It's The Little Things

Little things make me smile. The garden tends to do that often! I've picked lots of snow peas in the last week and there are even more out there now! The lettuce just keeps on growing! We've been eating lots of salads and sharing bags of lettuce with friends!

The discovery of the week goes to....



It's a little tomato! Surprisingly, these are on the beefsteak tomatoes! Just a little longer and we should have the long awaited first tomato of the summer!

The watermelon are also taking off. Or, I should say they are ready to take over their allotted space (and more). Maybe we'll have watermelon by the fourth of July? That would be awesome!



The zucchini are growing the most! This picture does not do the monstrosity that is this zucchini plant justice!



The only issues in the garden right now are little worms. Here is a great example of why I don't do organic. Broccoli:



I laughed as all the worms tried to escape my Sevin dusting! BWAHAHAHAHAHA

Pleased With the Peas

For those of you who are faithful "Kayla's garden" enthusiasts, you may remember last year's Sugar Snap Pea harvest. The harvest consisted of 12, maybe 16, sugar snap peas. Total. Reminder: I am not an expert!

Due to the utter disappointment of last year's yield, I chose snow peas over sugar snap peas this year. They are basically the same concept in my mind, so it makes little difference in my plans to pick, eat, repeat.

I've attempted to update you on the progress of the peas this year, showing you regular pictures of their growth and even showing you a freshly weeded row last week. Reminder of that picture:



You can only imagine the SHOCK I experienced today when I came out to the garden to find snow peas growing on my "green beans"!



Did I mention that I'm not an expert? I apparently switched the order in my mind somewhere after planting and I've been pretty consistent since they've emerged! Oh well.... the good news? We have lots of snow peas!



It was a happy surprise for my Friday and I'm certainly please with my peas!

The Weedy Wonder

Ok, I'll admit I've been reluctant to post pictures because the garden had been over taken by weeds. I used Preen for most of the garden, but I was afraid of stunted growth with the plants that were starting from seed. The result? Lots of weeds, but strong plants! I spent this morning trying to control some of the weed problem. I even hurt my finger while weeding!

Ryan caged the tomatoes earlier this week:



Watermelon growing, slowly but surely:



Zucchini is flowering:



Snow peas (freshly weeded). I should have taken a before picture!:



This lettuce has been weeded and there are still a ton of weeds!:



The weekend plans involve a lot more weeding and probably some additional radish harvests!

Full Garden Pictures

It's been awhile since I posted full garden pictures, mostly because there was nothing to show. I didn't get the whole garden in a picture so I will show them in two stages......

The "North Side":



Hotcaps (Rows 1 and 2) are the watermelon. They were planted in hard conditions, so I left the hotcaps on this week to give them a chance.

Row 3: All Tomatoes

Row 4: First three plants are Eggplants, the rest are Tomatoes

Rows 5 & 6: Green Peppers and Jalapenos, respectively

Row 7: Banana and Chili Peppers, Onions

(See next picture for rest)

The "South Side"




Row 1: Same as Row 7 in first picture

Row 2: Zucchini

Row 3: Broccoli

Row 4: Cauliflower

Row 5: Snow Peas

Row 6: Green Beans

Row 7: Lettuce/Radishes

"Open space" Rows 8 & 9: Cantaloupe

I never counted the rows. 15 rows of fine, fresh, farm-raised produce growing! I know we will really enjoy the "fruits" of our labor this summer. It's hard to imagine right now!

Wind, Watermelon and Aliens

Aliens have invaded my garden.

I started the day with ambitious plans. Ryan brought the tiller out, taking care of the remaining soil and also weed maintenance. I picked weeds in the rows and also checked on plant progress.

I have a full row of snow peas! The mild weather this week helped them emerge quickly and they were looking good. The wind was blowing like crazy today, but most of the plants were holding their own.

I picked up Crimson Sweet watermelon plants last night, along with cantaloupe. I planted the watermelon (a total of 12 plants from 4 pots), only to find out some not so great news. Shortly after planting, Ryan decided to tell me what he heard on the radio this morning: a chance of frost. Ouch. Thanks, honey!

We wanted to make sure they were talking to US, so we waited for the 6 p.m. news. They were.

Ryan and I collected our hot caps and some buckets and got to work. We ran out of buckets and hot caps. So for the peas, beans and lettuce...we had to improvise.

Alien invasion (watermelon, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower):



By improvise, we mean: sheets, plastic, cones and our old bags from our "bags" game:



We also threw in a Zook Zone towel for good measure. This one covers some radishes (yes, Heath..this was for you!):



Hopefully that will save the bulk of the plants, we couldn't cover them all. Cantaloupe to be planted sometime next week.

Growing Updates - Broccoli, Cauliflower, Snow Peas

I'm all giddy about the garden this year. Things are growing so well! I picked a few weeds today and checked on everything - things just keep on moving up! I'm very excited about how good the cauliflower and broccoli look! They reacted the worst to being transplanted, but have recovered so well!

Happy Broccoli:



In other news, my snow peas have emerged! I was so worried last week -- they must have heard me.

Newly emerged:



Others in the row (and a few weeds):

EMERGENCE!

Ok, it's been almost a week since my last post - SORRY! It rained A LOT last weekend, so there isn't anything I could do in the garden...but the plants had plenty to do!

I went out today and planted zucchini. I removed the asparagus plants (RIP) and using their row for the zucchini. I'm looking forward to the assortment of squash this summer (zucchini and eggplant.)

Here is a picture of the freshly planted and watered zucchini. Please note, it's incredibly windy today. Check out the emergence of the corn next to my garden!



As a part of my blog, I plan to give regular updates on each of vegetables on a semi-regular basis. Here is your first progress report:

Tomatoes - all plants are growing, looking strong

Eggplants - great leaf growth in these plants, they really strive in our soil type

Green Peppers and Jalapenos - looking good, growing

Banana Peppers - all plants growing well

Onions - some have taken off quicker than others - hopefully this will result in a spread out growing season

Snow Peas - I fear a repeat of last year's sugar snap pea disaster, I see nothing........

Green Beans - EMERGENCE. They look great coming out of the ground!



Lettuce - I had no idea how to plant the lettuce, so I may have not spread it out enough. But, more emergence!



Radishes - The last thing planted from seed, the radishes seem to be flourishing! Glad I have a lot of friends who like Radishes!



I'm still looking for a good selection of watermelon and cantaloupe plants. I plan to check out the Macon County Extension's plant sale this weekend and see what I can find.