Planting Grid Update and My Turtles

Time for a planting grid update.  Several pepper seeds I planted never took, or else they were dug up by those pesky squirrels who seem to be having far too much fun digging in my garden on a daily basis. Plus, I added a few other things.  I do still have the garden gates up around the edges of the gardens, which seems to be doing the job to keep the puppy from plowing through them like he was.

That is a picture of a patio tomato that I am growing in a container and already has a few tomatoes on it - aren't they sweet? I've seen a bit of blossom drop on it also though, since our evening temps have been temperamental and got down in the 50s again a few nights.

I also made a mistake. Imagine that!  Since I didn't do a full planting on all the squares as soon as I put the grids down, it took me awhile to notice I had laid out the grids incorrectly on the 4 x 8 bed and shorted myself out of 4 squares!  I didn't really want to try to shift things around since I did have some plantings down already, so I'll take it as a loss and a lesson for this year. Silly as it seems, when you go to lay your grids out, make sure you eyeball to see if you have all your rows laid down before planting, or better yet, measure them out! In other words, count. Which apparently I can't do.  ::rolls eyes::

Last year I messed up my green bean planting, got frustrated, pulled everything out and the new plantings of them never took. This year, since I did not plant any of those square stealing bush squash plants, I had a lot more squares to work with, so I've done several succession plantings of green beans a week or so apart. Hopefully this year, I'll see a few green beans. 

I ran across some lettuce seeds today and snatched them up, and while its really too late for planting down here, I thought I'd drop some in an area of the garden that gets shaded early and see what happens anyway. It gets hot here pretty fast, so it may be a complete bust but it'd be cool to see if they even begin to take! Hopefully I will remember to plant them again in September for fall.

When I went out to piddle in the garden today, look who was there to greet me!

I don't mind telling ya, she scared the beejeesus outta me when I saw her little head poking out of those leaves in one of my flower beds!  I just glanced down and there was this little head sticking up. I think she changed spots after I took her picture because I didn't see her there a few minutes later - turtles can  be temperamental like that.

She finally came out of hibernation about a week ago.  This is her 3rd spring with me and I'm really surprised that she is still here frankly, because there are plenty of escape routes under the fence. I knew she was a female by her tail the first year, but I really knew when I saw two little baby turtles last year.  I have only seen one of them this year - it's about twice as big as it was last year and I don't think it quite knows what to think about me. Since its a young un, I'm not expecting it to hang around long, but I caught him/her through the glass of the patio door the other day. Only about a couple of inches long - ain't it just cute? I hope it hangs around.

BED #1 - 4' x 4'

1 Creole Tomato (3/30)	1 Creole Tomato (3/30)	1 Creole Tomato (3/30)	1 Creole Tomato (3/30)
Superfresh Lettuce (Seed 4/22)	Mystery Plant from  Compost (3/30)	4 Marigolds (seed) (4/6)	Superfresh Lettuce (Seed 4/22)
Romaine Lettuce Mix (Seed 4/22)	16 Sweet onions (3/30)	1 Chive (3/30)	1 Flat Leaf Parsley (3/30)
1 Basil (3/30)	1 Oregano (3/30)	1 Rosemary (3/30)	1 Thyme (3/30)

Containers Behind the bed - 1 Meyer Lemon, 1 Eggplant (3/30), 1 Patio Tomato (3/30), 1 Roma Tomato (3/30), 2 pots of Lavender (3/30), 1 Mint



BED #2 - 4' x 4'

1 Better Boy Tomato (3/30)	1 Better Boy Tomato (3/30)	1 Better Boy Tomato (3/30)	1 Better Boy Tomato (3/30)
Flat Leaf Parsley (3/30)	16 Sweet Onion (3/30)	Sweet Long Pepper Mix (4/22)	9 Blue Lake Bush Green Beans (4/13)
Sage (4/22)	4 Marigolds (seed) 3 Green Bean (4/13)	16 Crimson Giant Radish (Seed 4/22)	Lemon Thyme (4/22)
16 Crimson Giant Radish (Seed 4/22)	9 Blue Lake Bush Green Beans (4/6)	9 Blue Lake Bush Green Beans (4/6)	Dill

In pot to side: 1 Jubilee watermelon (seed) - 1 Moon & Stars watermelon

BED #3 - 4' x 8'

I had to split Bed #3 up into two separate charts to fit it in the blog post. The top section of 4 Rows represent the Left Side of Bed #3; the bottom section 4 Rows represent the Right Side of Bed #3

LEFT Side of 4' x 8' Bed:

Cucumber (seed  3/30)	Cucumber (seed 3/30)	RESERVED	Row Unavailable
Jalapeno Pepper (Seed 4/6)			Row Unavailable
9 Blue Lake Bush Green Beans (4/6)	Carnival Mix Sweet Peppers (seed 4/13)		Row Unavailable
9 Blue Lake Bush Green Beans (4/6)	Carnival Mix Sweet Peppers (seed 4/13)	16 Sweet Onion (3/30)	Row Unavailable

RIGHT Side of 4' x 8' Bed:

Cantaloupe 2 Squares (seed 3/30)	1 Better Boy Tomato (3/30)	1 Creole Tomato (3/30)	1 Creole Tomato (3/30)
	Sweet Long Pepper Mix (Seed 4/22)	16 Sweet Onion (3/30)	1 Yellow Bell Pepper (3/30)
	Sweet Long Pepper Mix (Seed 4/22)		1 Big Bertha Bell (3/30)
9 Blue Lake Bush Green Beans (4/13)	Sweet Long Pepper Mix (Seed 4/22)	Sweet Long Pepper Mix (4/22)	1 Big Bertha Bell (3/30)

4/22 - Veggie fertilizer on all the veggies and epsom on the tomatoes

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Here are my two primary gardening books - I highly recommend both but especially the "new" square foot gardening book, if you want to try this method.

All New Square Foot Gardening

Guide to Mississippi Vegetable Gardening - available for your state too! It's a perfect guide to tell you what to plant and what works best in your region, and also when to plant. I love this guide!

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Vegetable Garden Update - 3 Month Report

I can't believe that I started my vegetable garden 3 months ago!

I'm happy to report that using pest control in a responsible manner has helped to get rid of a lot of the bug problems. It was frustrating at first but I didn't overuse the treatments and I'm also happy to report that I still have regular visits from bees and butterflies, I have frogs and lizards and spiders, and my 3 wild turtles seem to be fine. I think a large part of reducing the bug population has also been the work on the lawn to finally get rid of the overabundance of weeds, and to build back healthy grass - an ongoing project to say the least!

My biggest bug problem has been the aphids. I kill them, but they keep coming back. They have terrorized my eggplant and every single one of my pepper plants. I can't seem to get rid of the things! Now, that has been frustrating.

I'm hoping that the tomatoes will start maturing soon - seems that they are behind - but we did have a few cold spells there at the beginning of my planting which caused some blossom drop, so the tomatoes essentially had to start over. I have no idea how to calculate when they should mature now, so I'll just have to wait on them! And maybe eat a few fried green tomatoes in the meantime. And pray they don't get harmed by slugs or other critters!

Despite killing by hand several squash bugs and borers the squash has been producing well so far. I'm happy about that since every other time I've tried to plant them, those darned buggers have killed my plants. I've had plenty enough so far for things like squash casserole and squash fries!

The peppers and the beans, two plants that have always performed well for me, haven't this year. The peppers have had the aphid fight and the beans, well that was really my own fault - overplanting, but more on that later.

Here's a look at how the garden is doing for those of you who are curious.

Below is a shot of both of the 4 x 4 foot beds. The one in the forefront has all the herbs - basil, oregano, rosemary thyme, dill, chives, cilantro & parsley, they're doing okay, not great. I think I'm probably overwatering them. There are also a couple of Big Beef tomato plants and a cucumber plant. Yes, that white thing you see is a container. Plopped right up in the middle of my raised bed. Originally there was a cucumber plant in this square but it died, and I had planted one of the extra cucumbers in this little white container. As it grew, the stick support I put in there started leaning so I just stuck the whole container into the empty square in the raised bed to level it and let it climb on the netting.

I've gotten quite a few large cucumbers already - they've made an appearance already in those lovely summer salads I posted recently.

Yes, that's the original dead vine still hanging there. I didn't want to damage the surviving vine which was intertwined with the dead one, so I just left it.

And even the poor pepper plants that have suffered so much at the constant aphid attacks, is still trying to produce some peppers. I nearly pulled all of these plants up not long ago out of frustration, but maybe they'll end up producing something. The leaves look awful don't they, but many of the pepper plants and even the eggplant have new growth showing, so I'm encouraged, even though I had to treat for aphids yet again, two days ago, and there were a lot of them. Arrrgh!!

This is the back side of the other 4 x 4 foot bed - as you can see, I've been trimming a lot of branches off of those tomatoes - for two reasons. One, I want larger tomatoes, and two, those darned leaf miners make an ugly mess of things. They have literally taken over all of my veggie gardens and are near impossible to get rid of, if not impossible altogether. They don't really interfere with fruit production I think, unless they mine the entire plant I suppose, but they make the garden so ugly!

This is what the Big Beefs are looking like. The plants are gaining height to the point that they are now climbing up out of the vertical support so I'm a bit anxious to see how I'll handle that! There are only about a dozen tomatoes between these 4 plants in the two 4 x 4 foot beds. The one leftover Big Beef I stuck in a container has about 8 tomatoes alone!

In that same bed, there is a cantaloupe plant, several bell pepper plants and a few green beans. The second planting of those beans, which I over-planted the first time and ended up pulling up every single one of them {see Bad #2}, did not take well. I think the seeds I used were too old, so I've planted some fresh ones today. I guess we'll just call it "succession planting!" That might actually work out better anyway. I also have several cantaloupe melons hanging - I hope they make it but it's so exciting to know that these came from seeds that I planted! I've never planted cantaloupe before, so I guess as they mature they turn that lighter yellow color we're accustomed to!

Here's another - I think there may be about 4 large ones, and several babies so it's still trying to put more out. They seem to be doing fantastic with the nylon netting so far, but I'm wondering if I should make slings for them anyway?

This is a slightly closer view of the bed with the cantaloupe, peppers and beans. There are a couple of replacement pepper plants that I bought waiting to be planted - it's just been way too hot and I've ignored them. I finally got those put in today.

These are the Bush Goliath tomatoes that are in a large container. There are probably about 16 larger sized tomatoes on this one plant right now.

More of the Bush Goliath - they are clearly the largest tomatoes so far.

The Roma is in a large container too, but it's not really putting out as much fruit as I would like to see. I may plant several of these next year because I'd love to put some away. I relocated this container today to see if that makes a difference.

This is a front view of the Better Boy tomatoes in the larger 4 x 8 foot bed. I'm not sure how many tomatoes are on these plants - maybe about 30 or so.

This is a back view of the 4 x 8 foot bed. I totally love and highly recommend using the nylon netting and building vertical supports. It does a great job, way above and beyond those cheapo cages, certainly better than stakes, of supporting the tomato plants and I'm glad we took the time to build these.

Except for those tomatoes all along the back row, the squash have all but taken over the 4 x 8 foot garden. The original pepper plants that were in the center, 2 of which remain but might get pulled up too, haven't done well at all anyway thanks to constant attacks by aphids.

And here's the original Tomato in a Bag, still hanging in there, growing taller, and it actually has a few blossoms on it! Considering I planted it back at the end of April, that took awhile didn't it? Hey, I'm just happy that it's alive. And yes, that is another tomato plant you see on the other side, replacing the one that I drowned.

The original Tomato in a Bag even has some baby tomatoes starting to show up!

And, on the other side of the original tomato in a bag, I ran across what I think is an heirloom tomato, called Mr. Stripey, so I bought it! This is what Mr. Stripey looks like at maturity, so I really hope I end up with a few.

So here's a close-up of Mr. Stripey on the other side of the Tomato in a Bag. No buds or tomatoes showing yet, but I'm keepin' my fingers crossed.

And, yeah, I went and did it. After I broke that last tomato in the Topsy Turvy, I know I said that I wasn't gonna try another. But the Mr. Stripey plant had a volunteer so I split him and put one of them in the Tomato in a Bag and the other in the Topsy Turvy.

Well, that's it for the veggie garden update. Hopefully soon I'll be reporting on some mature tomatoes!

Click HERE for all the Year One 2009 Square Foot Vegetable Garden Updates