Homegrown: Garden Update #2

Recently we had some thunderstorms (circa two weeks ago?) and ever since then my garden has started growing out of control! Tomatoes and peas everywhere! It is so satisfying to go and check daily, and see how everything is coming along!

The peas have gotten so tall they don’t even fit in the frame! Also, you may notice something missing from the first update. The broccoli is gone! I finally gave it the boot. It had the same problem as last year where the plant itself grew huge but there were just NO florets. Whereas my mother-in-law has these teeny plants with HUGE florets on them. Why not me?! But the main reason I dug it up was the leaves were so big they were smothering my carrots, and that was a no-no. Two carrots didn’t make it (too small, not enough time to flesh out) but at least the rest are doing well.

The lettuce is doing so great! I’ve already harvested three huge bunches (each one lasted about a full week, and we use it daily), and then I just harvested all this lettuce after taking the pics. Hoping to get at least two or three more bunches out of it!

The peas are just going nuts. They apparently don’t care that they’ve run out of trellis to grow on, and just keep going up, up, up! They are now taller than my 6′ 2″ hubby. As for when I pick them, it varies. If I want to use them in a stir fry, I’ll pick them when they are skinny like this. They crisp up so nicely in the pan that way. If I want them as a fresh snack to much, or for a salad, I wait until the peas get fatter and then that have a great crisp crunch!

My tomatoes are also getting giant again. After the big thunderstorm day we had, they got so big they tipped completely over, so as you can see we reinforced the metal cages with a little wood corral system that is working quite nicely. One big branch did snap off in the collapse, but I’ve still got plenty of tomatoes coming in! Four more bunches like the ones pictured! YUM!

I can’t wait for those tomatoes to ripen up. . .I have so many plans for sauces to try out and can! I definitely can’t wait to have a second bed for squashes next year, and I think I’ll try peppers instead of broccoli next year too. I really dislike peppers, but my hubs loves them and hopefully we can get the little on board with them too. Also, sunflowers!! They are just so big and happy; my yard must have some.

If you garden (veggie or flower), what’s your favorite thing to grow?

Homegrown: Garden Update

Way back in May I had all these plans for building my garden bed, doing fabulous DIY posts about it, with bi-weekly updates on how things are growing.

Quite clearly, that didn’t happen. May turned into a life-organization-falling-apart month/blogging slump, and I feel like I am finally done with that. I did end up taking lots of photos of the building process, but never ended up editing them and putting a post together. I don’t even have a reason; I just never got around to actually doing it (re: life-organization-falling-apart month).

But, here I am now, with an update of how my happy little garden is doing it! I absolutely love gardening. I find it so incredibly satisfying on all levels – growing a plant, watching it thrive, and then in the end eating veggies I grew myself!

A quick note – I grow everything (veggies and flowers) from seed. I figured I’d just let you know so I don’t have to acknowledge it for every single plant!

Lettuce! I am so happy these guys are getting so big! I’m growing two varieties: Romaine (left) and Giant Caesar (right). They are both such thick, crisp leaved lettuces. Which is my absolute favorite! I did spinach last year, and the leaves were very soft. I like a good crunch to my greens so I’m sticking with lettuces this year. (I did actually start some spinach in some pots on the stoop, and a critter ate every single one. Brat.)

Most of my carrots are growing up quite nicely. To be honest, growing carrots in a small bed is really not that practical. To get enough to make it worthwhile cost-wise, I’d need an entire bed of JUST carrots, not eight little carrot plants. However, since I have a kiddo, carrots are an absolute necessity. Watching her face as she pulls them out of the ground at harvest time is priceless. Totally worth the garden space!

Unfortunately, two of my carrots aren’t doing so hot as my broccoli plant it totally taking over with it’s giant leaves! So we’ll only end up with six carrots.

Which brings us to broccoli. I’m pretty cranky with the broccoli actually. Don’t get me wrong – it’s thriving. Thick base, strong leaves. . .and zero florets. Not even the start of florets. We had the same problem last year. Giant glorious plant. . .teeny tiny broccoli floret! I think this is the last year I grow broccoli simply because I’d rather use the space for something more useful (green beans!!). We didn’t even get a single person’s serving worth of broccoli last year, and it looks like this year is following suit. Plus, it’s taking over my carrots. Boo.

My tomatoes are doing quite well this year! Luckily, they are more laid back than last year. (Last year in our container garden they legitimately grew to almost six feet tall, and were so thick and heavy they kept constantly falling over in their buckets and bending the metal cages. We ended up having to anchor them to the house. Tone it down, tomatoes.) These are a perfect size. About three feet tall so far, and lots of little buds and tomatoes starting to come in. Yay!

Peas! Pretty much my favorite garden veggie to grow. I love to pick them and pop them directly in my mouth, raw and delicious. I’m also really glad they are climbing up my DIY trellis I made for them. It’s a bit hard to see in these photos, but farther down there’s a picture of the full bed and you’ll have a better view. The actual trellis is made from fishing line, which I wasn’t sure would be strong enough for them to climb, but they seem to be responding quite well to it.

Lastly, the marigolds. I have two different plants, and I’m really excited for how big they have gotten, especially being started from seed. This one has hugely grown out, with tons of bee-attracting blooms!

And although I’m usually a cool color gal, I love fire colored flowers. So beautiful.

And then there is this marigold plant, which I have lovingly dubbed my mutant marigold. Marigolds are generally a small bushy-type plant. This one apparently aspired to be a palm tree. It is as tall as my tomatoes (about three feet). And it has HUGE blossoms.

It’s the size of my palm! What?! We had to truss it up to the pea trellis frame after the last rain as it’s stems are so tall and thick it was tipping over into the lettuces. It also started to bloom over two weeks after my other marigold (they were started at the same time). But I’ve learned to love it. It’s got character.

I’ve got some radishes in pots at the front of the garden. They are so yummy fresh on a salad! Plus, more fun things for my little to pick. These are almost ready to pluck out, and I’ve already gotten three others. I love how quickly radishes grow.

And here’s the whole bed! We tucked it in the corner of our yard where the grass is a bit sparse and away from where the kids play, so it has it’s own little happy area. And it’s built entirely by me and the hubs, which kind of makes it all the more satisfying. You can’t see it, but the bottom of the bed has a full layer of wire fencing that we attached to it to keep the groundhogs out. We’ve had a couple in the yard before, so better safe than sorry. This project also led me to discover that we are the most unprofessional DIYers ever. My hubs, like me, is much more of the nerdy, book-reading, computer-gaming guy, not a power tools, handy-man guy. So I definitely appreciate his willingness and good humor when I propose DIY projects neither one of us have a clue how to do. 😀 And I built the pea trellis all by myself, which I was quite proud of (cough cough – ignore that teeny bit of duct tape at the top – cough cough).

Can’t wait to harvest some yummy veg!

Life’s A Garden: Dig It! {Part 2}

Summer is in full swing, and so is my container garden! The majority of my veggies are thriving, and I couldn’t be happier. Back on June 1st, which was transplant day, we transplanted our broccoli and tomato seedlings into their permanent big growing containers, and planted seeds for peas, carrots, spinach, and two onion types (a sweet white onion, and smaller bunching onions). I knew I wanted some labels to keep track of what I planted, so I began thinking up ones I could make easily. I came up with these.

This was a super complicated process. Yeah, right! I collected flat rocks on walks with my daughter, and once I had enough I found some fonts I liked, took a plain black Sharpie, and free handed some lettering on. Instant cute labels! I was actually really pleased with how these came out – and for FREE! Boy do I love free. These actually ended up looking a bit too fancy in my mismatched plastic tub containers! But, they do their job quite efficiently. And they are weather proof, which is always helpful.

And now, the veggie lineup:

Tomatoes

Our tomatoes are GIANT. They are now standing quite above their cages. When these were taken (end of June) no flowers/fruit were sprouting – now I’ve got about 15 tomatoes on the way! Yay!

Carrots

As my mother-in-law pointed out, there is really no need to grow my own carrots. They are super cheap, even at a farmer’s market. But that’s not the point! It’s FUN! And now my baby girl can pick her own carrots she helped grow! However, of the eight I planted, only four have survived, this being the biggest. And I forgot to take a shot of the whole tub. . .oops.

Spinach

Our spinach is thriving! And it grows so quick – we’ve already gotten one harvest (cut right after I snapped it’s glamour shots) and hope to get many more before the summer is done! A couple leaves have ended up nibbled by bugs – making an organic, non-chemical pesticide is on my to-do list.

Broccoli

Our broccoli is out of control. It is so big! As in, had to be separated from the group because it’s leaves were SO big it was blocking the sun from the spinach and the onions. When I planted them in the container, the ratio of plant space to soil was fine, but now they look so crowded! Let’s hope it yields some decent florets.

Onion

Our onions are still so-so I think. Having never grown them before, I’m not exactly sure what rate they’ll grow at. So these may be perfectly fine. In comparison to all my other plants they seem small, but they are healthy and still growing so I can’t complain!

Peas

Our peas are doing great. Some are growing a little wonky in terms of where they’ve gripped the cages, but they’ll be fine. Originally they were placed next to the tomatoes, and on the other side were some lilies. However, the peas got a bit overzealous in their climbing, and attached themselves to the other plants! So I delicately unwound their vines, and moved the whole tub. Now, they only have the cages to climb. I even had to add a second tier of cages because they got so tall! They are happily sprouting peas right now!

So there’s our container garden, happily growing away in the front of our house. And the plastic tubs are just so chic, ha! However, as silly as the colors are, I actually picked them on purpose. Darker colors aren’t recommended for container gardens as they trap heat, and can overheat the soil. So I went with the best light color options available. And at this point, my little mismatched garden has really grown on me.

How is your garden doing? Is there anything you’d like to try and grow that you’ve never attempted before?