Wednesday, June 23, 2010

How the garden grows

This year I've had several garden disappointments and a few surprises. Several things this year and flat refused to grow. The carrots, beets, peas and beans have all been seriously lacking growth. I think I've got a grand total of three carrots and 4 beets currently growing. The beans and peas have also been quite slow.  I've just replanted more of all and hope they will take off now.

On the surprise side, I'm going to be loaded with potatos this year it appears. Nearly every potato I planted is coming up and going gang busters. The garlic and onions are awesome. My spinach, lettuce and swiss chard are all doing well. I had so much of them that I picked a gallon bag of the combination and took it with me on my trail ride on the 12th for a fresh salad at the pot luck. Almost every sunflower I planted also is coming up. I'm happy to see that and hope I'll have a lot of sunflower seeds in the fall. 

I've also got stuff growing out of the compost pile I'm not sure if it's honeydew melon or cantaloupe so I'll have to wait and see on them. We had put the seeds from both in the compost pile this year. 

 One of my biggest surprises is that I found two struggling Jerusalem artichoke (AKA sun chokes) that were growing up out of the weeds. I was pretty sure I'd lost all of them, but it appears that a couple of them have survived the hard winter. I'll have to let them grow for a couple more years before I can start harvesting the tubers.

I've also been busy weeding and weeding. Our monsoon season hasn't started yet so the only water the garden is getting is from the hose. But the weeds are sure enjoying it. I've been having to hand weed this week because the weeds are starting to hide the vegetable plants. I uncovered those two sun chokes and a cabbage plant during this weeks weeding. I went away for only 3 days and the weeds went crazy.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like you are going to still have a good harvest , just in a few uintersting places.I am a terrible gardener , thank goodness for farmers markets and good neighbors. But I do grow some nice ponies here. Another dun at my place

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  2. My garden is growing very, very slowly!! I'm wondering if it's going to produce at all. I had an eggplant flower- fell off. The tomato blooms keep falling off, everything else is about 3 - 6 inches high and not near flowering yet.

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  3. Love the way your plants grow. The weeds are really a problem for food gardening. My garden also have enormously growing weeds. Everyday my only duty is weeding. How can you help me with my potatoes and tomatoes? They are not in good condition because of the birds!

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  4. It sure looks you still got a bunch of food coming up for harvest. Its natural that some veggies will not prosper as some plants does not grow well with other plants. Also, weeds are perennial problem with gardening. That just shows that your garden soil is suitable for gardening, because if not, weeds will not prosper. Good luck on your gardening.

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