First a few pics of the garden and then on to my project I have started this weekend.
Here are the bush beans I planted just about two weeks ago. They are doing much better than the ones I tried about two months ago which gave their best effort but finally succumbed to the heat of Summer.
The strawberries are doing real well and have sent out several runners. New leaves are beginning to sprout from the center and hopefully soon we will have blooms and then berries.
My watermelon vines are finally done. Most of the melons were fantastic but a few of the smaller ones were not very good. Maybe the small ones didn't get pollinated fully.
The seeds I started are doing real well. I will be transplanting the lettuce, Romaine and Red Sails Red Leaf, today. I have also Cabbage and Pac Man Broccoli which germinated incredibly fast. I planted them on August 28th and they were up on the 30th. Usually it takes about 5 days. Also I started some California Wonder Bell Peppers.
I used to use just plain seed starting mix to germinate seeds but many times the seedlings never did well. Since then I've started adding 1 part compost to one part seed starting mix and the seedlings get off to a real good start.
My Pineapple is getting larger.
Several of the Butternut Squash have pollinated and the fruits are growing. They take around 100 days so they still have a while to go before we get to eat them.
Kristen from The Lataspatch came by today to drop off the seedlings I ordered. I transplanted the Cherokee Purple Tomatoes, Zucchini, and Cucumbers. I still have to transplant the Onions and Roma Tomatoes.
And now onto the project. I decided to rebuild several of my beds which had boards that were beginning to rot. I decided to use an idea I got from Gardening Revolution and construct the beds with concrete blocks. I ordered everything from Lowe's and they delivered it Friday. Today I began rebuilding the beds and will fill them with my own soil mix instead of mixing it with the dirt from native ground. I haven't filled them yet but will work on that tomorrow.
Most of the new beds are going to be stacked two blocks high.
My Blackberries weren't growing in a raised bed and didn't do very well. Also I neglected to weed them and soon the weeds were choking them out so I pulled them and redid that bed. I am not sure if I want to plant more Blackberries there or not.I did not double stack the blocks here. Instead to level out the area I dug down about 8 - 10 inches inside the blocked in area. I will fill this with my own soil mix just like the other raised beds.
The soil mix is similar to Mel's Mix but I don't used the same exact proportions. I use about 2/3 compost and the other 3rd half peat moss and half vermiculite. I amend it as I am mixing it in the bed with Greensand, Azomite, Bone Meal, and organic vegetable fertilizers. This way I am sure to get plenty of minerals and micro nutrients in the soil without having to trust the compost to be complete with everything a growing plant needs. Now to get rested up for the big soil mixing day tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get finished but if not, there is always the next day.
