Garden Update:
I have had quite a few requests for a garden updates... please keep two things in mind: 1. This is my first year gardening (except for 3 tomato plants and a few strawberry plants from last year), and 2. I do not weed on a regular basis!
OK, I am thoroughly enjoying my little plot of Eden! I visit my garden every day- just to pick and fuss. We have an automatic timer for our sprinkler- so the garden has hands free watering every morning from 4-4:15am.
When planning my garden, I kept in mind the critters (like raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, birds and an occasional deer) that may want to nosh at my plants. I have a 6ish foot fence surrounding my plants, and I have netting that hung from the roof of our garage to the top of the fencing to keep out the birds during strawberry season- last year the birds consumed nearly every berry!
Dave loves peppers, and this one is definitely getting plump for the picking!
My gutters are brimming with fresh lettuce. I am actually hoping that they go to seed so that I can keep the seeds for next season and enjoy the same varieties again!
These are hot peppers like you'd find in a Greek salad... well, not MY Greek salads!
Do you know what kind of a flower this is? You'll NEVER guess...
Watermelon! That beautiful flower yields personal sized watermelons!
There is nothing like a home grown cucumber... I am thoroughly enjoying mine! I've learned that it is better to eat cucumbers when they are small because if they grow too large the can send a poison back through the vine and it begins killing off the plant. Weird, I just pick them while they are small because I can't wait to eat them!!!
Here is one of my celery plants... again, for the chicken noodle soup!
Aren't these flowers beautiful? These are green bean blossoms!
Here are the baby green beans!
Mmmmmmmm! I LOVE tomatoes! I have 28 caged plants- I only purchased a handful, but last years plants dropped a few fruits at the end of the season, and this year I have several "surprise plants!" There is nothing more mouth watering than a warmed from the sun tomato! (These are Roma's!)
We have 3 pumpkin plants that are HUGE! Each are pushing 15 FEET long! While we are enjoying plenty of blossoms, we are shy on the actual pumpkins. I have been researching why I have been having so many flowers, yet very little fruits on many of my plants (squash, zucchini & pumpkins). It turns out that there are male flowers and female flowers (who knew?), and only the female flowers can produce fruits. The male flowers are necessary in fertilizing the female flowers- via the bees. Hmmm, sounds vaguely like something I learned in sixth grade!!!
7 comments:
When you go to prep your garden next year and I read you said you do not weed much. You can put peern(sp) in. It helps with the weeds. If you are doing organic I am not sure if this qualifies. I just know that my hubby didn't do it this year as I did last year and I am over whelmed with weeds. We do not have much of a real garden, but starting next year we will (sense the drain field is now complete).
Peern is just little pellets you sprinkle on the dirt and work in, so you could til them in.
Sweet, I'll see if they have an organic version! Thanks!
The garden looks great. Did you write that your lettuce is growing in gutters? Can you elaborate? I've never heard of such a thing!
Sure! Since my garden is located behind my garage, we decided to use the back wall of our garage for more growing space! My husband found an article online about Alaksan gardeners whose soil is never warm enough to garden... they hang gutters on their homes and garden in the warm, but shallow soil.
I decided to grow my lettuce in the gutters to open up more ground space for other fruits and vegetables. Lettuce plants have a short root system, plus when they are done giving leaves- another planting can take their place, this is called successive planting. I can easily pull out the old lettuce plants that are no longer producing and sow a new set of seeds!
(Successive planting is growing one crop until it is harvested and then planting another set of seeds to be able to enjoy another harvest.)
I love vegetable gardening, too, Laura. I have also had many flowers on my pumpkin plants and now some of the leaves look like they're dying off while others seem like they're doing great. I don't have anything that resembles a fruit, either. Oh well... :-) Thanks for the update!
PAM
We haven't had a hot summer (no days in July hit 90 degrees!), so I'm wondering if this is affecting our vegetable plants. My tomatoes, zuchinni, and peppers have very little fruit.
I'm wishing now that I would have planted the pansies that I decided against because they couldn't take the mid-summer heat.
Oh my....I LOVE the bean picture! Ellie and Shay look pretty cute.... :)
All these pictures make me wish I had been nosy and just peeked at it in real life while I was there! Next time...
Everything looks great!
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