I spent yesterday in the garden.
So far I have planted the back row full of corn (only transplanted 2 plants, I directly sowed the rest of the row), 1/2 a row of Sugar snap peas, I lost count of the tomato seedlings I started inside... 30, 40??? The early girls look the best, the grape tomatoes are on the small side... they took up 1 1/2 rows. I transplanted 6 honeydew melons and 6 cantaloupes. I also transplanted 6 bunches of scallions.
The lettuce and strawberries I planted in April look great. The spinach is iffy, not many plants took off. The experimental potatoes actually look 1/2 way decent... go figure??? All of that needs to be weeded badly already!!
Speaking of weeds.... does anyone know how to use the black plastic mulch? I bought some and tried to use it with my corn and it just blew off. Maybe I need to read the directions, eh???
As you can see from the picture I am not a perfectionist. There are no beautiful edges or perfectly measured rows complete with string. I do enjoy looking at these types of gardens but, this one suits me just fine. The picture may not show it but, I do have a plan for my garden. The large things are to the left and the smaller and spreading things are to the right. The middle is yet to be determined. Right now it is a great spot for weeds... some of them bigger than my seedlings!! Another big part of the garden plan is to build a fence ASAP... hopefully before the neighborhood dogs and the large raccoon we saw last week come through!!
Above: Behold my tomato plants!!! I'm also buying seedlings, I just don't trust myself!!! You will notice they are close together. I've done a lot of reading about spacing. I am trying 6 to 8 inches between plants rather than the 18 to 24 inches recommended. I hope it works to discourage weeds to give me more room to plant!
Above: Won't I just freak out if I actually grow cantaloupe and honeydew melons??? I gave these sprawlers 12 inches between plants. They can intermingle, I'm OK with that. I still have to plant my cukes, zucchini, pumpkins and eggplant seeds. I'm waiting until I get my seedlings from the CSA so that I'll know where to put things. I need herbs and tomatoes seedlings. I'm not sure what else I'll get. If the seeds work well I won't have to get much more. I may hedge my bets with a pumpkin plant or two (since the seeds came from our Halloween pumpkins).
I am very excited about my little garden, however those that talked to me on the phone yesterday know, I was a tiny bit whiny about the whole thing!! Wow, what a lot of work! But it's going to be worth it come harvest time, I hope!!!
2 comments:
Great work!
I spend no more than 5 minutes a day weeding our veggies (when we're out watering it at night). I work in sections and start at one end, working my way to the other end. It gets the entire thing weeded once a week without being too overwhelming.
Also - get the kids involved in the weeding. Monkey doesn't know the difference yet, but if we point out what we want her to pull out, she'll pull it out.
Hope that helps. ;-)
great idea Jodi!! As soon as hubby dear builds me a gate I'll start that! The kiddos did a great job helping weeding on Saturday!! As for watering, hubby set up a sprinkler outside of the gate and it hits the whole garden... my tomoatoes wont like it much longer but it works for the moment.
Post a Comment