A Great Sunday!

I just returned from the garden with RADISHES! Only three, but that is a start. And, actually one was cracked...but I have RADISHES! I wasn't sure when to pick them, but thought I would try a few! Check out what my garden has provided me with today:

Lettuce and radishes for a salad, mint for a mojito and for decoration, hydrangeas and a dahlia! Bon appetit!

I am so happy! I spent about four hours checking in on each square foot! I "weeded" the itsy-bitsy weeds trying to grow, and if needed, helped guide them up the trellis, or added compost to freshen up the soil. I also gave a few plants some food and sprayed neem oil to hopefully help with bug control. I also tried to tackle some of the weeds along the fence that were starting to encroach on my flower beds.

Here are updated pictures of how the boxes look!


Also, cucumbers and beans are growing!

While in Maine

I returned from my Maine vacation last week and was happy to check in on the garden. "Everyone" did fine while I was away for the most part (I had a friend keeing an eye on them). Weeds are now starting to grow around the fence perimeter so I will need to do some more weeding! I guess the good news is that the weeding among the SFG boxes continues to be very minimal! Here are a few more updates:

• the Sugar Snap Peas are growing like crazy; and along with the cucumbers, I am realizing that training them to climb the trellis is a little more time consuming than I thought.
• something is eating the leaves on a few plants, especially the pumpkin; I am going to have to get more proactive in bug defense!
  
• I have lots of tomatoes on all 4 plants, but none are turning red yet
• I harvested lettuce leaves off my Head Lettuce (good news since I was at first skeptical that it would survive after transplanting it from Home Depot)
  
• I have another Mandarin Pepper growing, however this one has small bumps all over it. I am assuming it is some sort of disease, but have yet to figure it out. Also, although this pepper plant has a lot of blossoms, many are falling off-stem and all. I am not sure if this is a natural process, or if something is affecting the plant. Thoughts? Here is a picture of the bumps I was talking about, and you can also see the two peppers side by side.
  

While I was vacationing in Maine, the local town was having an event, "Bloomin' Bucksport." The Bucksport Garden Club brought in a local author who recently published a book about creating a perennial flower garden so that you have continuous blooms from spring through fall. The book is The Ever-Blooming Flower Garden: A Blueprint for Continuous Color by Lee Schneller.
It was a great talk and she showed how her book was designed to really make the planning stage as easy as possible. Some of the plants she talked about were specific to the Maine coast (Zone 5), but I am sure her book covers all zones. Unfortunately, when I went to buy the book and have it signed, they were all sold out! So, I have to order mine online. Although the event's main attraction was Lee Schneller's talk, shops all over the town joined forces to give discounts to attendees. It was a great event, even with the dreary rain we had!

I am now off to the garden but will try to post another report later!

A Welcoming Addition

Just over one month ago I scavenged a Maine beach (shhh...) looking for rocks that I could use as garden markers. I thought it would be add some personality to the garden. I scanned Microsoft Word for the perfect font and searched high and low for non-toxic, waterproof/outdoor craft paint. Finally finding some at ACMoore and I hope that it will withstand all the rain we are having.



I was waiting for a sunny day to snap some photos, but got impatient! Here is a small sampling of how the markers look in the garden...




The past two days have been HORRIBLE!! It has been cold with torrential downpours and thunderstorms! I even think we had some hail early this morning!! Luckily my garden appears to be OK! However, I am off to Maine for a week of vacation. A friend will be taking care my garden while I am gone. Hopefully we will have the few days of sun they are predicting, but I also hope that my first veggies wait until I come back to fully ripen!! Think SUN everyone!!

Growing News

Plot Photo Update:

When I left work at 5:30pm, it was cool & SUNNY and I was looking forward to getting back in the garden. However as I approached Boston, a huge wall of fog was starting to surround the city. Sure enough by the time I got home and over to the garden, the sun was gone and it was pea soup!

Before I blog further, I need to make a correction! During my excitement over my first growing vegetable (a pepper), I mistakenly mixed up which pepper plant it was! I had it in my mind that it was a "Red Beauty," when in fact it is the "Mandarin" hybrid. Hopefully I can keep it straight from now on. Fortunately, it is no longer the only plant in the spotlight.

In more growing news...both of my Sweet 100 tomato plants have itsy-bitsy tomatoes. I am very excited to finally taste these, as I have heard they are amazing!!

Here are some snapshots of my seedlings, trying to make it!
Sugar Snap Pea
Short 'n Sweet Carrot

Long Bunching Onion (Scallion)
Spinach

Radish

Perimeter Progress

Today was the day that my poor, neglected perimeter beds (and plants) got some attention! My veggies are growing great and I am just waiting for my first harvest! I started filling the perimeter beds with a mix of store bought topsoil and compost from the community garden. Unfortunately, I am not up to 6 inches all the way around, but after six hours of back-breaking work, I decided to call it a day. I planted Salvia, Dahlia, Lupin and Yarrow. These guys have been troopers as they have stayed in their pots for two weeks after they were purchased. I also planted two blue Hydrangeas on either side of the gate. Obviously I have a lot more space to fill, but will probably going in stages. I will probably plant climbing roses right next to the gate as added protection (unfortunately, we have to worry about people breaking into our gardens, so roses and nails are a popular deterrent). I would like to plant mostly perennials. Any perennial suggestions for a sunny, zone 6 garden?

Here are a few snapshots from today:

A Soggy Gardener

Here I am in all my garden glory...


I was not looking forward to going to the garden tonight since-surprise-we are getting more rain! However, since I had not been to the garden in a few days, I wanted to make sure that "everybody" was doing OK! Aside from the days of rain, we had relatively high winds earlier in the week. I also wanted to do a bug check as many fellow gardeners are reporting a few bug problems.

I am happy to report that my garden appears to be doing very well! The worse thing was that my Dahlia had fallen over...I really need to finish the raised bed around the perimeter and get what few plants I have in the ground!!

What I accomplished tonight:

• Thinned out radish sprouts (see photos below)
• Cut off wilting/dead leaves
  
• Took an inventory of any bug problems
• Picked 'suckers' off the tomato plants to encourage growth (so they don't take energy away from yummy tomato production)!

The only bugs I really noticed were small, black flies with clear wings and a lot of ants. I first noticed the ants when I was clearing the plot, and now they have moved right on into the raised beds. I am not too worried about either insect, but does anyone know what the small, black flies are? (I have found them on the stems and under the leaves of tomatoes, cucumbers, etc)

Here are photos from thinning my radish sprouts (before, during & after):


Other highlights from today:
'Early Girl' Tomatoes are growing!

Sugar Snap Pea sprouts

My growing 'Red Beauty' Pepper

My Howden Pumpkin trying to take over!

A Short Break from the Rain

We got a break from the rain on Saturday and even saw the sun for a few minutes!! The morning's activities comprised of the July "Park Clean up" at the FVG. I thought it would be another great opportunity to meet some more gardeners. We organized the three park compost areas, staking rows for new disposable material. and covering the existing compost pile to help it decompose! A few of the volunteers were going to be picking their plots out that day, and it is hard to believe that I was in that same situation last month!

Yves and I were able to accomplish a lot during the past month and I am so pleased with how the garden is looking! Last Tuesday I was able to plant the rest of my crops by seed and had found a few more starter plants at another local garden center. Here are a few snapshots of all my growing veggies!

Sweet Basil, Multipik Squash

Hale's Best Melon, Howden Pumpkin

Savoy Ace Cabbage, Marigold

Red Cabbage, Cauliflower

Burpless Cucumber, Blue Lake Bush Beans

Celery, Head Lettuce

Sprouting Radish, Tomato plants

Unfortunately, the rain does not appear that it will let up until the end of the week. So, in the meantime I am still trying to read as much as I can about gardening. The New Self-Sufficient Gardener provides a great illustrated guide to all vegetables. A few of my current concerns are: yellowing squash leaves, how much water each plant needs, whether my seeded plants will make it, and what bug/rodent issues I will face. The waiting game is definitely hard as I grown anxious to see progress and finally get my first vegetable! Fortunately, I can see evidence of my first pepper growing on my Red Beauty Pepper plant!!