Great start
It's been a few weeks since I have blogged and the garden is growing by leaps and bounds. The spring weather here has been either sunny, hot, and humid or rainy, a great environment for initial growth in the garden. Everything has more than doubled in size in the past week to 10 days.
As you can see the tomatoes have grown tall enough for me to start weaving them through the mesh of the trellis. The Rutgers shown here have their first blossoms, joy joy :)
And then there are the various beans I have planted, 4 different varieties in all. On the trellis there are two rows, one on either side of the trellis, of Kentucky wonder pole beans.
I bought some rare varieties of seeds from a company in Canada. They have people who search the world for rare and almost extinct varieties grown in small local areas. One is a variety of shell beans that comes from Africa, called Bantu beans, they are doing very well, making fast and steady growth. They are planted in the back 2/3 of the row in the middle.
On the right is two rows of blue lake bush beans (you can only see the end of the rows) planted about 6-8 inches apart.Behind that are the African beans between the pvc poles, I had to make a fast support for them because I did not know they were climbers. Oh well, this should be fun :)
To the far left, beyond the pole is the variety from Italy. It can be used like a green bean or a shell bean. It is not doing as well as the ones from Africa, I think maybe it is the cool nights of our spring weather. (Update) I was right, they are doing much better now that the nights are a bit warmer.
In the packets of both the African and Italian beans there were just 15 seeds so I will only be able to have a little taste of each, I want to be able to increase the yield next year. Must remember to plant the Italian beans later than the others. The foreign beans share their rows with blue lake bush beans because there weren't enough of then to fill a full row.
You may be able to see see I have had some bug damage to the first leaves of my bean crop. I am not too worried about this, it seems to have slowed and I believe, from past experience, that the bugs have about lived their life cycle and that since the plants are larger and stronger with more leaves, the bugs won't do much future damage. I have seen many birds in the garden around the beans, mainly robins and doves having breakfast, lunch, supper and many between meal snacks as well :) I am sure they like the worms they find there after a rain as well as the easy pickings of bugs on and around the plants.
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I also have some pumpkin seeds from Africa, there were 6 seeds in the packet, I planted 3 of them and thinned to one plant. Next year I will have more space so will be able to have several plants if I like this variety.
Oh no! LOL, my finger is covering up the African pumpkin plant, I will get a better pic of it in here later.
There is also a patty pan summer squash. I never grew a patty pan squash, never ate it either, looking forward to the treat, I did not know it is a bush and not a vine, so it is planted in with the vines on the trellis haha. And here is the zucchini.
The second picture is a couple of weeks later, after fertilizing and lots of rain and sun too. They shot really fast. I love it :)
You can just see the African pumpkin on the front-right of the trellis, it is a little behind the squash but I think it is the same reason the Italian beans were a little slower. I'm sure it will recover.
That trellis scares me LOL, I don't know if it will hold up. There are 2 buttercup plants, 4 butternut plants, and the pumpkin. And the pattypan is in there, it will probably help prop up it's neighbor, a buttercup lol.
I am planning to dehydrate some summer squash for winter use in soups and lasagna, and maybe re-hydrating and frying, we will see.
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Interplanting:
You may be able to see the radishes growing beside the squashes and pumpkins. They help to repel squash bugs. The radishes will be allowed to continue to grow for that purpose.
Again, the second pic is a couple of weeks later. See the amazing growth, I love it. Again lol
Bush beans and potatoes are said to repel each other's pests and from experience I know this to be true. I have placed the bush beans next to my potatoes, which by the way are gigantic :) The tallest row was planted on Saint Patrick's Day, the others were planted about a month later. I just planted potatoes from the grocery store that were growing in my cupboard. All I did to plant (Thanks to my friend Mark for the donation of the straw)As they grew, I kept covering them with a light layer of straw until they started to flower. Now they will grow potatoes in the straw, making it easy for me to harvest. No digging for me, which is the point of starting the garden by using newspaper and flattened cardboard boxes along with mulch materials such as grass clippings, shredded pine, and straw to kill the existing grass. As you can see, I have confined the straw with some of my rabbit fence so that the straw will stay put and the growing potatoes will not see the sun. The straw is from a foot to a foot and half high.
I will continue this mulching process throughout the summer and into fall to increase the size of the garden area for next year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Garden Trellises
I have some concerns about the strength of my squash trellis that is made from half inch pvc. I think my design is flawed so I have been adding more support to it. It seems to be too wobbly and weak to support the 8 plants I have growing around it. I hope it doesn't break and fall, I don't want to lose any of the squash crop or the African pumpkin :( I'm already wishing I had chosen to make bamboo teepees instead. It isn't too late to do that, I just might yet. The pumpkin will probably be a very large, long plant so I am considering training it to grow around the base of the trellis structure.
It's been a few weeks since I have blogged and the garden is growing by leaps and bounds. The spring weather here has been either sunny, hot, and humid or rainy, a great environment for initial growth in the garden. Everything has more than doubled in size in the past week to 10 days.
As you can see the tomatoes have grown tall enough for me to start weaving them through the mesh of the trellis. The Rutgers shown here have their first blossoms, joy joy :)
And then there are the various beans I have planted, 4 different varieties in all. On the trellis there are two rows, one on either side of the trellis, of Kentucky wonder pole beans.
I bought some rare varieties of seeds from a company in Canada. They have people who search the world for rare and almost extinct varieties grown in small local areas. One is a variety of shell beans that comes from Africa, called Bantu beans, they are doing very well, making fast and steady growth. They are planted in the back 2/3 of the row in the middle.
To the far left, beyond the pole is the variety from Italy. It can be used like a green bean or a shell bean. It is not doing as well as the ones from Africa, I think maybe it is the cool nights of our spring weather. (Update) I was right, they are doing much better now that the nights are a bit warmer.
In the packets of both the African and Italian beans there were just 15 seeds so I will only be able to have a little taste of each, I want to be able to increase the yield next year. Must remember to plant the Italian beans later than the others. The foreign beans share their rows with blue lake bush beans because there weren't enough of then to fill a full row.
You may be able to see see I have had some bug damage to the first leaves of my bean crop. I am not too worried about this, it seems to have slowed and I believe, from past experience, that the bugs have about lived their life cycle and that since the plants are larger and stronger with more leaves, the bugs won't do much future damage. I have seen many birds in the garden around the beans, mainly robins and doves having breakfast, lunch, supper and many between meal snacks as well :) I am sure they like the worms they find there after a rain as well as the easy pickings of bugs on and around the plants.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I also have some pumpkin seeds from Africa, there were 6 seeds in the packet, I planted 3 of them and thinned to one plant. Next year I will have more space so will be able to have several plants if I like this variety.
There is also a patty pan summer squash. I never grew a patty pan squash, never ate it either, looking forward to the treat, I did not know it is a bush and not a vine, so it is planted in with the vines on the trellis haha. And here is the zucchini.
The second picture is a couple of weeks later, after fertilizing and lots of rain and sun too. They shot really fast. I love it :)
You can just see the African pumpkin on the front-right of the trellis, it is a little behind the squash but I think it is the same reason the Italian beans were a little slower. I'm sure it will recover.
That trellis scares me LOL, I don't know if it will hold up. There are 2 buttercup plants, 4 butternut plants, and the pumpkin. And the pattypan is in there, it will probably help prop up it's neighbor, a buttercup lol.
I am planning to dehydrate some summer squash for winter use in soups and lasagna, and maybe re-hydrating and frying, we will see.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interplanting:
You may be able to see the radishes growing beside the squashes and pumpkins. They help to repel squash bugs. The radishes will be allowed to continue to grow for that purpose.
Bush beans and potatoes are said to repel each other's pests and from experience I know this to be true. I have placed the bush beans next to my potatoes, which by the way are gigantic :) The tallest row was planted on Saint Patrick's Day, the others were planted about a month later. I just planted potatoes from the grocery store that were growing in my cupboard. All I did to plant (Thanks to my friend Mark for the donation of the straw)As they grew, I kept covering them with a light layer of straw until they started to flower. Now they will grow potatoes in the straw, making it easy for me to harvest. No digging for me, which is the point of starting the garden by using newspaper and flattened cardboard boxes along with mulch materials such as grass clippings, shredded pine, and straw to kill the existing grass. As you can see, I have confined the straw with some of my rabbit fence so that the straw will stay put and the growing potatoes will not see the sun. The straw is from a foot to a foot and half high.
I will continue this mulching process throughout the summer and into fall to increase the size of the garden area for next year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Garden Trellises
I have some concerns about the strength of my squash trellis that is made from half inch pvc. I think my design is flawed so I have been adding more support to it. It seems to be too wobbly and weak to support the 8 plants I have growing around it. I hope it doesn't break and fall, I don't want to lose any of the squash crop or the African pumpkin :( I'm already wishing I had chosen to make bamboo teepees instead. It isn't too late to do that, I just might yet. The pumpkin will probably be a very large, long plant so I am considering training it to grow around the base of the trellis structure.
