Watermelon growth update

So, one of the five seeds has germinated. A little disappointing, but I'll keep watering all five in the hopes that one or more of the others comes up.

Cucumber growth update

The two different types of cucumbers appear to be doing about equally good. One of the long green ones died while another of the long green ones is stunted but not evidently dead yet. It looks like I may have to up-size their pots before I can plant them outdoors as they are really starting to take off.

Watermelon seeds planted

Not much to see here, I don't have high hopes for these. I've planted five seeds but will plant only the three best seedlings. They'll take up to 100 days to harvest and the second half of my growing season the bed doesn't get enough sun, but I'm going to try anyhow.

Garlic growth update

Here's the garlic raised bed, does't look very different from how it did in the fall.



Upon closer inspection, however, we can see a few garlic buds popping out. Shouldn't be long before they're all out.

Cucumber growth update

I had not been checking the plants regularly and so when it finally occurred to me that I had to check on them, all had sprouted and all had grown quite long, searching for light. They had been in the dark, so they stretched really far. I'm going to stick with them, however, in the hopes that they will still work out. Here they are the day after I put the lights on.

Cucumber seeds planted

The seven that are grouped together on the left side of the larger container are the Green Dragon while the six that are made up of the two to the right and the four others in the small container are the Long Green. There is one seed in each. From each type I will take the three best looking seedlings to plant outdoors at the end of May.

Planning for 2011

So as previously posted there is one bed already planted in garlic. I have two others. The bigger one will be all sweet potato.

The smaller one will be divided into four sections:

------------------------------------------------------
|             |              |     watermelon        |
| parsnips    |    beets     |-----------------------|
|             |              | gr.dr cuc | ln gr cuc |
------------------------------------------------------

The gr.dr cuc is Green Dragon Cucumber while the ln gr cuc are Long Green Cucumber. I have the rough planting schedule as follows:

• April 1 Start Cucumber indoors, start 7 of each type
• April 6 Start watermelon indoors (5 seeds)
• May 10 Start Parsnips indoors (24 seeds)
• May 19 Beets, sow direct outdoors
• May 26 Sweet Potato Slips (plant all)
• May 26 Plant Parsnips outdoors (16 best seedlings)
• May 26 Plant cucumbers (4 of each)
• May 26 Plant watermelon (3 best seedlings)
• July 20 Start spinach indoors (30 seeds)
• July 27 Stop watering garlic
• August 15 harvest garlic
• August 15 plant spinach (plant all)

Note that the spinach planted on August 15th will be going into the garlic bed.

Garlic planting for 2011

So this bed had in it the tomatoes which didn't go anywhere this summer. I've planted the entire bed with garlic cloves that are the product of the garlic I grew from last year. Last year I planted 11 cloves, this fall I planted 21. Before planting the garlic I took some fresh finished compost out of my composter and mixed it into the bed.

Sweet Potato harvest

So I decided to harvest the sweet potatoes today - the nights are getting colder and the one thing sweet pototes don't like is cold. Here is the result of the harvest. Probably I should weigh the lot somehow to take a proper measure of the harvest.



I am going to attempt to grow my own slips for next year, here is my starting piece. Today is day zero of the rooting session.

Sweet potato growth update

On September 5th I took the photos below - the sweet potatoes grew flowers!

Sweet potato growth update

I have high hopes for the sweet potatoes. If my sweet corn squirrel research yields no easy solution, and if the crop of sweet potatoes looks good, this bed may be entirely covered with sweet potatoes next year.

roma tomato growth update

In previous photos I showed a few roma's, here are the only two currently growing.



I am rethinking where I will plant the tomatoes for next year. Probably put the garlic against the hedge and put the tomatoes further from the hedge.

Sweet corn update

So, as a buddy of mine warned, the squirrels would most likely get to the corn before I would. I came home on Friday and found a squirrel at it. The first two photos show the damage done.





I managed to pull three surviving corn just so I could investigate their growth. They were obviously premature, here they are pre and post peeled.









I ended up throwing these into the back yard to let the squirrels have them. I'm going to investigate what can be done to protect the corn from squirrel invasion, and if my research yields many different failed attempts, I may not attempt to grow corn again.

Beefsteak Tomatoes growth update

As with the Roma bed, the Beefsteak bed is overgrown and not producing well because of the mature trees that surround my yard. Hopefully my plan for next year will increase the yield. If it doesn't I may give up on tomatoes.



Here's a closeup of the one and only beefsteak tomato growing so far:

roma tomato growth update

The tomatoes are not doing well at all. There are large mature trees that keep growing every year which now put too much shade on this side of these beds. Next year I'm going to switch it up a bit. It doesn't help, of course, that I've let them become overgrown with weeds and the flowers that grow from behind.



Here's a closeup of the two romas, there is a third behind them that is the same size and shape.



Here's a closeup of the other one that has actually started to change colour a little bit.

Sweet bed growth update

The sweet bed is progressing nicely. Not all of the sweet potatoes took after planting, and not all of the corn took either, but such is the life of a garden.

This side of the bed is the sweet potatoes:



Here is the corn on the other side:




Here's a closeup of the tallest corn showing the inside that will develop into corn someday soon.

Garlic harvested

I harvested seven of the eleven garlic plants and decided to leave the remaining ones in for another week or two as it isn't evident to me that this was exactly the right time for harvesting. Here is the bed showing the remaining four.



Here are the seven that I've harvested, they are hanging in the basement now for drying, about three weeks.

New Zealand Spinach first planting

Four seeds planted in a strip in front of the beefsteak tomatoes. These spinach plants are supposed to grow like vines, so we shall see how they fare.

Dwarf Sun Flowers growth update

The Dwarf Sunspot sunflowers have started to form the sunflower spot.

Bloomsdale Spinach first planting

I planted eight Bloomsdale spinach seeds in this section of the garden, adjacent to the Roma tomatoes. Hopefully the two are compatible. Those two sprouts to the left are onions that I had planted last year that did not sprout last year and so I had not dug them out.