18 Nov 2008

11 Nov 2008

It's difficult to see much besides the zucchini plant. We are harvesting Armenian cucumbers and zucchini already. Beets are still being eaten despite the soapy water. It seems to have worked on whatever is eating the peas though.

4 Nov 2008

What a difference two weeks make!
I have the photos but didn't have the time to post them.
The peas are still struggling and I haven't caught the last culprit who keeps eating the spinach and beets. The carrots and onions are coming along great though. The structure is working out great. The squash, peas and beans love it.

 

These are the Armenian cucumbers. Ready for harvest soon. They look delicious.

You can also see in this photo a bit of the watering irrigation system I use. 

 

Sweet potato blossoms! Pretties.

Fall Garden 14 Oct 2008

The "structure" we had just wasn't working. The nylon string grid I purchased from Mel's website just didn't hold up very long. I went and wandered around Home Depot looking for something that would work better. The garden center had quite a few options, but nothing that looked like it would last more than a season or two. I found this metal grid near the stucco and cement. For under $10 I thought it was a great option.

The beans, pumpkin and cucumber took right to it. Made a spray bottle with water and dish soap to spray on the tender beets and peas. Hopefully that will keep the little munchers away. Beautiful 70 degree weather. Plants are loving it.

Fall Garden 7 Oct 2008

Pumpkin, Armenian cucumber, pole beans, and cucumber have all grown enough that I will soon need to put up a structure for them to climb on, Sugar Daddy peas were replanted, still no sign of spinach and green onion. I'm pretty sure the birds took the seed. Something is finding the beets to be quite tasty and is munching on them. I need to find an organic fix for that. There are two thumb size zucchini! It's the first Zucchini plant I have been able to grow here.

You can see part of the drip irrigation system I put in place as well. Each square foot has it's own immitter so I can control water to each square. Mel suggests hand watering, That doesn't work for me as I forget, or just choose not to go out in the heat of summer.

Spring/ Summer Garden
23 Sep 2008
I tried to "over summer" my spring tomatoes by keeping a shade cloth over them. Most of the summer it is too hot for the blooms to go to fruit. I know it is cooling down and time to cut back the plants when the tomatoes fruit and ripen before they are even the size of a thumbnail.
Hopefully, we will have fall tomatoes too!

 

Summer Garden
23 Sep 2008

You c an see part of the shade cloth structure I use for summer crops. The sweet potato vine loves the sun and crawls out to find it.

2008 Fall Garden

Planted 16 September 2008
Pumpkin, armenian cucumber, Pole Beans, Peas (Sugar Daddy), spinach, green onion, cucumbers, Beets (Detroit Red), zucchini, Peas (wando).

The raised bed seems to be helping to keep the burmuda grass at bay. The spring garden has done really well under the shade cloth all summer.

Several things to notice here. This Bermuda grass is so invasive. It has taken over the two lower beds. It's too hot for me to go outside and take care of it. We decided to raise the beds up so we can mow right under the beds so the grass can't creep in. We did this by putting cinder blocks underneath some plywood lined with black plastic. Then, put the bed on top.

Next comes the shade structure. We just made it out of pvc pipe. Shade cloth purchased at A&P Nursery on Lindsey and Baseline will go over the top once we put the grommets in.
I am hoping the shade cloth will help to over summer the tomatoes so we can get a fall crop.