right outside of Greenwood. We didn’t get the storm! NOW the sun is out again. Go figure.
Filed under Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
All spring it has either been heavily raining or SUPER hot with strong sun. Nothing in-between. Today I was only out for about half an hour, and came in huffing and puffing, wiping my head and face, and wanting to glug water.
I found these yellow leaves on my tomato plants yesterday. My friend, Laufrain, and I looked up the problem last night. It suggested bone meal and fertilizer. I just added both of those to the planter and watered. Fingers crossed they like it. I have nice green tomatoes and am hoping for a good crop.
This is our other tomato planter. As you can see, the plants are good and healthy. I have no clue what’s going on with the longer planter.
This is my first trial at growing zucchini. I have several that SEEM to be doing well.
Sweet red onions.
Radishes I just started a few days ago.
And THIS is the excitement for the day! It is a cantaloupe! Ta DA!  If it doesn’t croak and continues to grow, I have a plastic bowl thingie with lots of holes for drainage and legs to keep the cantaloupe up off the ground. I’ve never grown one of these before. This was my husband’s choice of what to grow (other than head lettuce), so I’m really hoping we grow at least one and that it’s good.
On my way back in, I stopped to take a couple of pictures of the flowers on the deck. They make my heart soar every time I see them.
Now I’m very thankful that we have air-conditioning!
My great day continues with listening to Steve Earle on YouTube while writing this. :0) I just came in from checking on the garden and planting a few more radish squares. I was actually FEELING the sun frying my neck, so I prudently decided to cut my time out there short.
Here are 3 of the 6 planters.
The remaining three planters. I planted 4 squares of radish seeds in the planter closest to you in the picture.
In the foreground is celery, and the rest of the picture is ONE cantaloupe plant vine.
Even though the onion tops are pretty trashed from recent storms, the bulbs are looking good.
Zucchini – there are 4 so far on this one plant.
This plant only has one zucchini. I have no clue what I’m doing, but I’m having a great time.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
We’ve gone from torrential rain, to “pea soup” humidity here. Last night a cool front came through, taking the humidity with it. Right now it’s 80 degrees F. outside, bright sunshine, and absolutely wonderful. AHHHHH!
I took a walk around the garden and yard to celebrate and wanted to share –
GARDEN
You can see the HEIGHT of the zucchini plants here – well over my head as I stand at the planters.
Lots of vines, greenery, and blossoms. No cantaloupe as yet.
The zucchini is producing nicely.
The tops of my sweet red onions were trashed during the last few storms we had. I cut off the broken tops and trimmed the bent ones. The actual onion bulbs are looking okay, though.
FLOWER PLANTERS
Lilies
Phlox
Roses and Impatiens
Roses and Phlox
Clematis
I’ll show you the deck and our view in another post.
Home Guides – SFGate
The rain finally stopped! I’ve just spent an hour tying up tomato plants for better support and then weeding in our raised bed square foot garden. I used “Eau de OFF!” spraying myself heavily from stem to stern before heading outside. I forgot to wear my sweat band, but I’ll remember that for session 2 today.
I finished two more of the six wooden box planters in the garden. I still need to finish the onion box and then things will be pretty much under control again. I’m planning to take radish seed to get more started in several squares.
__________________
Finished session 2. I’m still working on the onion box. I asked my good friend Reagan Opio from LinkedIn what I should do about the damaged onion tops. He said, “Leave the ones that are only bent. Cut off the ones that are broken.” So that’s what I’m working on now. As I type here, though, this old lady is huffing and puffing and guzzling ice water. So the rest will have to wait for session 3.
I wanted to share with you the progress on the zucchini! I’ve never grown it before, or seen it grow. The only thing I figured was that it was a vining type plant and would probably take up a lot of room.
The zucchini are almost like a ‘bouquet of bloom.’Â There are actually FOUR zucchini growing on this plant.
More on another plant.
And two more here.
And three more here!
I’m about to head out to finish cleaning up the onion tops a bit, and then that’ll be it outside for the day.
I hope YOU are having a fine day, too!
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
The Guardian
Yesterday I went – armed with my umbrella – to see what is happening in my garden. We have really had an unusual spring here in Arkansas. Cooler than usual, and that is very welcome, but also MUCH more rain than usual.
Some of the trees in the driveway are hanging down toward each other with the weight of the water in their leaves, creating almost a canopy through which we drive. It’s no problem for us, but the UPS and FEDEX drivers may say a few ripe words as they make their way up and down again. I’ve also already told you about the amazing results in my garden. For the first time ever I’ve been able to share the veggie wealth with my friends. It’s a delightful thing and I hope to be able to continue. I harvested the very first-ever heads of lettuce I’ve been able to grow, plus all the radishes I planted.
Today I wanted to show you what I found yesterday –
This is the celery end I planted a couple of days ago. It seems to be happy. :0)
This is zucchini squash. I planted several plants because I can process this for zucchini noodles, freeze it, or dehydrate it.
My ‘mystery weed’ turned out to indeed, be spinach! Woo Hooooooo! I have several plants now. :0)
I’ve never had onion tops this tall. They are over my head! I don’t know what this means in terms of the growth of the actual sweet red onions. Only time will tell.
One head lettuce plant. I’ll get leaf lettuce, too, when I harvest the head.
Another head lettuce plant.
More zucchini. You can also see that the broccoli is going to blossom – signaling the end of it.
This is cantaloupe! I have no clue what I’m doing, but the plant seems happy at the moment. I have some plastic ‘bowls’ with legs and lots of drain holes to put under any melon while they grow – assuming I get some. I’m like a kid at Christmas!
The tomato plants on the opposite side of our house are doing fine, too.
It’s raining all day today. The high will only be in the low 60’s. I’m hoping that we can go to the local stores in the coming week to see if there is more we want to try. Otherwise, once I eat my way through a lot of radishes, I’ll plant some more. They can be planted most any time of the year, so I’m hoping I can get at least one more good crop.
I’m planning to get out and weed this week , assuming the weather will cooperate. Looming on the horizon is my husband and I rebuilding our two brick planters which collapsed.
I hope you’re having a wonderful Saturday, too!
This picture gives you a good idea of how our raised bed, square foot garden is set up. You can see the six boxes. Each is 4 foot square. Each has a sprinkler in the center with hose connecting the boxes to one master control that irrigates the garden each morning for 10 minutes. Each box is divided into ‘squares’ by running wire in two directions. You can also see that there is fencing around the garden to keep out large critters. It also has chicken wire running around the bottom for little critters.
The rains lately caused an explosion in the garden. The plants were spilling out of the top over the sides. I couldn’t see the squares anymore. It took me three days to get things harvested, washed, and either put in the fridge or distributed to friends. I finished cleaning up the garden this morning so it’s ready to plant some new things. My husband and I will see what is available in the coming week that looks interesting.
We have about 5 heads of lettuce that might still make. The green part of the onions is over my head. :0)
I think this is zucchini squash. I also have some cantaloupe plants.
The jury is still out on whether sweet little plants like these that are dotted around the garden are weeds or spinach. I’m hoping for spinach. Time will tell.
This sweet little guy is celery, transplanted from sprouting in the kitchen. I cut off the end of some celery I bought at the store and put it in water. It’ll be fun to see what happens.
I keep telling you about Mel’s Mix, the soil alternative I use instead of real dirt in my garden. I buy peat moss, vermiculite, mushroom compost, barnyard compost, and cotton burr compost from the local co-op and put each ingredient in one of the garbage cans. I then put the ingredients in the correct ratio into our portable concrete mixer.
This is easy to use and mixes things SO much better than I was doing before with a shovel in my wheelbarrow. When mixed, the mixer will move down to dump the ingredients into a bucket, the wheelbarrow, or whatever, and I transfer it to the garden boxes.
I’m hoping we’ll find something fun to plant next week. Fingers crossed!
Michigan State University
We looked for spinach plants at four different places while we were out, ASKING at each place. The consensus seemed to be, “We have seed, but no plants this year.” I have officially thrown in the towel on getting spinach plants, just hoping that the little sprouts in the middle of several squares in my garden are, indeed, sprouting spinach seeds.
We got zucchini and cantaloupe plants today and I’ll plant them in just a few minutes. I’m not sure how I’ll do this because both of these would rather be on the ground in a place where they can spread their runners wherever they want, but I’ll give it a try. If I’m successful at all, I’ll use my spiralizer gadget to make zucchini noodles for myself.
My husband looks appalled when I mention zucchini or yellow squash ‘noodles,’ cauli ‘rice’ or ‘mashed potatoes,’ or spaghetti squash ‘spaghetti,’ so I’ll make these for myself and make him regular pasta, potatoes, or rice rarely. He does love cantaloupe, though, so I’m especially hopeful I can get some of these to grow well. Fingers crossed.
creativeartworksblog 