Yesterday I didn't see anything ready to harvest. This morning I see Eggplant, cucumbers, fennel, beets, carrots and even a few tomatoes turning red. This morning's harvest will be tonight's salad.

Out of Control

Everything is growing out of control. The square foot garden is overflowing. I think we may have needed to space things better and stake more. The two watermelon vines are like Kudzu. I am letting them just go over the wall and putting a fence around them to keep the dogs away. I have cucumber plants that are staked and are over 4 feet tall and blocking and taking over the basil, carrots and smaller plants around them. We have 7 tomato plants that are full of fruit and are over 6 feet tall.
We have already enjoyed eating eggplants, cucumbers, onions, squash, strawberries, blueberries and lots of herbs. Hopefully we will be able to keep it all together for harvest.

http://picasaweb.google.com/max.alligood/20100610#5481168836864030722

Memorial Day 2010

It's been over a month since the last post. I am more into gardening than blogging about the garden.

In the last month everything has taken off. The tomato vines are all heavy with green tomatoes. We have some eggplant almost ready for harvest. We have already eaten all the strawberries. Have our first baby cucs. I have using an organic pesticide that hopefully will knock out any problems. I am trying to be mostly organic, but I did fertilize with Miracle Grow because i was not sure that the blood meal, compost etc was enough.

Squirrels get the fruit

Remember the apples from my last post? Well so did the squirrels. I have got to put up the electric fence before the tomatoes come. I am not growing a garden so that a rat with a cute tail can harvest everything.

First broccoli.

The tomato plants have grown so much in a week that I needed to get cages to start support. I've not added any fertilizer other than the compost at planting. There are at least 4 varieties, but the problem is that the tags got washed away.

The last time I saw my little green apples.

Enjoying the front porch with my boys, Buck & Paco.

This plant is interesting because the red part is actually the leaves. The flower is white. It is called a bougainvillea. They were all over Vieques.

Just love the color here.

Azaleas in full bloom.

Radar on guard

Things are popping

We got tired of the mulch and thought it would be nice to have grass. It looked great for about a week but it just couldn't stand up to the dogs. It seems they all want to pee in the same place. Dogs are good people but they are not good for the garden.

Our garden is in full swing now. This week I planted tomatoes, two kinds of cucumbers, watermelons, beets, okra, eggplant, marigolds and lavender. This is all in the back yard. Out front Joy has been busy with the more decorative plants and herbs. Next week I'll add peppers and some other edibles to the front.

I started a lot from seeds this year under grow lights and had some sad results. I'm still hoping the peppers will be plant able and I did get several heirloom tomatoes, but most were too spindly to plant. Planting seeds is a lot riskier than buying plants, but it's also a bit more exciting. Sometimes little seeds, sprout and push leaves up the earth. Other times nothing ever appears and you just replant.

We have our first baby apples popping out. I'm sure the squirrels are already planning on eating them as soon as they are ripe.

So far one square of carrots and beets have emerged and one of each nothing has happened. I think it may be getting too late to replant since both of these do better in cooler weather.

We are still struggling to balance dogs with gardening. Keeping Radar out is always a challenge. Yes, I am a dog trainer, but catching him in the act is difficult. I'm not sure which is more of a threat- Radar or the squirrels.

It's been awhile since I've posted. It is hard to get excited about planting when it is still so cold. We have put in some sod in the back yard hoping that it could stand up to the boys. It looks great but no matter how much we water the dogs urine has already done a job. All four seem to pee in the same spot so maybe the rest will be OK.

Since I've been home all day getting ready for tonight's Seder I spent some time in the garden. I am still concerned about planting peppers and tomatoes but hopefully the early crops will make it. I started alot of plants from seeds and I'm sure how that is working. It's really hard to get those tender little plants out of the tray and into the ground without tearing them apart.

Is winter over?

OK I know winter is not over. We had a great day with sun and temp over 60 Monday it will get close to 70. It looks like the week should stay above freezing, but we can have frost as late as mid April. This means you can plant but you have to be careful that you plant frost tolerant plants and be ready to cover if Jack Frost comes around.

With Joy out of town I decided to spend the day working in the garden. It's not as much fun but it keeps me out of trouble. But really the only trouble I would get into would be cooking pork ribs or shrimp on the grill. If Joy keeps leaving me alone it may come to that.

I've got 51 squares ready for crops. If you are like us and don't have a lot of space and want fresh veges with as little work as possible I believe that Square Foot Gardening is the way to go. We raised the beds 3 feet not just to keep the dogs out but so we don't have to bend over or get on our knees. We aren't old, but the joints aren't as fluid as they once were.

So far I've planted 19 of the 51 squares. I'll have some tomatoes and other large crops in spaces other than the squares in our raised bed. we have 6 Blueberries in a bed by the house.

In the 19 squares we have 12 beets, 8 Bibb lettuce, 4 strawberries, 2 cilantro, 4 onion chives, 4 garlic, 2 broccoli, 32 carrots and 4 mustard.

I used chop sticks to space the plants and dig the hole. This will be 9 beets

These plants will be planted outside in 2-3 weeks, but today I let them enjoy the sunshine and fresh air, also known as "hardening".

Another snow day

Not a great day for gardening here. The white sheet is an attempt to protect the buds on our apple tree. We bought trees that bloom early, which is a problem when we have so much frost after the fake spring we had a couple of weeks ago. I should have known that there was some reason why these two trees had been at Pikes for so long.

Our first plants have started to sprout under the grow lights. The lettuce and cauliflower are out of the dirt first. The tomatoes, peppers and egg plant should be coming out soon.

The snow and ice caused a serious problem. I was being the good husband and taking the garbage out when I slipped on the icy steps. I went down hard and my ribs landed on the step. I was in so much pain I couldn't get up. I had to crawl inside to get to Joy. I had to lay on the kitchen floor until the ambulance arrived. Since I had fallen they strapped me to a board, loaded me on the ambulance and took me to Piedmont Hospital. It took them over four hours to tell me I had a broken rib. If you don't think we have a problem with health care then you have not spent any time in an emergency room. The ER is filled and backed up not with real emergencies, its filled with people who have no health insurance and have to go there for minor issues.

Hopefully I'll be mended soon and able to work the garden. For now I'm on the couch being thankful for my wonderful wife and for pain medicine.

STARTING THE GARDEN

When Joy and I got together three years ago she had a beautiful back yard. The previous owners had left her with a formal perennial garden with statues, fountains and goldfish pond. When Buck & Paco joined Ziggy & Radar the yard was in trouble.

Given my manly need to tear down, rip out, plow over and rebuild meant that the formal garden was headed for upheaval.

We wanted to grow something we could eat so we put in several tomato plants. Buck and Radar were in heaven when they realized that they had tennis balls growing from vines. As soon as they had one in their mouth and discovered that these were actually tasty, juicy tomatoes I knew I had to work to keep them out. We built fence to keep them out, but they were able to get in but couldn't get out. That's when we decided to get rid of everything and put in raised beds that we could grow a vegetable and fruit garden in the that would also keep the dogs out.



By mid summer last year we had a garden that provided fresh salads and other vegetables until frost. This year we are excited to be starting our plants from seeds under grow lights in m office.

We are following Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening plan, http://www.squarefootgardening.com/
I thought it would be fun to keep track of everything for me and maybe someone else will enjoy as well. So here it goes.