Friday, August 2, 2013

Newbie gardener...

Our first year gardening. We have tried to grow a plant or two over the years with resoundingly sad results.
But, with all we have been doing to prepare for any emergency & increasing our self sufficiency;  we decided to plant our heirloom garden. 
I started small, to see how it went & I had to learn about each plant. LOL. And we only grew things we really like to eat. The planting was late due to the really long & cool spring. But, I am pleased & grateful with everything I have growing. I am waiting for them to explode.
The squash seem to be doing well. Harvested one squash and have multiple blossoms growing. 
These would be my greens beans, Had a small harvest so far. I have a sneaky suspicion that one of my dogs is getting in the garden and eating them.
The snap peas (between the green beans & the corn), sort of fizzled & dried up. Maybe planted to closely?
The corn is tasseling and I have harvested sevreal ears. I learned how to tell when to pick them.
The asparagus seems to be doing well for it's first year..
My raspberries are producing berries, just not ripe yet. They seem to have some holes in the leaves. ??? We simply planted them. Need to give them some better soil for next year.
My watermelon plant is growing like wildfire. Currently I am draping the vines out of the box to give them expansion room.
The cantaloupes a progressing a little slower.
And the tomatoes? I didn't start them inside, but actually planted seeds and surrounded them with little cardboard rolls to protect the seedlings...well...that silly dog again! She likes to chew on cardboard tubes & managed to pop the seedlings out of the ground.
Did the same thing a couple weeks later with my grandbabies garden and their tomatoes are doing great!
We are already talking about our expansion plans. I am such a newbie, I have to even find out which plants are annuals & which are perennials.
Starting to compost, preparing more ground & actually building a more solid fence (to keep the smarty pants dog out).
My first dinner with non-GMO & heirloom veggies fresh from my garden. Yum! Both the squash and the green beans are sauteed with Adobo, one of my favorite spices.

5 comments:

  1. That looks great. Due to some health issues we didn't plant our own this year, but we have great friends who sell a lot of veggies and we've filled our pantry.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You may want to think about going vertical on the melons.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting thought. I will run it by DH. Thank you. ~Perky~

      Delete
    2. I done this with my cantaloupe this year. I liked the idea at first because it kept my vine away from my other plants but with the weight of the cantaloupe it put alot of stress on the vine and the melon. The cantaloupe broke off from the vine before it was ripe..

      Delete