Garden Update

I'm so excited to finally show some pictures of my garden. As I mentioned here, we are doing a different method this year. Instead of your typical rows, we are doing beds directly into the ground. My plants are big enough now, that you can see everything a little better.

Right now on the walkways we have carpet that we got for free and some black sheeting. This has done very well in killing the weeds and it makes it tons easier to navigate the paths. Currently we do not have enough to cover all of the walk ways, but a friend is getting ready to give us some more carpet. I don't know exactly how I feel about how it looks, so we are looking into maybe mulching it or using pebbles--although that will all have to wait until next year.

I knew going in that the first year of gardening this way was going to be a lot of work--especially since we are doing it all organically with no pesticides and herbicides. I had most of the weeds and walkways under control before we left last weekend, but the rain really fueled them while we were gone! I've spent countless hours over the last few days finally mulching everything with grass clippings, shredded paper and straw. So, beware--there are still tons of weeds! Hopefully this weekend I can finish up and get things looking better.

These are my cabbages. I got them in a bit late, so we will see if I can get anything from them.

You may have to click on this one to see it better. This is Kohlrabi, Chinese Kale, Dwarf Pak Choy, Spinach (that has grown too tall and we are eating for dinner in salad), Cimmaron (also eating tonight in a salad), Arugula (those are the white flowers. DH doesn't like this at all, so I've let it flower. It's pretty!), and on the other side of it is Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce (I dont' think you can see it in the top picture, but you can in the bottom one.) Also, on the right side is where we are putting the fence. We have it, we just haven't had a chance to install it yet.

These are our beans (and the corner of our lettuce patch). Along the back are Purple Podded Pole and Kentucky Wonder Pole. Along the front are Contender Bush Beans in addition to Blue Lake Beans. You can definitely tell where I've stopped weeding..the "row" goes all the way to the way to the end of the top picture. :)

Zuchinni (planted from plants) and 3 pie pumpkin plants that have just sprouted. I have another pumpkin bed that has more pumpkins, Sweet Dumpling Sqaush and Banana Melons Squash.

Onions, Onions and more onions. From left to right: yellow, white, and red.

Here are our Irish Red Potatoes--in bloom!

16 Golden Cal Wonder Peppers. There were originally 20 of them, but a down pour of rain killed some of my little seedlings.

4 Tomatillos that are also blooming, but have a bug that absolutely will not leave them alone! Their poor leaves are full of holes.

Some of my tomato plants. These are my seedlings--remember how small they once were? They are ready to start staking them up..just haven't gotten quite that far yet. There are 4 varieties (Black Krim, Rev. Morrow LongKeeper, Amish Paste, and Roma) with 41 total plants in the ground, and I am giving my sister in law 4 others.

These are Waltham Brocolli. Only 3 out of 9 made it. In the bed next to this one there is Cauliflower, which looks almost identical to these.

And the last picture is of an area that has quickly become one of my favorite spots in our yard, especially early in the morning and later in the evening. It is so pretty with the green from the woods, and the wonderful aroma of my peonies.

But, you see the bare spot in the middle there--that is where my herbs are suppossed to be planted. We planted dill last week, directly in the ground, only to find that it had disappeared. Ugh. Back to square one.

How is your garden doing?

This post is linked to : Food On Fridays