11-19-2011 Update

Finally another update!! The last couple months can be described as challenging to say the least. Right as I was beginning my project of building the raised beds from the blocks my wife decided we needed to tile the whole house now. That left my plans on hold. It was pretty good timing however because we had some really sad weather in October. Seems like we got half the summer's worth of rain during that month. Usually we average a little over 2 inches but on one single day alone we got almost 6.

The rain heat and humidity took a big toll on my garden. The cukes, romas, peppers, and zucchini I got from The Latas Patch were destroyed along with the seeds I had started. I found some real nice looking roma plants at Lowe's one day and couldn't resist. So I bought those and replaced my dead one's. They did start out real well and were soon inundated with caterpillars. I neglected the garden for several weeks because of the house project and the never ending rain and bugs took their toll. Finally though things cleared out and the tile project came to an end and we got some real nice weather. Now I am back at it again.

So let's see what's going on in the garden.

My strawberries have begun to send out some new growth now that it has cooled off a bit. I thought they were supposed to produce a crop in the fall but it doesn't look like it this year. The plants I started from the runners look better than the original plants. They have a lot of damage on some of the leaves from caterpillars but I am on top of it now with spinosad to the rescue.

Here you can see the new plant sending out some roots just looking for some soil to anchor in.

The pineapple should start ripening up pretty soon

Next we have some lettuce and spinach. The lettuce from left to right is Buttercrunch which didn't germinate very well. Then some Red Sails leaf lettuce. When I thinned them out I planted the thinnings in pots. I hate throwing plants out. I just need to remember not to seed them so thick. Then there is Vivian romaine which is a large head variety.   These were all planted on 10-30.

The spinach was planted on 10-30 also. It had real poor germination. The last few times I tried spinach the germination was terrible. Doing some research I got the idea to pregerminate the seeds in the fridge before planting. What I did was placed several seeds in between some wet paper towels and in a ziploc and left them in the fridge for two days. Then I planted them in the garden. I got about 90% germination from this experiment. So the next time I plant spinach I will try that again.

The spinach

I picked up 2 Bush Goliath tomatoes for a couple pots that had tomatoes in them which succumbed to the heat and rain. I planted them one evening and the next morning when I went outside I found one dug up laying by the pot. Unbelievable. I quickly replanted it. Now I have a fence completely around my garden just to avoid things like this but I guess it doesn't work as well as I had hoped. I checked my surveillance cameras from that night and found a recording of a possum climbing in both pots and ripping out the one plant. Aggravating only begins to describe it.The plant appears to be doing fine now that it had time to recover though it is fairly smaller than the other one.

Next we have some Burpee Fordhook zucchini that was planted on11-6. Nothing much to look at now. I planted them where the others were. I will eventually thin them out to individual plants.

I next planted some Sugar Snap peas and Fordhook Chard in the bed where the Butternut squash were on 11-12. I alternated rows. The peas I will trellis up which should provide a little shade for the chard.

Here is one of the new beds with Roma tomatoes and fordhook chard. The chard was planted on 9-18. It had a lot of caterpillar damage on it a while ago and I ended up trimming most of the leaves off. A few of the plants died but most came back nicely. The Romas are getting a few tomatoes on them. Hopefully I will get enough to can a few quarts.

Another of the new beds with broccoli in it. The variety is Pacman. They are somewhat compact plants which produce large thick heads of broccoli. My favorite variety. I usually start them from seed but the rain destroyed seedlings this time around. I got lucky and found these at Home Depot.

One thing that did survive the October onslaught is two of the three Cherokee Purple tomatoes. They are getting a few fruit on them now. I planted a  Bonnie Select Hybrid in place of the one that died.

Next we have a bed of Royalty Purple bush beans that were planted on 11-6. I was surprised to get about 98% germination from them. They produce a purple bean that turns green when cooked. I've never tried them before so we'll see what we get.

The second batch of Roma tomatoes is in the bed where the batch bit the dust. They had a lot of caterpillar damage but I am spraying with the Spinosad now and it appears to be working well.

Here is a bed where I planted the sweet onions I purchased as seedlings. Next to them I planted carrots and scallions on 9-18. The carrots are about ready to harvest along with some scallions.

The sweet onions are on the left. Here is a closer pic of them.

I bought several pepper seedlings and was given a few hot pepper seedling which are a mystery as to what variety they are. The one's I bought are Big Bertha bell peppers and Sweet Banana peppers along with 3 Black Beauty eggplant.

Another of the new beds has 4 Bonnie Hybrid cabbages on one end. I planted Nutri Red carrots and Detroit Dark Red beets in the center. The other end will have more carrots sown in it in a couple of weeks. I have to remember to quit planting things so close together. Beet seeds are one thing that surely doesn't need to be planted close because each "seed" actually contains a couple seeds in it. Plant them too close and you have a lot of thinning to do. You can however use the thinnings in a salad.

Closer up of carrots and then beets.

Finally we get to the bed that had the cucumbers. Now it has Kwintas pole beans and Pak Choi which was sown on 11-6. I plan on thinning the Pak Choi and planting the thinned ones between each row of pole beans.