Some of my bloggy friends and real life friends have been asking how our garden was doing, so I thought it was about time for a garden update! After several years of trying this square foot garden thing, we are FINALLY having some success. We're attributing this to two factors: we moved the garden to a better location, which likely helped a lot, and we also added a bunch of old chicken manure to the soil, which probably helped a LOT lot! :) Most of our plants this year have gone crazy. We did lose most of our lettuce and none of our peas ever came up (which is probably the fault of the raccoon which invaded our garden the day after we planted), but everything else is doing great. Waaaaay better than any other year. Here are some pictures:
Cucumber toward the back corner, zucchini on the right, mint in the front. My friend Mrs. D warned me that the mint would take over--and she was right!
Our tomatoes have taken off like crazy. They are at least 3 ft. tall, I think. (I started with plants from a greenhouse, having had no luck with my seedlings.) The regular tomatoes are heirlooms--Brandywines. This is a kinda weird/too close picture, but I wanted to show you how they're looking. We have lots of them coming along--so exciting!
We also put in a couple of grape tomato plants. They are doing great, as well!
Closer-up picture of the zucchini. There are a couple cute little zucchinis growing on there, with hopefully more to come!
Carrots in the front, cucumber behind them.
Lots and lots of green! Beans are on the lower left, tomatoes behind them. Potatoes in the middle (there is also some spinach and chard squished in between, but you can't see it--I didn't realize how crazily huge the potatoes and tomatoes would get. Next time I won't plant little things in between. :) Cukes, mint and zucchini on the right.
The potatoes were a total experiment. I had some from the grocery store that had sprouted in my drawer, so decided to cut them up and try planting. I couldn't believe how fast they grew! Yikes! It will be cool if we actually get a good potato harvest, since those are something we eat a lot of. Next year I might even try planting them in their own raised bed; I didn't know they would go out of control like that!So that is a quick photo tour of our garden--I'll try to update again later in the summer when we start harvesting!
3 comments:
Everything looks great, Carrie! I could have told you the same thing about mint. I've had it in pots in years past but this year I'm letting it grow wild because I just love it so much! I don't really care if it takes over! :)
A friend of mine is a serious master gardener and I know she always plants her tomatoes and potatoes in VERY separate areas of the garden because they look so much alike (same plant family). The potato greens actually form little fruits that look a LOT like tomato fruits. But beware, the potato fruits are slightly poisonous. Just a warning in case your kids get ambitious and want to pick the fruits! I know my youngest will pick anything that comes off with a tug! :)
Keep us posted on how things blossom and grow! Our zucchini plants are sadly already done producing. :( They got mildew and we only harvested 4. Boo!
Looks like a wonderful garden spot! I'm thinking you are going to get a wonderful harvest! We have five volunteer tomato plants in our yard - it looks crazy because they just sprouted up in the middle of the lawn but I am so happy! They are covered with round tomatoes & romas :-)
Wow... looks great! There is a way of growing potatoes in tall pots. You keep adding more soil as the plants grow since potatoes grow off the stem, not the roots as many think. I can still hear my dad telling me to hill the potatoes. We don't eat many, but I do like fresh potato. Who knows how long the grocery store ones have been around :)
Happy summer.
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