October 18th, raised beds

I'll actually try to keep up with the photos this season. Really! The first bed has peas, leeks, and broccoli and collard seedlings. The second will have radishes, carrots, parsnips, and mangels as soon as they come up.

Photos, as promised

A couple of pictures of the Biointensive bed right before I ripped everything out, plus the many many potatoes.

June 22nd, Biointensive bed

It's been hot all week, the Internet says up to 97 but I'm pretty sure it was over 100 for a couple of days. So, this bed has pretty much doubled in size. The potatoes are starting to fall over and I'm going to try to stake them up tonight. The corn is...huge. The squash is about to flower and the canteloupe keeps wandering into the onions and carrots. The beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes are all doing beautifully as long as they're restrained.

When I first planned this garden, back in January or so, I thought it was far too big and I kept telling myself that if I only got half of it done then that would be plenty. Well...I did it! Our bedroom window looks out on the backyard and that's the first thing I look at when I get up in the morning, making sure everything's alright and just enjoying the transformation from bare dirt with occasional weeds to food, food, and more food. Almost there...

June 22nd, raised beds

We've had 6 zucchini from the garden so far: 4 grilled, one given away, and one made into zucchini bread. There will be more zucchini, probably, oh, tomorrow. Maybe Tuesday. There is one little Green Zebra tomato in progress - I'm keeping a close eye on it because I had so much trouble with the tomatoes last year. I'm trying to water only the base of the plants and only when they look like they need it and so far the blossoms are hanging on...we'll see if all the plants set fruit. The bell peppers are now next to the tomatoes because, when they were between the corn and the potatoes, they got about 2 hours of sun a day. Hopefully this is the last time I'll have to move them! I need to cut the parsley and mint back and use some of it. I made pesto with the basil this week and used most of 4 plants in the process. The basil seedlings (in pots) are doing okay despite being dug up by something one night this week, but the cilantro and parsley aren't sprouting at all. The chard and arugula are coming back and I'll try to use the leaves when they're smaller this time.

June 14th, Biointensive bed

Again, a fine example of my jerry-rigging skills: I made a trellis cage for the beans that'll probably fall down in the first strong wind, but so far it's doing its job. Everything is growing like crazy! I dug around at the base of one of the potato plants this week and knocked off a tiny little potato, so that's going well. I'm actually starting to wonder if there will be room for everything when it all starts producing...

June 14th, raised beds

Missed another two weeks...anyway, you can see that everything looks great. The giant squash turned out to be zucchini, with the delicata coming along nicely behind it (although you can't see it). I need to label everything when I plant it! As I type this, William is sauteing the first 2 zucchinis and 2 blossoms as well, for lunch. Hooray!
I've started various basil, cilantro, and parsley seeds in the pots that you can see in one of the photos. The cilantro is going to seed and I'll try to save some of it, although it's a quick-bolting variety. I harvested all the chard and arugula this week and we've used it in salads, along with the romaine lettuce from the CSA. The lettuce is doing well and the spinach is...not. All the herbs are fine and the tomatoes are flowering - I can't WAIT for the fresh tomatoes!

June 2nd, Biointensive bed

Here's where all the work's been done lately. On May 22nd, I transplanted the green onions and regular onions and some summer squash from the nursery. Then I built a fence (such as it is) to keep the rabbits out and re-seeded the carrots, which are starting to come up now. I also thinned everything since so many seeds came up and were doing well. I tried to move some healthy plants into spots left by plants that got chewed on, but I almost wish I'd left everything alone since the plants I moved almost didn't make it. Anyway, everything is going great. The potatoes are ready to be hilled and I'll try to get to that this week.

June 2nd, raised beds

Okay, I've missed a couple of weeks. Things are going well! This weekend we used cilantro in the spanish rice, made pesto with basil, and froze a WHOLE bunch of fresh oregano, which will keep us supplied with oregano for about a year. Next time I'll dry it. Not much else to report on the raised beds...I moved the peppers to the Biointensive bed since the delicata squash was blocking almost all the sunlight. There is zucchini on the other side of the squash but you can't see it! It was slow for a while but now it looks like it might actually pull through. I'm going to start basil, cilantro, and parsley seeds this week in pots and in the ground, just to see which way works out best. I also plan to start using the chard and arugula in salads, I've let them just sit there for too long since we get a lovely salad mix from our CSA.

May 18th, Biointensive bed

Good week for this bed, except for whatever's eating the seedlings at night...I've lost nearly all of the carrot seedlings :( I've been putting crates over the beans and cucumbers at night and I put out some slug bait (the pennies are also an attempt at slug control) and things are better, but I didn't protect the carrots at all and that was a mistake. I'll re-seed them next week. Still haven't planted the onions. The tomatoes are mostly doing well, canteloupe is holding up, corn is growing like crazy, and the potatoes finally came up. No summer squash yet, though...

May 18th, raised beds

It's been HOT this week, up to 100 degrees a couple of days (!) Tomatoes are doing well in the heat and everything else is hanging in there. The lettuce is coming along but the spinach is really slow. The winter squash is taking over its bed, the zucchini is just starting to get moving, and the bell peppers have hardly done anything since I transplanted them: I may need to replace them with nursery plants. The herbs are all doing well.

May 11th, Biointensive bed

You can't really see anything here, but the beans, cucumbers, canteloupe, and corn are coming up, along with the basil and marigolds here and there. Tomatoes are doing well but not amazing, I put some fertilizer spikes near each one and hopefully that will help: I also picked off a few bugs from the undersides of the leaves.

May 11th, raised beds

May 4th, Biointensive bed

May 4th, raised beds