06/23/10 Veggie garden and compost updates!

I have been putting in a lot of time and energy into my veggie garden this year. I had no clue what I was doing last year. Here is a brief description of my veggie gardening last year. I was given some tomato and pepper plants and seeds from my landlords father and stuck them in the ground and just used Miracle Gro. I staked all my plants. My tomato plants all succumbed to blight and I didn't prune them early on so they became ginormous. I grew my cucumbers vertically which worked really well. My summer squash plants had mildew on the leaves and produced tiny squashes. My yellow bean and green bean plants did well but the leaves looked yucky pretty quickly. I planted way too many of each different veggie and planted them too close together.

Here is what I am doing differently this year. My wonderful hubby doubled the size of my garden and we used the grass he dug up to build up a wall at the front of the garden because my garden is on a hill. I am growing everything from seed. I am using composted cow manure and Miracle Gro Shake and Feed for fertilizer. I am using Bayer Natria Organic Disease control spray to ward off fungus and bacteria. I started composting. I built a trellis for my cucumbers and will be using a trellis for my zukes (would love to see photos from other people as I have never grown zukes or trellised them).

Compost Bins

The one on the right is the first one I started and I stopped adding to it (only add newspaper after is rains a lot but stopped doing that this week) about a month ago. I think it is almost ready but my ongoing problem with both bins is too much moisture. I think I need to use that tarp I bought to cover it when it rains a lot and leave the tops off when it is sunny. I have been turning them over every couple of days and throwing worms in when I find them.


The Veggie Garden

My tomato plants.


I started these from seed indoors, transplanted to a window box and then hardened off outside before transplanting to the garden. I had to plant these indoors twice, the first time they died. I started with 18 baby plants in the window box and this is what I have left. I read this past weekend that blight has been confirmed in the state below us so I have been checking them twice a day and pulled out and thrown away several. I have also been picking off any suspicious looking leaves. The blight scare is what prompted me to start using an organic fungicide/bactericide spray. They are doing well so far.

Romaine lettuce

I direct sowed into the ground and 3 survived. I just planted some more seeds so I'm hoping I'll have a continuous supply for a while. The lettuce row is in between the two tomato rows.

The cukes

I will be pulling out these 4 ft. stakes and replacing them with 6 ft. stakes and putting up another panel of coated rabbit wire above the one already there. I have an empty row between the cukes and the summer squash where I am planning on planting spinach. I had tried starting pepper plants indoors TWICE and they died. I tried direct sowing them in what is now and empty row and nothing sprouted so I decided to try and plant something different.

The summer squash, zukes and green beans

I'll be building a trellis for the zukes.

The pumpkins

These are from seeds that were left in the garden from the pumpkins I chucked in there after last Halloween. The started sprouting so I figured I'd try growing pumpkins! I have them planted at the front edge of the garden so as the vines get longer I can grow them on the ground in front of the rock wall.

Cabbage, Brussels sprouts and broccoli

I have never grown these and they are taking forever!!! Not expecting much. If they produce I will be happy but considering I have never grown them I not getting my hopes up. I originally planted them where the tomato plants are but moved them to this part because it is in shade most of the day and these plants prefer cool/cold weather. Not pictured but planted to the left is cauliflower. Again, not expecting much as it is my first time growing it. If none of my cold weather plants produce over the summer/fall I will plant again in the fall.

Of course, within 24 hours of taking these photos the plants have grown a lot. I'm hoping to do an update at least every two weeks now that they are growing rapidly. Hope every one's garden are doing well : )

I am going to do an update on my flower/fruit gardens/plants this week. So check back!