Wednesday check in

First off, let me say that I am not responding to comments because for some reason, I am not able to make a comment on blog spot. I don't know if my work is blocking it or what, but I am not ignoring you! Thanks for your comments! I will try to respond when I have access to the comment section!

OK well, I went to look over the garden last night in the 30 minutes between work and swimming lessons that turned into a Bible Study that didn't get me home until 10 PM. lol I was able to get a wonderful harvest! 3 1/2 lbs again! Huge cucumbers, pickling and lemon, squash, tomatoes, strawberries (2), beans and I harvested some Jalapeno peppers that were suppose to be for my sister, but I forgot it!


Here are some updated pictures. Here is a bell pepper that really hasnt done anything but grow and survive. No blooms, no fruit, nothing. All of my bell peppers are not really doing anything. Is this normal?


My lettuce containers.




Upside down tomato. This has blooms but no tomatoes. But it is younger than the Tiny Tim Tomato plant and I just recently had fruit so....


Tiny Tim Tomato


My tomato plants that started out as Peppers! LOL


My overall garden.


Harvest that has yet to be eaten lol


I am going to get out in the garden tonight to take pics of the watermelons. They are getting so big and they are SO CUTE!!! I can't seem to find ANY cantaloupe females. I am going to take pictures of my vines and hopefully you guys can tell me if I am just overlooking them. I am going to self pollinate them if I do have some! lol The watermelon is putting it to shame! And the cantaloupes had male blooms before the watermelon! *sigh*

Adding it up

I just added up all the harvest I have had and from my blogs, I think I have totaled 24 1/2 lbs! While that doesn't even come close to most of you guys' totals, I am very happy! When my tomatoes and watermelon come in, I will be increasing that dramatically. I am so excited! Next year I am seriously thinking of tilling up some of the land instead of buying my soil. Still go with the square foot method, just modify my current soil. It is really getting expensive with the wood and soil. A 4x4 box costs $9 for the wood and about $30 for the soil (the really really good soil). If I just till the soil I have and amend it with peat moss ($4 a 2 square foot bag) and some peralite ($4 I think) with some 10-10-10 fertilizer that I already have and the compost I have been making for the past 6 months, then I should get a good yield from that (ya think?). Anyway, just thinking. Depends on what the economy does between now and then. I might not even be able to FIND this!

Wonderful relaxing weekend.

This weekend I really didn't do too much in the garden. While tying back squash and making sure all my trellis plants...well trellised, I found 4 crookneck squash and a gigantic cucumber I must have missed in my other cucumber hunting! It weighed 1 lbs. I couldn't believe it. So my harvest Saturday was 3 lbs. WOOHOO!

I have also started my garden planning on my computer (duh) because of Crystabel's blog. It was so neat and pretty I thought, well why cant *I* do this (which is amazing since I am a web developer and work on computers all day)! And let me tell you, it is WONDERFUL!

My new bush beans are coming up nicely. And I have 3 baby watermelon growing up! I am having trouble finding a cantaloupe. I thought I would see one since I saw that tiny one coming up but either I can't find him, or he didnt make it. But the bees are going crazy. I think I have at least 3. I try to stay out of their way, but they seem kinda territorial. They keep buzzing by my head which freaks me out. Oh will, I will submit to them since they keep my garden overflowing with goodness.

I have been surprised with my lettuce. It is still going and I dont think I have seen it wilt once even through our high 90s weather this summer. Plus, I think it gets maybe 2 hours of direct sunlight. I thought that would hinder his growth as well.

I am in zone 7 and I wonder if it is too early to plant lettuce directly in my garden. The garden gets around 9-10 hours of direct sunlight and I wonder if that will be harsh on it. I was going to plant buttercrunch which is a hot tolerant lettuce, but lettuce can only take so much. I am also wanting to grow spinach, but I worry about the same thing. I might go ahead and put some radishes in the ground. I have successfully grown those in the hot June weather and they came out really good.

July 8, 2009 Harvest!

I went ahead and harvested the corn. One was smaller than I thought. I hope I didn't get it too early. I haven't cooked it since my daughter went to church with her friend so she ate on the run. Mom harvested some lemon cucumbers (thanks Granny for the positive ID on that!), okra, squash and tomatoes!!! YEY TOMATOES! The green tomato was not us being over zealous. It had somehow got knocked from the plant so we decided to windowsill ripen it :)

Another episode of "How does Jen's Garden Grow?"

I have warned you in other posts that I am not creative so you have to deal with the corniness while I try unsuccessfully to be witty. :)

OK, what kind of cucumber is this? I have never seen anything like this before but that's not saying anything. But a friend of mine, that grew up on a farm, said she had NO IDEA what it was. I wonder if the cucumber plant and the tomato plant got too friendly one night. I can't seem to separate them.


Here is my corn! I keep checking on it. The top one looks ready but the lower one just doesn't look read yet. I hope the top one keeps...and the flag keeps deer and other animals away until it is ready.


More crockneck squash about ready :)


I HAVE WATERMELON!! I HAVE WATERMELON!!! I was SO EXCITED to see this!


And then I saw this! (OK maybe you can't make it out.) ANOTHER watermelon! Same vine but a good distance away. I will monitor this vine to see if any other pop up. After that I will "thin" them.


I am wondering if this is a cantaloupe starting. (again, blurry. hard to see if the picture is good when the sun is directly behind you)


This is my poor little mutilated cabbage. I finally resorted to Sivin Dust but was careful to only cover it. I would really hate to kill my many bees that have graced my garden.


Bell peppers coming along nicely :)


Okra that I need to cut.


My other okra plant with some baby okra.


These are my additions to the main garden. This is the box that is to the far left of the overall picture from the last post. It has tomato plants to the left, and some jalapeno pepper plants in the middle. I actually have a square open! lol


The other box that has just tomato plants. I have no idea what kind they are. They were given to me.


My strawberry patch. The ones that are brown are the ones from Lowes. I am still not sure what to do with them besides mulch them. I have another one that is growing new leaves so....I dunno but to just wait and see.


I have put a cucumber plant that I started a while back on the trellis that I had my peas on. I hope this one does better than my peas! He was in a container and he was getting a little yellow. I hope it was just because the pot was too small! I transplanted him into a clay pot that is 12 inches wide.


This is my "Lower 40" Box #1. That is the pumpkin vine growing up the trellis. I think he likes it! :)


My sugar baby watermelon from seed. He is making his way up the trellis as well.


"Lower 40" Box #2


Raspberry bush #1. Do I cut this down in the fall??


Raspberry bush #2 going NUTS! He is HUGE with no fruit


Raspberry bush


I am not sure you can even see him. This is my blueberry bush that was almost destroyed by 2 cutworms that was hiding in his container. I found them when I replanted him into the ground. I just dont see any new growth, but he also isn't dying. Any suggestions to beef him up?


Blueberry bush #2. He has this red stuff on his leaves. Not sure what it is or how to fix it.


I found this at the dollar tree and I just couldn't pass it up! I decided to wrap my onion flower on it to keep it off the soil.


Happy Gardening!!

Jen

The old out and the new in!

Well, many changes have taken place in the victory garden. First, I made some more boxes for my multiple tomato plants. I had a friend offer pepper plants after hearing how much problems I have had trying to start them. After a few weeks my mother noticed they were tomato plants! There were 30 of them! So I separated them and put them in their own container. I am thankful that someone else wanted some. I gave away 15 of them and some died so I have ended up with 13 extra. I built them their own boxes and I also made a strawberry box. Here is the over all main garden area.



I also harvested all my potatoes. They were looking raggedy so I pulled them. With the cucumbers and squash, it totaled a harvest of 10 lbs. WOOHOO!


Then I decided to pull up the onions and the bush beans. In the miracle box, my bush beans are giving me green beans so I thought I would take out the old ones and replant. I think I have enough time to get some good beans before the season is over. The onions were getting dried on the tops and the bush beans were yellowing. The onions weighed in at 24 oz.


I have my first okra and Tiny Tim Tomato. YEY!


Night before last we had squash, green beans, and potatoes from the garden. I love it!

I hope you guys had a great 4th. I did just working in the garden. AHHHHHHHH

I GOT SQUASH!!

I harvested something OTHER than cucumbers and green beans! They are on the small side but I just couldn't resist. After annoying a spider, I cut some to see it was a tad smaller than I thought. It was a total harvest of 20 1/2 ounces.