Garden Plans 2011

So nothing of interest for dinner tonight, just yesterday's leftovers - which by the way taste great reheated too! I am planning out what I want to grow this year and again it is the usual suspects: tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, and edamame for the summer crop and peas, lettuce, kale and radishes for the spring. I am thinking about growing chinese cabbage and greens, like pac choi as well. I am also going to attempt brussell sprouts this year. My swiss chard was all dug up and/or eaten by the squirrels last year so I am going to try that again too. I have done onions and potatoes in the past in the Victory Garden and would like to grow them in my yard now. I am going to use potato grow bags because I just don't have the room to grow them any where else. As for the onions I am thinking I will just plant them within my flower beds, especially around the roses in the hopes off ward off aphids. I need to figure out where all of this is going to go. Originally I wanted to plant the tomatoes among the asparagus rows but not too sure how I will be able to pull them up in the fall without pulling up the asparagus roots as well. 'They' say that those two are companion plants but truly I don't understand how that is even possible. Time to bust out the graph paper and last year's plans to make sure everything has a place and that it is all rotated properly.

More and more tomatoes!

Oh dear - these tomato seeds are a lot hardier than they are promoted to be. I was out weeding the garden and found eight random tomatoes growing around the zucchini. Now that dirt came from my worm bin, not the outside compost bin. Apparently this is Mother Nature's way of telling me to grow an abundance of tomatoes. I pulled them out and put them in the yard waste bin - I am taking no chances. The so-called marigolds I planted along the potatoes are also tomatoes. Just a big-ass welcome sign for bad bugs! Speaking of tomatoes here are the first Sun Golds of the season


Not only are the tomatoes spreading like wild fire this is the first year in I cannot remember how long that the hydrangea bush is exploding




Typically I get one or two blooms and was actually thinking of pulling the whole thing out this year. Apparently it knew it was on the chopping block and is putting on an amazing last ditch effort to survive. Although it is extremely early for it to be in bloom. Everyone around here has full blooms on their hydrangeas and really, they shouldn't be in full bloom until August! I guess the heat is getting to them too (but in a good way). Here is a close up of one of the numerous blooms.

It has been so freaking hot and humid over the past week here that everything needs to be watered every day! God forbid I have a life outside of these plants, which I did last night. I went out straight from work to meet friends and just to spite me my petunias decided to die. I watered them heavily when I got home from work tonight but not sure if my CPR efforts were too late. Stay tuned

A Big Oopsie!

I really wonder where my head is at sometimes. I was out picking the peas (which are growing up and along the tomato cages) and I noticed what I thought was a an escaped tomato branch. Nope. It was a whole nother friggin' plant! I dug up marigold seedlings from one of my containers and planted them around the tomatoes. Turns out they were tomatoes, not marigolds. I have NO IDEA what type of tomatoes they are nor how the heck the seeds survived over the winter in my compost bin. I also planted some in the Victory Garden around the potatoes to keep away the beetles and haven't gone over there to check if they are indeed marigolds or wayward tomatoes.
The potatoes that were also growing in the bin are doing quite nicely in the yard now. However I noticed a few more in there when I was turning it the other day. No more potatoes, please.
Not so sure how well the melons are going to fare. The previous owner of Victory Garden home came by (he definitely does not own the house and was trespassing just as much as we are) and decided he didn't like the trellis so he took them down! Trampling all over the itsy bitsy melon seedlings in the process. I planted what I had left of the seeds about a week ago and still nothing. The melons were a stretch anyway. It was just something new to try.
Oh and last but not least - the caterpillar is an American Lady

The peas have arrived - FINALLY

So this year I didn't pull them out because apparently tomatoes and peas make good neighbors. I left the peas in and they have finally started producing. Not nearly in the abundance that they did in years past but I guess that is what I get for using gajillion year old seeds!
And do you remember this is what the raspberries looked like on April 11 and here they are today.

And they are already producing berries. Still pink but in a few days they will definitely be ready to pick!
The heavy rain over the past week definitely killed some of the seedlings but I have dropped seeds in the same spots so hopefully everything turns out ok.
Something is nibbling on my eggplant leaves so I need to mix up a concoction of some sorts to ward away the pests. I am thinking hot pepper, garlic, water and dish soap should do the trick no matter what pesky pest it may be.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Whew...so much has been planted over the past three days. I put 6 tomatoes in my yard 2 of each - chocolate cherry, green zebra and sungold. Four of the zucchini went in my yard and the other two went to Tom for his last grow box. Around my zukes I dropped in some nasturtum seeds to keep away bugs and to add some color. I planted Kentucky Blue Wonder beans over in the V-yard and the Purple Stringless here. I put those on the back bean tower in the hopes that they will be easier to harvest since they are purple! The rest of the chocolate cherry and green zebras went across the street. The last of the sungolds didn't look so hot so I just may give them away :).
Today 36 corn plants went in. This year I started them in peat pots and regular old potting soil and in less than a week I had shoots and roots coming out from the bottom. Around the corn I put in spaghetti squash and next week I will add either edamame or bush beans - going with the old "three sisters" plan of attack.
The only things left waiting to be planted are the eggplant, melons, delicata squash and cucumbers. My cukes weren't coming up even after two weeks so I added additional seeds into the green slam pots and wrapped the marketmore in damp paper towels stuck in a tupperware container on top of the fridge and in three days they had already sprouted! I put those in the existing peat pots and hopefully those will be ready for Memorial Day weekend planting.
My chard look awful! I think it is getting too much mid-day sun. They leaves are starting to get brown and crinkly. They also have purple spots - pretty spots - but I am pretty certain they shouldn't be there. I planted more seeds along the back fence where the sun isn't quite so harsh.
I am thinking I am almost done, but then I think again and realize that everything still needs lots o' love after being planted! Rain is due on Wednesday so hopefully it comes and can save me the trip of dragging Tom's hose over the fence!

Victory Garden is COMPLETE!

So after MUCh hard work Tom and I finally got the Victory Garden set, We have peppers. tomatoes, corn, edamame, beans potatoes and onions growing right now. This is a far cry from this . We did so much digging, tilling and weeding and it is no where near close to completion. The weeds over there grow in seconds.
I planted the corn just last weekend and they are already coming up. Considering that corn is a whole new vegetable for me I wasn't sure what to do. But again, if something wants to grow it will. The beans are looking really good and the edamame is just starting to come up. I am concerned about the Delicate squash. The stems looks a bit ragged but there is still new growth coming from the top so I guess I will just wait and see. The potatoes are growing like wild fire. I already started to mound them - especially the Yukon Gold. I think some of the 'seeds' may have moved underground, or decided to grow hoever they like, because some of them are too close for comfort right now. Well I guess I will only get 15 pounds instead of 20!

Spring Garden Update

So here is a picture of the peas that I am waiting patiently to harvest. These are Dwarf Gray Sugar and according to the package take 65 days till maturity. Behind them, supposedly growing on the trellis are Snowbird and Sugar Snap 58 and 68 days respectively. Well, I planted ALL of these on March 28th. June 1st will be 58 days and those Snowbirds aren't doing too much right now. I think I have maybe 10 blooms?!? I used pea inoculant on them, watered when necessary and in my humble opinion gave them a darn good place to grow. The tomato plants I bought a few weeks ago were growing fabulously in the green house. So fabulously that they started to bloom and the roots were growing out of the cocoa pots. I couldn't wait any longer for the peas so I just interplanted them in between the trellis and the bamboo hoops. According to my Organic Gardening Companion Planting Guide peas like tomatoes so fingers crossed that everyone gets along till the end!
Last weekend all the remaining seeds went into the Victory Garden across the street - corn, edamame, and beans, along with some, actually A LOT of tomato plants - early girl, big boy, and sweet 100 and a few pepper plants for added measure. We still have a good amount of space left over so Tom and I were talking tonite about putting in carrots, radishes and lettuce. The Valmaine I ordered is vert heat tolerant so I figure, why not! We were also talking about parsnips but from everything I read they don't do well in really rich soil and with all the compost we put down that soil is RICH. I guess parsnips will go on the list for next year. I am heading over there tomorrow to check on everything to make sure the critters haven't gotten through the chicken wire and will get some 'before the show' types of pictures to share.