Category: garden

It’s getting hot and between the heat and the tomatoes and zucchinis vigor some of the other plants are being overwhelmed. The edamame plants are dead, having been overgrown by the zucchinis. The green beans and eggplant are in the process of being overwhelmed by the cucumbers and the tomatoes have encroached on the basil.

D and I don’t use any pesticides, herbicides or anything else on the garden. This usually isn’t a problem the only pest we ever seem to have are slugs. But, this year this year we seem to have a lot of white flies and aphids. I’m not quite sure what, if anything, I need to do about this. As long as the plants produce do I care? I can just wash the bugs off…

See how during the heat of the day all the leaves wilt? See how the cucumber is climbing the netting? See how there are a ton of flowers on this thing and yet I still don’t have a single cucumber?! Also you can’t even see the eggplant there, can you? it’s in the yellow cage, but the cucumbers have taken over!

SPOILS!

 

HARVEST TOTALS

Zucchini: 10

Tomatoes: 12

Edamame: 0

Bush Beans: 16

Cucumbers: 0

Eggplant: 1

Basil: 6 leaves

As you can see from the picture above things are really starting to happen! Everything except the eggplant is flowering and we’ve already begun harvesting zucchinis and bush beans (a tally can be found below.) I’m somewhat surprised how many beans we’ve taken from our three plants so far considering how small they are. I’m hoping they grow a little more before they make anymore fruit or else, despite their productivity as tiny plants, we won’t be getting very many beans this year. The edamame plants are super tiny but have begun producing as well, they have the same problem as the bush beans though compounded by the fact that one of the zucchini plants has overgrown them and is robbing them of sunlight. The tomato plants have lots of fruit on them and I’m hoping they starting turning red soon! Cucumbers have begun ascending their net and our flowring quite profusely as well.

 

 

HARVEST TOTALS

Zucchini: 5

Tomatoes: 0

Edamame: 0

Bush Beans: 12

Cucumbers: 0

Eggplant: 0

It’s only been two weeks since the last update and most of the plants have doubled in size the zucchini might have tripled (they aren’t done either, zucchini gets big!) The zucchini and the tomato plants have started bearing fruit as well! It’s not edible yet, but it by this time next week I imagine we’ll be eating homegrown zucchini and our salads will have cherry our very own cherry tomatoes in them!

The beans, cucumbers, eggplant, and basil aren’t as energetic in their growth as the tomatoes and zucchinis have been but they’re coming along as well. the bush beans have flowered and the cucumbers have found the netting we put up that they’ll eventually climb up and over. I’m hoping by this time next month they’ll both be as productive as the rest of the garden. I don’t know about the eggplant though, it is only my second year growing it but it just doesn’t seem to like the Davis summers.

It’s been a month since we planted everything in the garden box, quite a pleasant month actually; the plants seem to be appreciating the warm days and cool nights. Most of the plants, anyway… Our lone eggplant while not dying doesn’t seem to be ding much living either, and the basil has been struggling as well, probably because it is still too cold at night for them. We’re on a nightly watering schedule right now. I don’t know if it matters when you water your plants, I should look into that. During the hottest time of the year we end up watering twice a day, and that doesn’t seem to have an adverse effect.

The plants are all still small, but our tomatoes have already started flowering. I’m tempted to pull the flowers and buds off though as I want the plant to concentrate on getting bigger right now not on producing fruit. A reminder for myself and other gardeners out there when you are watering your plants avoid getting the flowers wet, if you use a drip system this isn’t an issue, as the water will ruin the flowers and they’ll not fertilize or become fruit. I’m thinking in a few weeks our cucumbers and bush beans will start putting out creepers and D and I will have to install the netting for them to crawl up, by that time I’m hoping the zucchini plants have doubled as well. By the end of June and early July I expect we’ll be harvesting fruits and veggies and I’ll have a lot more to talk about when it comes to the garden.  Continue reading “Spring Garden 2012: Growing Up!”