The garden is doing amazingly well with the wet spring we’ve had. Along with the plants loving the wet weather, so are the weeds. I told Vince yesterday that I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many weeds. I believe we’re going to spend next weekend shredding cardboard and put that down on the wide paths and that will at least cut down on some of the weeds . . hopefully.
I suppose my garden is a bit like grandkids. We all think our own are amazing and beautiful but in reality . . maybe or maybe not! 🙂 Same with my garden. I think it’s the best garden ever and you’re probably looking at my pictures and saying “all that work for that??” 🙂
Here’s a little tour after another good rain last night.
Corn
I only planted one ounce of blue corn. If it produces anything like the Glass Gem did last year, that will give us enough dried corn for cornmeal and grits through the year. I still have plenty of corn from last year and all I need is enough to get me from year to year.
Potatoes
No doubt I planted too many potatoes. There are three rows . . about 65′ each. They’re probably on the verge of getting too much rain so . . who knows . . maybe even with too many plants, we may not get a bumper crop.
Mystery Plant
What on earth are those big things? I don’t have a clue. I planted artichokes in this area and sometimes when planting artichokes from seeds, they produce something that isn’t quite right but I really think those are just some kind of weed that’s popped up. I do see a few artichokes, and plenty of weeds but I’m letting those big things continue to grow to see what happens with them.
Japanese Okra
A friend of a friend gave me 9 Japanese okra seeds last year. So far, 6 of them have come up so I’m real happy with that. I believe 2 more will pop through the ground today . . I see signs of something emerging.
Sugar Snap Peas
Two rows of sugar snap peas (and a few weeds).
Tomates
I believe we have 65 tomato plants and thank goodness . . the drip irrigation is now installed and working great. The first summer we were here, I only had a few tomatoes planted so I didn’t worry about the drip irrigation. The second year, we talked about it . . which means I talked and Vince pretended to listen and it never happened. The third summer, which was last summer, thanks to my kidney stones, Vince ended up doing a lot of the watering so he realized that we needed to get that drip irrigation going. That makes my job so much easier. With 65 plants, I could easily spend several hours a day watering. I poured about 2 quarts of water down those gray pipes every morning and sometimes, on 100+ degree days, I did it again in the evenings. The recommendations given by most experts for keeping tomatoes hydrated just don’t seem to work when the temps are so high, the sun is so hot and there’s a constant wind blowing.
We put in 1 gallon/hour drip lines and I’ll run them probably every morning, or maybe 5 mornings per week if we don’t get rain.
As soon as I get all the “dams” built around the drip lines, I’ll add the mulch and sit back and wait to start picking tomatoes.
There’s squash, herbs, garlic, onions, beets, lettuce, yacon, strawberries, asparagus and probably other things. I’m really happy with the garden so far . . and REALLY happy with the rainfall we’ve had this spring!
Vivian Oaks says
You don’t really need to shred the cardboard. Just put it down in one piece, and put a few rocks on it to hold it down… or pile dirt around the edges to keep them down. 10 layers of newspaper is also a good weed deterrent. Garden looks good! Here in Western PA we’re just to the point of putting pansies out. Still to cold for most vegetables…
Vivian Oaks says
sorry…. still TOO cold. Hate when I do that!!!
JudyL says
If we shred it, then till it under each year. Plus, the boxes we get are huge and we’d have to cut them down to fit between the rows so we run them through the wood chipper and it shreds them quickly.
Judy Laquidara says
And, we don’t use newspaper because of the ink. Don’t want to add all that to the soil.
Joan says
Looks great, Judy! I hope you warned your friends and neighbors that you have 65 tomato plants this year – plenty to share!! I am envious; here in Alaska, my tomatoes and peppers are still under lights in the house. The greenhouse is toasty during the day, but stll close to freezing at night. Soon, though…
How is your greenhouse? Have you moved anything in yet?
Judy Laquidara says
Alaska — such different gardening there! We never got heat hooked up in the greenhouse but we’ll have it for next winter. I’m keeping citrus trees/bushes in there now. Even though it’s warm enough outside, I have less bugs chomping on them inside the greenhouse.
jennifer says
looks great! WAY WAY ahead of us here! I just planted 5lb. of sugar snap peas this morning! those mystery plants look like sunflowers to me- but it’s hard to tell with such a tiny picture. keep up the good work- and keep ahead of the weeds while you can!
Denise Russart says
It’s so fun to see green and growing things somewhere! Your garden is looking terrific. And that’s a fine crop of pipe you have growing among the tomatoes too. 🙂 This week the tulips around the capitol building have finally burst thru the dirt so I think I can officially call it spring here.
JudyL says
Tulips are one thing we don’t see much of around here and I love them. We don’t get much spring . . we’ll be into the 100+ degree days too soon.
Swooze says
We only have 8 tomato plants. Our first tomatoes showed up yesterday! We are so excited because our big varieties haven’t produced since we started the garden. If it doesn’t work again I’m coming for some of yours!
JudyL says
Well, I hope yours produce quite a bit this year! Good luck with them.
patti says
could you explain your tomato setup? in particular the tall pvc pipe… how does it keep upright?