Garden Update

I have a confession to make:  I haven't weeded the garden in over a month!  Ok, maybe longer.  I've said it.  My secret is out.  

Please, please, look beyond the weeds.  

• The onions are doing great.  I usually don't wait until they're fully mature before I pluck one out for an omelet or salad.
• The lettuce is about to give me it's fifth harvest.  
• The pole beans... lots of flowers but no beans yet. I'm still waiting.  

• I've got great looking beefsteak tomatoes on the way.

• I don't know exactly what kind of peppers these are.  It's not what the picture on the label showed but I'm still happy with these.  They are mild and delicious.

• The Roma tomatoes are coming along nicely.

• The basil and lemon basil plants are doing well.  

•  The one pepper on this plant is growing beautifully.  It should be a yellow pepper.  It's still maturing.

• The yellow squash are prolific and delicious...  in eggs, casseroles, on salads, roasted, stir fried... they're wonderful.
• The zucchini has slowed it's production.  I think I crowded them.

• The string beans, that were previously vandalized by a varmint, are recuperating but the cucumbers are invading their space.  I collect the string beans.  I don't harvest them.  I collect them one by one and I'm saving each one until I can justify turning on the stove to cook them.
• Oh, and the cucumbers?  A big zero thus far.  I crowded them.

I'm so thrilled with the results.  I haven't seen bugs or worms chewing away.  Just bees.  For fertilizer, we just put a top dressing of a few bags of organic mushroom compost (thanks to a tip from Kris at http://georgiahomegarden.blogspot.com/.)  Oh, and we limed the soil when we tilled it up.  That's it.  

And on my way back to the house, I found three big piles of this.  I did what any sensible person would do:  I scooped them up and tossed them into the compost pile.
Then grabbed my 'Liquid Fence' spray (much cheaper than a wood and wire fence) and sprayed a barrier around the garden.  Note to self: wear gloves when using this next time.  Pee-Eww.

Here's a few changes I would make next season:

• Plant more zucchini and squash.  Maybe just the two of them in one of the beds.
• Plant a lot more string beans.  Rows of them.
• Give the cucumbers their own row, away from the squash.
• Plant more peppers.
• And insert the tomato cages correctly in the soil.  Yep, we put the cages upside down.  With the spikes pointed upward.  That's embarrassing.  
• Plant more onions.  They're great in almost everything.
• And use the 'Liquid Fence' a little earlier to prevent unwanted guests.
• And create three more beds.    

I hope you enjoyed my update.

Growing things to eat can be quite the healthy addiction.  

Love from Whippoorwill Road,

"Farmer Jane"

aka: Bernadine