Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Mid-Summer Garden Update

Everything I read online says to keep a notebook or journal for your garden to track when you plant seeds, transplant, harvest, and to note crops that did well or not so well.  We were in such a rush to get things in the ground that my early attempts to track what we were doing in the garden went right out the window.  At least I'll be able to look back and this blog and have some idea of what we planted and how it did (or in some cases didn't).

A little refresher -- here is what the garden looked like almost 2 months ago on May 25.

 Tomato plants.

 Lettuce, beets, radishes, carrots, and peas.

More lettuce, spinach, and cabbage.

We ate a ton of lettuce from the garden, had a few meals with sugar snap peas, and just ate small crops of beets and broccoli last week. The cabbage and broccoli were healthy plants but I think the late spring planting caused the low (or no) production.

 Warm weather definitely caused some plants to grow like crazy.


 In the front we have an Ichiban eggplant, some green peppers and a zucchini.  In the back I took a stab at some companion planting where one plants attracts certain beneficial bugs or provides needed nutrients to its companion plant.  We tried a Three Sisters Garden with corn in the middle, pole beans around the corn that use the corn plants as a trellis and the beans provide nitrogen for the corn (a nutrient depleting plant), and then squash around the beans to shade the roots.  

 A few delicious Ichiban eggplants just about ready to be picked.  I've had some minor damage to the leaves by japanese beetles but not enough to really stress the plant.

 Tomatoes!!!  The plants got so tall that they have outgrown the cages and needed some additional stakes.  We are still having problems with branches breaking off in heavy winds.  I started trimming them back to prevent more breakage. We just noticed a few ripe tomatoes earlier this week.

 An heirloom variety called Mr. Stripey. 

 Beefsteak.

 Romas. 

 We ripped out the peas and planted some late green beans, wax beans, and cucumbers.

 Green peppers and more beans where the lettuce was.

 Shady side -- I gave up on growing veggies here and instead planted some impatiens.

 Nasturtium.  Another companion planting attempt.  These flowers are supposed to attract beneficial insects.  I can't say I've seen any specific bugs (other than our ladybugs), but I haven't seen tons of damage either, so we'll keep them around.

 Broccoli. (and a few green peppers, jalapeno peppers, and ghost peppers (apparently the hottest in the world and Andy's experiment) that aren't visible)

 Another variety of eggplant called Rosa Bianca.

 Yellow squash taking over the world.

 A peak under the leaves.

 Zinnias -- another companion plant.

 The monster squash that has gone wild.  Tromboncino.
 This one got a little too big (about 2.5' long!).  It didn't even fit in the refrigerator.




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