The Beginning of Summer Planting

 

At last, full-blown garden time is here! Temps are staying up in the 50s at night and all is well in the land of garden. Since the last time I posted, we have actually put some of my precious seedlings in the beds. Below are some tomatoes: Beefsteak, and Heirloom varieties Green Zebra, Brandywine, and Marvel Stripe.

And also an entire herb bed: There will be rosemary, lavender, chives, thyme, lemon thyme, cilantro, parsley, sage, oregano, dill, and basil.
 

Not only that, but we have mesuculun and sweet peas sprouts everywhere and our first official head of broccoli has popped up as well. 

We also put the tomato trellis back up, but this time we attached the two trellises at the top for more stability. I can hardly wait until that entire bed is filled with lush, blooming tomato plants! In the background of this photo, you can also the beginning of a new rain barrel. When we moved out last year, I sold my old rain barrel not knowing that the new renters (Beth and Chad) would use it. Luckily, I have another plastic barrel, so we're going to make a new and improved one. That's one great thing about starting the garden completely over- I've learned a lot and can now apply it to the new garden and the new rain barrel.  

 In other not-so-happy news, we've had some pests digging up a couple of our squares. First we tried putting plastic forks in the beds as a deterrent (don't ask, I read it on a forum), but that proved to be nothing for our varmint friends. Beth has since put up a barrier of plastic sheeting wrapped around pvc pipe around all of the beds, and that seems to be doing the trick.

Last thing. I was recently talking to Mr. Growbot about how much I enjoy looking at photos of the garden from past years. It really helps me remember what things I grew each year, and how different growing methods worked out. So I'm going to start posting older photos as a comparison to this year. It should prove interesting. I'm starting out this theme with some vintage (ha!) 2008 photos. These were taken on May 7th of that year, so just about a week from now.

That was the first year I had done a big garden and I definitely learned a lot from it. As you can see, I tried to plant more than just tomatoes in the tomato bed- big mistake. By the end of the summer, both the squash and the watermelon that I had tried to plant  were pretty much choked out. Also, all of the little protective water bottle domes proved to be pretty pointless. They got knocked over by the wind all the time, and nothing seemed to be bothering the beds anyway. I had started broccoli from seed that year and they were certainly not the size of the ones we started from plants this year. I also had started my lettuce from seed, and it did great! That was the first thing I got to eat from my very first garden.

Until Next Time...

-Mrs. Growbot

Spring Has Sprung!

Finally, after months of one of the harshest winters I can remember, spring is full blown in the south eastern United States. Tulips are blooming, trees are green, and allergies are flaring- at least where we are! We went back home last weekend and enjoyed a lovely Easter dinner with my family and got to see many long, lost friends. We also got to see my not-so-little brother go to his senior prom. And now we're back and ready to garden! The weather here has been awesome lately (I'm blogging from the front porch), so it's a great time to get outside and do some spring chores.

The seedlings have been doing okay. The peppers and herbs are looking great, but the tomatoes are lacking the strength I hoped they would have by now. We may still try and plant them, but we may also have to buy some plants to supplement my home grown seedlings. Gardening is certainly one big experiment most of the time, so sometimes you just have to accept defeat and move on to the next plant.

The plants that Beth and I put in the garden 2 weeks ago are looking great! The broccoli plants are thriving, and most of the seeds we planted have sprouted and are on their way. Our compost is looking good and doing it's thing too. Funny thing about home-made compost (and store bought for that matter), no matter how much you turn it, some things just don't decompose. For example, last year I didn't turn it much over the winter, and come summer I had full blown tomato plants growing in my compost pile from some tomatoes from the year before. This year, even with Beth turning it more frequently, we managed to get two pumpkin plants growing in our garden beds from undecomposed seeds. I think we'll let them go for now and see what happens. We may be adding another vegetable to our collection this summer!

Beth also cleaned out the flower bed that I had planted for the last 2 years (thanks Beth!). We planted some onion starters on the ends of the bed, and once it's past the freeze date for area, we will be planting flowers in the middle. The flower bed is actually one of my favorite parts of the garden. Mr. Growbot and I had planted it on a whim the first year we did a garden and it provided so much beauty to the backyard, not to mention that the birds and the bees loved it and we had freshly cut flowers most of the summer. It was certainly a rewarding surprise.

It may be a couple of weeks until I post again because of some upcoming weekend plans, but the frost-free date for our area is coming up quickly, so the next post should be a big one. Looking forward to it!

-Mrs. Growbot