Grow, baby, Grow!

Hi All,

Guardin' the Garden....

It's amazing how life can come along and get the better of us.  Last week was very hectic with an appointment or meeting every day after school in addition to getting the house ready for visitors.  It was nuts!  For better or worse, this week is not shaping up to be any slower but at least I was able to get out and enjoy the garden.

Harvests for spring crops are going very well right now.  I have been able to get a small bucket full of pak choy or lettuce several times a week as well as a few cups of snap peas.  If that isn't a good reason to eat your vegetables, I don't know what is.

  

...Sort of.

Of course, it's not all fun and games.  I did find a good solution for the blight that seemed to be affecting my plants.  I applied some neem oil but only once.  The plants seemed to have fought off the blight or outgrown it.  We also had a run in with sub-tropical storm Anna.  She didn't do much damage but all my snow peas did fall over. They are currently tied up to the fence right now and producing very well. 

 My others peas needed to be tied back to their supports so I did that today.  My radishes and arugula that I planted behind them didn't really do a whole lot but I guess that is okay.  

I always call these Snugar Snaps by accident.

Shelly Peas for my belly please :)

My strawberries stopped producing.  I'd really like to be able to grow strawberries better and will need to do some research (that will probably end up as a blog post) on what I need to do differently.  

Left to right: Corn, carrots, onions, and lazy strawberries.

My onions, carrots, and corn look really good.  The carrots that I planted in January did not really do anything at all - beyond pop up and get frosted over :(.  But this is the first year I've really had carrots pop up at all so that is progress!

Looks like a field of dreams to me.

My potatoes have taken over.  Seriously.  These guys have spread all over two other rows of collards and broccoli and are heading for a third.  Not sure what I'm going to do with these guys but I hope they are makings lots of potatoes down there.  I also let a few of my rutabaga plants to go seed.  They are having a blast and I bet they are going to make so many seeds.  I'm really excited.

So Neat!

As you probably guessed the collard and broccoli have been over run, bless their non-existent hearts.  My lettuce and pak choy are doing great, although the white cabbage butterflies are trying to get my kale and winning.  I plan on putting some neem oil over them and see if that doesn't help.

I have two patches of green beans as well as some royal burgundy beans and cow peas.  They seem to be doing fairly well so far and I hope they produce.  Ditto to the sunflowers and cucumbers seen behind them.

Grown for my favorite green bean ;).

Some of my tomatoes and peppers were stolen, likely by gophers, but I have plenty more where they came from. Over all they, and the squash are doing well.  I still have some patty pan squash and cantaloupe to transplant but that just hasn't come to fruition yet.  I'd really like to have something for them to climb so we'll see.

Tomatoes in pots to replace the ones that were stolen.

This is a little bit what hope for the future looks like.

That's all the news that is the news in the garden life.

My next steps are to plant my final seedlings, try to re-arrange my herb garden without any more help from my favorite fuzz bucket, and take care of what I've got, which is quite a lot.

I've also written the cooperative extension office for information about rain barrels.  That would be a great garden project.

Hope all the good things you sow are reaped well.  And that you have someone to play ball with you, too.

Take care,

Rebecca