Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Garden As Of August 1st

I have really enjoyed having a garden. For future reverence I wanted to document how my garden is doing as of August 1st. Hopefully I can learn from this year's experience and have an even better garden next year.

First off my cantaloupe plants all died. I have one cucumber plant that survived, but but I don't have any expectations for it. Also my one pepper plant is probably not going to give me anything, but it may still surprise me.



Peas, Green Onions/Marigolds, Egg Plant



Egg Plant

I planted one egg plant start and have been very pleased with the production. I have already picked one egg plant off of it, and now have 3 more growing. I had to tie the stem to a stick to help support the poor stem that was being weighed down by all the fruits.

Green Onions
If you look really close in the first picture you can see a few. Last year we had one marigold plant here and I just let it over winter and then didn't worry about the seed when I was prepping the ground for planting. I'm guessing the marigolds won the fight and so now I only have a few green onions.

Peas
It is really past pea season and I should plant again for another crop during late summer early fall. This batch of peas did rather well. I was able to go out every few days and pick a large hand full of peas.

Corn/Green Beans/Watermelon/Yellow, Zucchini, Butternut, Acorn Squash/Pumpkin


In general these did OK, but the plants planted closest to the fence didn't survive so I lost a lot of plants. I'm not sure if they died because they didn't get as much water or sunlight or maybe a combination of the two.

Pumpkin
I planted a whole row of pumpkins, but only 2-3 plants survived. I started them from seeds on May 14th. However the seeds were 3 years old so I didn't think they would grow.

I have about 5 good sized pumpkins ranging in size from a softball to a basketball.

Acorn Squash
This is the only fruit I know about. I was so excited to see fruit not just leaves.

Butternut Squash
This plant is not doing very well. It is significantly smaller then the other winter squash plants and doesn't have any fruit on it. I love butternut squash so I hope it can pull itself together and start producing something.

Yellow "Crook Neck" and Zucchini Squash
This massive pile of leaves consists of yellow squash, and zucchini plants. The larger leaves on the left are the yellow squash and the smaller leaves on the right are the zucchini. I have gotten about 5 zucchinis and 2 yellow squash from these plants so far.

The massive yellow squash plant's leaves

The yellow squash plant has a few squash growing.

Watermelon This plant has smaller leaves by they have gone every which way so it takes up a lot of space.

I have two good sized watermelons growing. This is the larger of the two. This plant is suppose to produce @6 lb fruits. I suspect this one might be ripe soon.

Green Beans These produce about 2 handfuls of green bean a few times a week. I think next year I'll plant two rows. I love green beans.

CornI wanted continued corn so I planted the right row first and then a week or so later planted the next row to the left and so on until the farthest left row was planted. I haven't picked any of the corn yet, but I think next year I'll plant it all at the same time as I suspect the pollination didn't go as well since not all the corn was at the same stage at the same time.

The corn should be ready by the end of the week. I can't wait to pick, cook and eat it all with in a few hours.

TomatoesI planted 1 cherry, 1 grape, 4 Roma, and 4 beefsteak tomato plants. All of them seem to be growing good.

Grape Tomatoes

These are super delicious and sweet.

Cherry Tomatoes I have only picked one cherry tomatoes. It was good and I can't wait for more to ripen up.

Roma Tomatoes

These get watered by the sprinkling system so many of them have blossom end rot. Next year I'll probably plant these somewhere else.

Beef Steak

none of these have gotten ripe yet

Strawberries I bought this planter, but I think I might replant them into the ground in the fall. I've gotten a few ripe strawberries, but it is too hard to remember to water it and I have just the spot for it. I just need to get rid of all the weeds :)



Some may have thought I was crazy for planting the garden the day before and the week after I had Max, but I absolutely love having a garden a being able to make dinner with fresh veggies and think the sacrifice has been worth it.

3 comments:

Andrea said...

Nice job with the garden, Katie! It is rewarding isn't it? Our garden isn't the best this year (I don't think we're going to get a single zucchini because of where we planted it), but it's still a fun hobby. I 'm thinking it cost more to set it up than it actually produced this year . . . but that's okay. : )

Spring said...

Oh how fun!!! I love gardens. Your plants have done much better than mine. After the NCLEX I am going to have to come see it!

RuSty and LaLa said...

Dang are you starting your own farmer's market? You could with all of that food. That is so awesome!