How my garden grows

cplanted the rest of recent stuff on may 28 or 29? more zucchinni, melons plants, tomatoes, more corn, more radishes. Still to come- pepper and herbs starters, huckleberry bushes (lol, not a bush in the slightest yet!)

I am in love with gardening.

I absolutely love it! It is so invigorating, relaxing and life giving to me . There is nothing like taking the kids out in the sunshine, playing in the dirt, and admiring my beautiful little seedlings popping up everywhere.

pic of seedlings

Being that this is only my second year gardening and that I don't know what I am doing, it would really benefit me to keep good records of what I am doing in my garden. I made a good spreadsheet a month or two back (name of seed, growing days to maturity, date to plant, good/bad companions, etc.) as well as a page for recording each plant individually and a place to write how much I planted, when, the yield and any other notes.

Problem is that I am notoriously bad at record keeping (just ask my husband). I have great intentions and sometimes create wonderful systems, but my issue is the discipline of following through with the systems I have created. Gardening is no exception.

So, I thought that I would use my blog as a way to talk about what I am doing in my garden, what I've planted, when, how it's doing, etc. This will mostly serve me and my forgetfulness, but hopefully it will also be of interest to those of you who are gardening yourselves (or would like to start), and want to join in and learn from my successes and mistakes. To those who aren't so interested, you can look at the pretty pictures and then scroll on by!

Where my garden is at right now:

Corn (Old Fashioned Sweet): Planted today (may 14????), only the first 3 mini-rows (I'm planning a small area with 24 stalks, so today I planted 9 of them). I plan to stagger my corn, planting the rest in two weeks. In retrospect, I should have either started two weeks ago, or planted more than 9 today (more like 12 instead), as corn takes so long to mature.

Peppers (Antoji Romanian Sweet Red and Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Frying): The seeds were planted indoors on March 15 and I have 8 healthy little seedlings, ranging betwen 1 1/2- 4 inches tall. They'll go outdoors sometime in June.

Tomatoes (Aunt Ruby's German Green, Marvel Striped, Costoluto Fiorentiono, Peacevine- Cherry): Also planted indoors March 15. I have 12 really nice looking seedlings (around 6-7 inches), and 1 that's a bit small (3 inches). I'll start to harden these off in a week or so, and plant by the end of May, as they're getting a bit big for their peat pots.

Carrots (Chantenay): Planted 3 short rows on April 27, and they're starting to poke their heads up, but they're still pretty indistinguishable from the weeds.

Watermelon (Sugar Baby): Planted indoors on April 23 (a little bit late), but I have 3 plants that are coming up nicely. They'll go out in early June.

Huckleberry (Chichiquelite): These are just kind of a fun experiment. I should have started them indoors ages ago, but instead did it on April 23. They're coming up slowly, and I won't plant them for awhile yet. I don't expect any real harvest at all this year, but hopefully next!

Herbs (Oregano, Basil, Peppermint, Cilantro, Thyme, Dill): Planted indoors April 23, most are just starting to come up (the dill came up fast). I'll put these outside in a little herb garden area in June.

Radishes (French Breakfast): Planted this morning! I did about 2 1/2 mini rows, and I'll plant more in a few weeks.

Strawberries (Everbearing): I have four little plants that I put out around April 27. I thought this kind would put out shoots and start to spread, but it's looking like I bought the wrong ones. They are starting to flower a bit, though! I'll have to do some more research and find the kind I really wanted (which spread and put down new shoots all over, like the ones I had in my previous garden). I'm not expecting much, but it's fun for the kids to eat fresh berries while I garden.

Winter Squash (Butternut Waltham, New England Sugar Pie PUmpkin, Vegetable Spaghetti): I only planted the seeds indoors on April 23, and they shot up so fast! They're all at least 4-5 inches high with large leaves and secondary leaves started, and I put them outside a few nights ago (maybe May 12?). The pumpkins and butternut are going in my corn patch, as I've read that it's a good way to better use the space that planting corn takes, and apparently they will wind themselves around the corn stalks. Sounds good to me- we'll see if it works!

Cucumber (Boston Pickling, Japanese Long, Lemon Cucumber): All planted this morning. I'm putting them along the back fence, and planning to trellis them and grow them vertically to save space.

Greens (Heirloom Lettuce Blend, Olga Romaine, Mizuna- Oriental Greens): I planted 1 row of each on April 27, and they are starting to come up nicely. Looks like the rain/my watering moved the seeds around a bit, so I may have to thin or try to transplant a few that are close together, but otherwise they're great. I can't wait to grab fresh green from my garden!

Peas (Alaska Shelling, Orgeon Sugar Pod Snow Peas): Both planted on April 27, and I did 12 peas of each variety. I looked at them closely today and it looks like of the 24, there's about 12 that have come up. I thought I would get more than that, but I'm glad I planted more than I thought I needed. I used an inoculant powder to help them grow better, but maybe I didn't do it well? Or maybe my soil isn't very friendly to legumes?

Summer Squash (Black Beauty ZUcchini): Planted May 2, two hills. Neither is showing anything yet, so I'll give it another day or two, and then I'm going to re-seed it. These were one of the only kinds of seeds that I didn't soak before planting. Lesson learned.

Turnips (Purple Top- wish I'd chosen Golden Globe instead): Planted 3 rows on April 27, and I'll plant some more next week to stagger the harvest. Most of them are coming up nicely.

Onions (Stuttgarter seeds and Yellow Onion sets): Planted on April 27. I did 3 rows of seeds, and 4 rows of the sets. The seeds are starting to poke their heads above ground, and the sets are all looking fantastic! I didn't plant them deep enough at first, so they kept popping back up to the surface, so the other night I took a bag of topsoil and covered them up better and they looked so good today.

And that's it, LOL! You know, I'm not planting much this year, just a few things really.

(Put this up at the top instead)