Green Growing Things

We definitely, certainly, without fail need fences next year. Casualties so far include: sunflowers, tomato blossoms, pea vines, spinach, scarlet runner beans, carrot tops, pumpkin leaves, zuchinni leaves, cucumber leaves. Looks like mostly deer to me (they've left footprints). Surprisingly -- no lettuce seems to have been eaten.

What we've eaten so far -- about 10 peas, many salads with the lettuce. Zuchinni is on the menu sometime this week. We'll probably try the green beans, too.

Some observations for next year: Plant less lettuce! And plant in rotation so we get multiple crops per square of smaller, more tender leaves. Don't be afraid to THIN that lettuce. Pumpkins need more than just 2x2 for a single plant. Unless I can find a way to make them more vertical, I'm thinking two plants in a hill in the center of an entire 4x4 bed. Outside corners can have something that's harvested by the time the vine takes over -- maybe the lettuce? Or something tall like sunflowers.

The first poppy came out this morning! Of course it was raining, so I waded through the sopping grass to get over to the poppy garden and take a picture or two.

I wish I'd had the camera out a bit later, when a finch came by to check out the poppies, and sat on one of the buds for a while. When it stops raining, I should scrub out the birdbath and get it into the garden.

After the salad last night, I need to rethink the lettuce I'm growing in the garden. I don't like the endive-type lettuces. They're too bitter for my taste. And the broadcast seed means that I need to spend what seems like an excessive amount of time picking and preparing the salad. I'd rather use square-foot gardening methods and wait a little bit longer to harvest larger leaves without needing to thin.

Today we ate the first produce from our garden. Salad!

       
All the rain has been good to the gardens.

The iris behind the porch has started budding, but not blooming yet. Also, the mystery plant (which we think grows from a bulb, but haven't identified) has started blooming.

Some more pictures of how things are growing.

Lettuce (needs thinning soon)

Peas (and a sunflower)

Zuchinni. I'm amused at how it hung on to the outside of the seed.

Carrots.

Beans.

Purchased some flowers, peppers and tomatoes.

Got these from the Powers' Farm Market, since there wasn't much tomato selection at Gentle's Market last year. Also, Grossmans only had plum tomatoes when I checked the other day. Purchased a six-pack of Big Boy tomatoes (though I only planted two). They were a bit on the leggy side, but I'm hoping they'll do OK.

Also two kinds of peppers: California Wonder and Cubanelle.

For flowers, I purchased purple Alyssum and Cosmos in two shades of pink, which I planted (with help from Ben) along the front walk.

He wanted to plant the tomato plants right away.

And this is how they look:

Note the poor, sad tulip leaves which is about all that's left from the many tulips I attempted to plant in this bed several years ago.

Turned the compost heap again. Plenty of worms, but all near the top of the heap. Does this mean it's too wet? Too dry? Not mixed up enough? Will the worms get smothered by the weight of the pile when I turn it over?

I need a compost reference! Currently I'm just doing the "heap it up and turn it over from time to time" method. We have enough rainfall here that I don't think I have to worry about it drying out.

Planted pumpkin seeds with Ben. The space might be a little small, I expect I may have to trim off the ends of the vines by the end of the season. See the plan for details of where things are planted.