Garden Update

We spent the afternoon yesterday in the garden. We weeded and then mulched the rest of the beds with saw dust. Hope that’s a good mulch. It seems to keep the weeds down and keep the soil moist. The lettuce has thrived. We’re using all open pollinated varieties this year (also known as heirloom). In other words, no hybrids, so we can attempt to save our seeds for next year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our green beans (Bush Blue Lake 274) are doing ok. They’re getting hammered by little grass hoppers, but seem to be growing enough to keep up with it. So far, we haven’t been bothered by critters and we have no fence.

You’ll notice we planted some beans right on the hay as an experiment. They aren’t doing nearly as well. I guess seeds prefer soil over hay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Paris Island Cos (romaine) and Tom Thumb lettuce are doing well. Cabbage is questionable. Probably getting too hot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see on the top right and the left, we had our first two squash (Dark Green Zucchini and Early Prolific Straightneck) casualties due to cut worms. I remembered a trick used by some to prevent further damage. We pushed old nails down around the stems of the remaining squash to try and prevent future cut worm incidents. I really hope we get some squash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a difference a little thinning and mulch make. Here are the beets (Detroit Dark Red) before and after. I’m disappointed in the beets. As you can see, some parts of the rows just didn’t come in very well. Not sure if this was a soil nutrient issue, a pest, or some kind of disease. It’s a start.

We used the thinnings from the lettuce and beets for dinner last night. Just washed them and tossed them together. Connie made a simple dressing of equal parts sugar, vinegar, and oil, with a little garlic salt and salt. We threw in some craisins and it was good. Talk about fresh and nutritious.

Gardening has been and will again become our main focus.