Garden Update, July 2008
Previous garden updates:
June 2008
May 2008
Overview:
The perennial herb plot. We planted cilantro too, which is below the oregano. You can hardly see it. The oregano, stevia, and mint seem to have finally taken root and taken off. Compare with last month's picture. There's a big difference. We did another seed planting of watermelon along the border, and those two plants have overtaken the original watermelon plants that we started from seed.
Pole beans, which are snaking onto the trellis that I made for the winter squash, which we might not be getting anything from anyways.
We have been able to have butter bean side dishes 3 or 4 times now. They are obviously doing very well and are probably the best producers in our garden. Our French green beans are also good producers.
The three sticks in the white container will supposedly grow to be Nanking cherry bushes. The white container next to that one has a dwarf "Italian Honey" fig tree in it, which is doing very well. And then cucumber in the other containers. We have harvested some small cucumbers from those.
Lots of green tomatoes. We've been able to pick some red ones off. I am pleased to announce that the Victory tomatoes (one of this year's new varieties for us) have an excellent flavor. Haven't had any peppers from our Super Shepherd yet, but we have had a few from the other two in this picture. Carrot plantings have fallen flat on their face; only about 5 germinated; only 2 survived.
We might actually get pumpkins. Of course, neither of the big pumpkin plants in this picture are ones that we purposefully sowed. I guess pumpkins, like marigolds, don't like to be told where to grow. Hopefully these pumpkins did not have hybrid parents. The plant in the compost pile has had several big blossoms, but no fruits yet. I've tried hand pollinating, but either 1) they're sterile because they came from F1 hybrids, or 2) I was pollinating female-to-female.
We hadn't planned on planting potatoes this year. However, when a couple of potatoes started sprouting, we figured we'd plant them, just to see what would happen. Here's how one planting is doing. Let's hope we get something, and let's hope those are edible ;)
Your garden has really been coming along beautifully! Our little container garden hasn't been doing well at all. Everything that we planted in the unfenced parts of our yard ended up being eaten by the neighborhood bunnies and our dog got into and dug up much of the stuff we planted in our back yard. We lost the last of our pumpkins to a fatal trampling from our teenaged son becoming a bit too enthusiastic while mowing our yard. Amongst the few garden survivors are some beans, some tomatoes and some potatoes. We are thinking of replanting a few things in some less vulnerable containers since Texas has such a long growing season, though.
Birdie,
I'm sorry to hear that your efforts are not going as well as planned. At least many of the failures you listed are not due to your (self-proclaimed) black thumb.
Beans/legumes have been very good to us in our efforts so far. I believe we have planted butter beans, peas, string beans, and pole beans. A very high percentage of them have germinated, and we have had bean side dishes several times this year.
Our mischievous little Luna probably would have dug/torn up some of our plants, but we put up some chicken wire around the garden for the very purpose of keeping certain mischievous puppies out. But then again, chicken wire would not have sufficed if we had a dog that could jump over it.
I'd imagine that bunnies would be a big problem...too big to be killed by rat trips. There probably are some old wives' tale methods of keeping them out, but in my experience, old wives' tale methods usually don't work.
You can thank "global warming" that you have a long growing season ;) If you'd like, you can plan ahead and when the weather is right, plant some vegetables that can stand cold or cooler weather, like carrots, peas, anything related to onions. We are growing green onions in a window box right now and they are doing fine. They might get bigger in the ground, but they are big enough for our needs right now. We've grown carrots in containers, and they turned out fine, if not a bit small (but then again, they were a small variety).
Your garden looks great! I am looking forward to a vegetable exchange with you sometime this week. We just got back from vacation and I just picked today almost a dozen tomatoes, two cucumbers & about 2 dozen string beans (which is not enough to cook yet without the exchange). I also have the squash and tomatoes you picked for me last week. My onions no longer have tops and it looks like "something" ate the tops off and even took a few bites into some bulbs. What would eat onions? I put them on the perimeter of my garden to keep things out! I am guessing rabbits, but rats or squirrels also come to mind.