Garden Update

Most of my garden is doing really well this year, so I thought I would show you pictures of what is working.

This is my squash and pumpkin bed. Big difference from the picture I posted a few weeks ago!  I will be picking some summer squash on Friday. You can no longer see the aluminum foil but it is there and still working.

The next picture shows some of the grapes.  I lost a few bunches when the night temperatures went into the 50's  for the first part of June.  I have been pruning back some of the vine damage this week. A bit more pruning and these vines will be fine.

Here is some of the tobacco.  Each of these pots has three tobacco plants in it.  I won't be separating them because my goal is not to harvest tobacco to smoke or chew.  To use for insectside, these plants will do fine together in these pots.  In another few weeks, they can be planted in the front yard landscaping.

I only have one sweet potato plant left.  I am not sure why the other one died.  I will assume it is because of the poor handling they all received when they arrived at my house in March (I was too busy with work to plant them).  This one looks good, so I may get some sweet potatoes yet!  It will really like the hot temperatures expected for the next few weeks.

Here is a picture of the tomatoes.  I have a total of 10 tomato plants this year.  This picture shows five of them. They are almost as tall as me.

I had a slight mishap with the greenbeans. TS Debby sent us some blustery winds yesterday and it ripped up the aluminum foil covering the new green beans. I have been planting the green beans a few at a time because I do not want to can all of them at once.  I have a section that is just about to flower - the foil didn't tear under them and I have a section that hasn't been planted yet - the foil didn't tear under that either.  It just tore on the new seedlings. The foil cut the leaves off some of them and other plants are just no where in sight.  I am not sure what happened to them.  I had to spend time repairing the foil.  Here is a picture of some of the repair work.

Notice some of the seedlings are MIA. You can see a big rectangle of new foil just above the seedlings in the center of the picture.  I didn't use tape to repair it - that would reduce the reflective properties of the foil.  Instead, I went rummaging in the garage and found some inexpensive nails from the home improvement store and I secured the foil with the nails.

Here is a picture of the entire bed of green beans.  The center section will be planted in the next day or two. I will also replant all the missing ones in the seedling section. At the top of the picture are the 80 plants I put in last month.

As a spur of the moment decision, I planted sweet corn. I got the seeds for free so I thought it would be a good time to try the 'three sisters' planting as the native amercians do.  The 'three sisters' planting starts with the corn plant, when the corn is a few feet tall, pole beans are planted at the base of the corn.  The corn stalk supports the beans and the beans help keep the critters out of the corn.  Both of these are supported with pumpkins growing around them- the corn is planted in the middle of the pumpkin patch to also help keep the small animals away. 

As of now, I have 2" tall corn.  The pumpkins haven't made it to the corn yet and I can't plant the pole beans until the corn is taller.  I will post a picture when there is more to look at then bare ground.

Next week, I will post updates of the peanuts, strawberries, figs and blueberries!

I would love to know how your garden is doing.  Feel free to post a comment!