I thought I'd share some of the progress of the new garden layout. When it came time for the first weeding, it was relatively easy with the layout to do the bulk of it with the tiller. These pictures are after just the tiller, I hadn't done anything else yet.
The corn. Devon got a kick out of hearing that old farmer's adage of "knee high by the 4th of July" means a good corn crop. Of course, I had to explain that they meant to an adult not a 10 year old! LOL They are planted with every 2 rows close together as my ex-Father-In-Law (a farmer) had shared with me that they need to pollinate with each other and have to be close enough together to touch.
One extra hint on corn, if you have raccoons in the area, they'll know your corn is ready before you do and will snatch it. You can interplant pumpkins with the corn, they don't like the feel of the leaves and they'll protect your corn. Bonus, you get pumpkins.
I did lose one of these cantaloupe plants, I think we have critter visitors coming. I'm trying to be positive and think it gives extra room for vines.
Cucumbers, my son's second favorite veggie in the garden. In this area, I will probably go back through and hoe out those weeds between the plants.
Green beans. I am not sure if I just had some that didn't come up or if it had something to do with the monsoon we had shortly after I planted them. Regardless, I just went through at the two week mark and planted more beans in the bare spots as my succession plants.
The sweet potatoes. I generally plant them in a circle so this row thing is new but they appear to be doing fine.
Peppers, the front are green (there are yellow and red over near the tomatoes) and the far ones are jalapenos. I lost a couple in the center, I'll replace them soon.
Here is the cauliflower, it's a little small yet, but it will catch up.
And then there was broccoli! Again, a little small but it will catch up.
Tomatoes! We have Early Girl, Big Boy, Lemon Boy (yellow), Grape, and a beefsteak variety. Devon also chose an heirloom variety that I can't for the life of me remember the name, but he wanted to grow it so we got it.
As you can see, the tilling between the plants isn't 100% (what weeding is?) but it's working so far.
Here are the radishes that are ready to harvest, spinach is coming up behind them. Once I harvest the radishes, I can plant more. If you look closely, you can see that we have been regularly harvesting the lettuce. It just seems to grow back!
The onions are coming along nicely. I was honestly worried about them in a tub but so far, so good. The carrots are looking great, it's time to thin them (and to weed it again).
Some of the herbs are coming along great, but some are puny. I think they'll be ok in the long run. I have gotten a new mint plant as it didn't survive the winter we had. I plant mint in pots because if you don't, it can (and will) take over your yard.
I've not included pictures of my strawberry bed or my blackberry bed, both of them need weeded. I'm not looking forward to doing the blackberries because if any of you have ever picked wild blackberries, you know those thorns are horrible!
Always watch the clearance areas of anywhere that sells plants. When my husband was at Lowe's, I wandered the garden center. They had a clearance area and there was a bigger blueberry bush that needed a little TLC and a lot of water! It was priced wrong (not marked down) and when I asked the manager about it, he just marked it to $5 since it was the last one they had. I wasn't mad! And now I have the start of my blueberry bed. One step at a time!
How is your garden? Even if it is only a few things, grow something!
