Well, it's been a while since I've let my hordes of fans know how the garden does grow. (and, yes, it pained me to write it that sarcastically)
Anyways...a lot has changed in the garden, with several new additions and a few departures (in a good way!). With not a lot of ground to work with, I'm doing a lot of intercropping, with rows REALLY close together. For example, look below:
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| From Mush's Blog |
Closing in a little on the left side, we get:
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| From Mush's Blog |
There's a total of 21 inches between the radishes and the onions, and I'm sneaking in a row of bush green-beans in between them. As I'm writing this, the beans are actually sprouting there. It works because, as you can see, this planting of radishes is 80% out, and we've had a MONSTER harvest.
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| From Mush's Blog |
I've pulled probably 4 groups of this over the past week. We're not huge radish eaters...I like to pull one out, shake off the dirt, and pop one in my mouth just to see how they taste, but nobody in this household really eats them very much. The boys like planting them and harvesting them, and we know people who love them. We sent a good quart-sized Baggie full with Sheri to work for a friend/co-worker who I think tries to survive on radishes alone. We gave some to our neighbors to our south, who, in turn, gave us some of their overflowing harvest of just-picked strawberries (I think we won that tradeoff...those berries were AWESOME). Our neighbors to the north always give us some stuff from their little plot (rhubarb, bell peppers, etc.). This time, it was our turn to give them the radishes.
We're also starting to pull up the onions for recipes that call for 'em green. As the radishes and onions vacate the premises, the green bean plants will have room to flourish, though my first row (behind the onions) was really spotty.
It's hard to see, but there are several broccoli plants started from seed really close to the lettuce and spinach in the above picture. They germinated well, but I'm starting to wonder if they're going to make it. One set of plants got trampled by the boys when they wanted to taste the spinach, and the other sets aren't holding up well with the weight of the plants. I may have to replant and set the seeds a little deeper in the ground.
Oh, and on the side of the house, you'll see the asparagus ferning out. I'm not quite sure why, but apparently the Lodge ladies hold asparagus in high regard, based on other things I've seen online. I'm scared to ask. Also, you can't see it, but there's also some new rhubarb planted behind the asparagus.
Over on the other side:
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| From Mush's Blog |
...the cabbage is growing like a weed. Wait...strike that...well, you know what I mean. It's interesting to see that the cabbage on the left is fairly large, and the plants get progressively smaller as you move right. That almost has to be because of the amount of sun they're getting. I inadvertently created a succession planting with this. Kewl! You'll also see that the second planting of lettuce and spinach is quite a bit smaller than the first planting (on the left). I'll have to remember this next year and tweak the planting a little.
The second planting of radishes is starting to get pulled out, mainly because it's in between 4 hills of squash that you can see sprouting. 3 of the 4 hills have several plants that made it, but one decided not to germinate. I'd replant, but I can't remember which type of squash I put in there. There were 2 zucchini hills, a spaghetti hill, and an acorn hill, and I'll be darned if I can't figure out which one is which this early on (all squashes sprout the same leave shapes). That may become our composting area.
Everything's in with the exception of basil, which will go in between the broccoli and the first planting of green beans. We got a really good rain last night, so that should help the beans poke through easier.
I'm getting a little scared about the tomato plants. They're loving that location by the house, and many of them are already flowering. I've started pruning them a little so they don't weigh down and ruin the cages (as they always do). Sacrificing a little quantity for quality (at least that's what I'm telling myself).
My guess is that the plot will have an entirely different look in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!
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