So here’s a garden update.
We’ve continued to have more rain than usual and in some cases I think it caused a little bit of problems. But with the warmer weather we’ve been having it’s not been too bad and things are beginning to get big.
A Garden Overview.
Let’s look at all the goodies and how well they’re growing. You’ll also note that the weeds and wheat are growing pretty well too.
You can go back and look at the garden in my first garden post here. This will give you an idea of how much everything has grown.
Here are the various tomatoes I’ve got planted in the garden.
Pink Brandywine
The Pink Brandywines I have planted are now tied to the trellis and they are actually growing in and around the trellis. I’ve even got some fruit growing, although in this picture you really can see them.
Mortgage Lifters
The Mortgage Lifters seem to be growing the best. I’ve been trying to keep it pruned, but it grows almost faster than I can keep up.
I’m really hoping to get a good sized mess of tomatoes canned this year. We are completely out of home canned tomatoes from our last crop a few years ago. I miss having them around the house.
Cherry Tomatoes
There’s about 3 bunches of these cherry tomatoes on the plant. I don’t think you can see them all, but trust me they are there. Can’t wait for these either.
We’ll just put these in a bowl on the counter and eat them like snacks. I’m really hoping to get enough to dry them too.
The Surprise Compost Tomato
Now here’s the big surprise. Remember the tomato plant I found in the compost pile with the squash plant. Well, I think I’ve determined what kind of tomato it is and I’m real excited about it. This thing is COVERED in blooms and there are a LOT of small fruit on the plant. I’m so excited.
It looks like we are going to a huge crop of these. Since the roma type are usually a lot more meaty than your regular slicing tomato, I’m really hoping to have enough to make some good tomato sauces.
What you see here is just a small amount of what is really there. YAY!!!
It’s the small things that make me happy.
The Peppers
Next up we have some peppers. There’s really not a lot to show here so I’ve only included the one picture .
We’ve gotten 2 banana peppers so far, but it looks like there’s only going to be, maybe, one more. The 2 we got were really good. We tasted the first one raw and the 2nd one we grilled with some pork chops we had for supper. It was was so good.
I’m not sure what happened here with the peppers, but that’s something we’ll have to work on to figure out. We really would like to have a lot more of the banana peppers.
We still have about 3 bell pepper plants growing, 1 with an actual pepper and the other 2 have a few blooms. I’m anxious to see what they do.
The baby radishes aren’t babies anymore, and you can see the carrots now.
My radishes aren’t babies anymore. I actually pulled one and grilled it with our pork chops along with the 1 remaining banana pepper. These radishes are going to be huge.
One thing you’ll note when you look at this picture is the radishes in the back are way bigger than the ones nearer to the front of the picture. The only thing we can figure out is the amount of water that they got during that real wet period (called May). We think the ones at the back drained faster than the smaller ones up front. It’s just a guess, but there’s really no other differences.
We’re happy to say you can actually see the carrots now. They need to be thinned, and we’ll get to that, but we’ll give them just a bit more time.
My husband LOVES his carrots and doesn’t want to pull too many. I’ll let him do those honors.
Okra
Remember the tiny okra plants from before. Well they aren’t so tiny anymore.
These are about a foot tall now. I just can’t wait to see the blooms. Okra has such pretty flowers when they bloom.
The burgundy ones have gotten redder so they’re really pretty now too.
The Chinese yard long beans are growing!!
The tiny little Chinese Yard Long Beans have grown. They’re now beginning to grow up the trellis. A few of them have a tentacle reaching up about 4 feet.
I only had to tie one. It just kept reaching the opposite direction from the trellis. The rest found the trellis all by themselves.
The compost squash.
And remember that squash that was growing in the compost pile? Holy Smokes, I had to give up my compost pile for the year. It’s taken over. I’m also noticing there’s more than one kind of squash in that mass of plants.
So far I’ve found 3 fruit and none of them look alike.
This is the one we transplanted from the compost pile into the garden.
This fruit I found near the front side of the compost pile.
And this one is growing on the outside of the back side of the compost pile.
I’m having a terrible time with squash bugs too. I’d never seen those nasty little things before this year. They can decimate a plant pretty quick from what I’m seeing too.
Even with the squash bugs, this plant is taking over.
I’ve been mixing Neem oil and spraying the plant. I’m hoping to just hold them off as long as possible. I can’t get into the plant in the compost pile well enough to spray it completely so I think that’s going to be a problem in getting rid of them.
Lots of Weeds And Wheat In the Garden
The one thing you will note is that the wheat and weeds are growing rather well. We mulched with straw, so the wheat is growing like crazy. Since wheat is an annual, we’re not too worried about that as long as we don’t let it head.
The weeds are another story. We’ve been working at weeding and I’m going to have to get my Cobra Head in there and get some work done. It’s just too much for hand pulling.
We just got back from 3 days out of town and in those 3 days, everything exploded. We have a lot to do now.
What’s Next
I still want to plant some more for late summer and some other stuff for fall, so we still have a lot to do to get the other side of this garden ready. We’ll be using a weed barrier on the new parts of the garden, that I didn’t have when we started this side of the garden.
I’m interested to see how much easier it is to take care of with the weed barrier down.
Lessons Learned
One thing we learned with this garden is to not give up on a plant that doesn’t look good. A few of the plants I thought were toast, have come back to look really great and begin to produce.
I’m sure there will be more lessons. Like I said, this is an experiment, so I’m excited to learn a ton of lessons for next year.
Let me know what you planted in your garden and how it’s going. Leave a comment or a picture below. If you have any good advise, I’m all ears too.
Until Next Time – Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey