Sunday, August 9, 2009

Garden update

Has anyone been wondering how our garden is doing? Well, for those of you waiting in breathless anticipation, here's an update.

We got such a late start because of fencing issues that some things didn't get planted until late June/early July. We won't get the full cadre of produce that we might have gotten had we planted earlier. Ah well, every year the garden gets a little better.

Oddly enough we haven't had any deer problems, but something was eating my tomatoes and beans. Know what we finally figured it was? Grasshoppers. Yep, grasshoppers. This time of year we have millions. This answer came to me as I walked toward the beans one day and saw hundreds hopping and flying away from the bean patch. Not much we can do about them.

Bean plant eaten down by grasshoppers.


We had a good and desperately-needed rain a few days ago, and with the soil being damp I've been weeding like crazy. The garden was overrun with weeds for awhile, but not any more.


Here's the watermelons - too small. I doubt we'll get any before frost hits.


Pumpkins. We'll get a decent crop.


Peas. Ditto - a decent crop.


Potatoes. Doing beautifully.


I have three types of beans planted - soldier, pinto, and green. They're all podding nicely and I anticipate a nice harvest.


Bean pods (these are soldier beans).


Tomatoes. Eh, not great. The grasshoppers are eating them almost as fast as they grow, plus they got planted too late.


Cascabella peppers, a particular favorite of my youngest daughter (she eats them like candy). They got planted late, so I'm not sure how they'll do. If the frost comes early, though, I'll put them in pots in the greenhouse until the peppers ripen.


Corn. I planted it late, but it's healthy and green since I planted it in a spot especially rich in composted cow manure. I anticipate a good crop.


Garlic. I planted this last fall and it's beautiful right now. In fact, it's ripe (we pulled one up - oh la la!).


Here are the garlic flowers. Garlic seeds are edible and very concentrated in flavor.


Onions. Planted too late. I doubt I'll get anything decent.


Cantaloupe. I only planted a short-season version, so despite the smallness of the plants, I anticipate we'll get a decent amount. There is nothing better than a garden-grown cantaloupe - the store-bought versions can't compare.


That's our garden. Not good enough to make us self-sufficient in vegetables yet, but I'm working on it. Everything is non-hybrid (open-pollinated), so I'll select the best plants and save them for seed.

What we didn't get planted this year: carrots, broccoli, another type of cantaloupe, herbs, and cucumbers. Next year perhaps.

2 comments:

  1. Your garden looks ok. It does take a few years for a garden to produce well. Cenex blends a fertilizer for potatoes that helps a lot and I use it on everything. Aphids destroyed the peppers, ruined the tomatoes and damaged most everything else. I tried every trick I could and it was the yellow jackets that saved us. Terry

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  2. I don't know if you use diamacious earth for your livestock, but will also kill grasshoppers.

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