The Garden

Back in the spring, I decided I want to try to plant a garden this summer and got real excited about it.  I blogged about it here.

Ok, the garden really has not turned out as well as I would have hoped.  I started out planting a couple tomato plants, some squash, zucchini, peppers, basil, and green beans.  I has also planted some broccoli, lettuce, and peas earlier in the spring, but none of those really grew or produced anything.

At the beginning of April there was some questions as to whether we would be living in the townhouse again for another year so I got a little bit of a late start planting.  I didn't plant my summer vegetables until the end of April.  (And it is typically in the evening when I go out and water the plants, so sorry that the picture are a little on the dark side)

My cherry tomato plant is doing great!  It has lots of green tomatoes on it right now.  My heirloom tomatoes, however, look horrible.  I'm pretty sure it is dying.  They are right next to each other, so its not like one has gotten more water than the other.  I keep hoping it will turn the corner and come back to life, but I'm running out of hope now.

The plant on the right looks pretty dead, doesn't it?

My pepper plants look good.  Well, minus the fact that there are some bugs eating some of the leaves.  The organic garden spray I bought to keep the bugs off has done absolutely nothing.  The plants themselves have grown a lot, but there is still no sign of any peppers.

My basil looks great though and we have enjoyed having fresh basil.

Everyone talks about how easy squash and zucchini are to grow.  My plants came out and grew well, but have yet to produce any veggies!  The squash plants have flowered several times, but no squash to be seen.  My neighbor's plants have had several squash and zucchini to pick, so again I don't have much hope for mine.  Pretty sure I haven't done anything different...

Only one green bean plant grew and it has produced a total of 2 green beans.  I am proud of those two green beans though...

At the beginning of June I found some cucumber seeds that someone must have given me, so I went ahead and planted those then and they are starting to come up.  Just a couple weeks ago I went ahead and planted some cantaloupe too, so we'll see how that goes.

My elderly neighbor (who often forgets who I am even though we have lived next door for three years) nplanted one tomato plant- and nothing else.  I'm pretty sure she never waters it (but thanks to the rest of us it does get some water) and it is over-flowing with tomatoes.  She didn't do anything but dig a single hole.  She really does have a green thumb, or at least knows how to pick a good plant from the store...  Her one plant will provide all of us with plenty of tomatoes this summer.

Kathleen's tomato plant.  You can't tell, but it is HUGE

Its been fun so far, but it has been a lot of work as well.  We are in the middle unit on a row of townhouses, so our spout for a hose in in the front of the garage.  We had to get a 100ft hose to reach all the way through the garage out to the plants.  It is a big pain to uncoil and coil up each evening.  Next summer I am going to have Chris build me some above ground beds that we can keep closer to the house.  This will also help control the weeds a little bit better too.  I want to use this square foot gardening technique next year.