November's a good month in the Vegetable Garden

My garden is growing beautifully. I've harvested 2 zucchini squashes and my son hasn't been patient with the carrots, so we have pulled a few small (and delicious) purple, yellow and orange carrots too. Cabbage, brocolli and kale plants have needed extra care with removing caterpillars regularly, mostly about 1 month ago, it has become less of a problem now with only an occasional caterpillar. I have been fertilizing about every two weeks with Miracle Grow and the soil structure seems to be improving with the straw mulching and other organic materials decomposing. The weather has been perfect and I deep water every 2-3 days. The garden gets nearly all-day sun.

What's growing: green cabbage, purple cabbage, brocolli, leeks, kale, lettuce varieties, garlic, green onions, basil, cilantro, snap peas, cucumber (volunteer), petunias, marigolds, nasturtium, zucchini, green beans (stunted growth), purple, yellow and orange carrots.

Gardening Group Meeting #2

We held our second gardening group meeting this past Saturday!

You can view a summary of what we covered HERE.

We detailed several popular crops and you can view the information on planting, nutritional needs, pollinating and watering of tomatoes, green onions, garlic, lettuce, kale, spinach, herbs and zucchini HERE.

And in case you need our desert planting calendar again, you can view that HERE.

In the Edible Garden - May 2017

My four garden beds are mostly occupied with tomato plants, but I have one bed dedicated to cantaloupe melons and several other crops going on currently; trellised Armenian cucumbers, multi-colored carrots, bell pepper (no fruit yet), pole green beans, luffa squash, zucchini squash, green onions (always), basil (always) and garlic (I've harvested several small bulbs). Strawberries are still growing in a pot near my porch where they get morning sun only. 

Armenian Cucumber

Armenian cucumber

Cantaloupe melon (aka muskmelon)

Cantaloupe Melon (aka muskmelon)

Rosemary (finally growing well with partial shade)

Basil from seeding mother plant

March in the Edible Garden

It's easy to take more photos of my flower gardens than my vegetable garden. Especially now when everything is small and just beginning for this season. I was pleased with the harvests with the fall garden and while some of those plants are still producing (garlic, cilantro, tomato, carrot, green onion, basil), I tore out a few crops when the weather warmed up (Celery, turned out tough and small) (Snap peas and lettuces, kale, spinach, eggplant) to make room for Armenian cucumber starts from my friend Shirlee and pear tomato starts from my friend James and yellow bell pepper and patio tomato plants from A&P nursery. 

Volunteer Tomato plant from Fall 2016

Armenian Cucumber starts I will try to train up a trellis

Yellow Bell Pepper

Patio Tomato

Cantaloupe Melon from seeds planted 2/8/17, very slow to grow

3 Strawberry plants from May 2016 starts

 I also purchased a few more trellises (raw metal ones in the lumber area of Home Depot, not sure what type of construction work they are actually intended for). In February, I planted luffa squash seeds after soaking them for 24 hours, but they never sprouted. I may try again. I also planted green bean (pole) seeds last week and they sprouted quickly but my tortoises got into them and ate them down to the ground. I am fixing that problem with an additional garden bed by the wall with the trellis.

We have harvested many tiny strawberries and enjoyed the deep flavor compared to store bought strawberries. I moved them back to a place in my yard where they receive afternoon shade since the weather has been hot lately. 

Strongest Papaya Tree

I still have my two Papaya trees growing near my garden. One had it's trunk broken (probably one of my children), but I braced it up with a bamboo stick and it is still alive. I water them infrequently and deeply. It will be exciting to watch them grow taller and determine their genders.

January 2017 in the Vegetable Garden

Sweat Pea Vines, flowers and pods (one of my very favorites):

I currently have 5 volunteer tomato plants and because the weather has been so mild, they are flowering and a few fruit have set. I'll try to keep them going through the next season.

Plenty of carrots harvested over the past months as well as additional seeds planted, colorful varieties too. My kids love eating carrots they pull out themselves.

Celery plants growing beautifully, I make sure to give them organic fertilizer about every 2-3 weeks.

Marigolds, garlic, cilantro, lettuce varieties

Corn Harvest and Planting Garlic

I forgot to mention in my last post that I planted 3 cloves of garlic in the little planters next to my garden beds. I have researched how to grow garlic and am excited to give it a try. 

On Sunday, after church I went out to give my garden a late watering and noticed that several ears of corn on the stalks were falling off and looked very dry. I started pulling them off and realized that while many had dried kernels, several ears were ready to be harvested. The corn was miniature, the longest only about 6 inches long and some only 2-3 inches long. I could tell that those ears that I pollinated by hand filled in nicely, even though the corn over-all was very deformed and strange. I was a little nervous to eat it, but we cooked up all the ears that looked good and the kids and I enjoyed trying it. It was more chewy than is desirable, which may be because I was a few days late in picking it. But, it was good overall. The ears of corn that were not pollinated completely or dried out became props in many backyard games with my kids.

Today, I pulled out most of the corn plants, leaving those that the green bean plants are using for support. I learned a lot this year about growing corn and I look forward to trying it again with better soil that is not contaminated with herbicide chemicals.

The entire corn harvest