2009-05-22 Update

Just a brief status of each thing in the garden:

We have been harvesting lettuce, spinach and radishes all week. I planted more lettuce and spinach earlier this week and need to do the same on radishes. The onions are doing well, but a few of them have been eaten off at the base. A co-worker suggested it might be snails. Not sure what to do about that.

The peas have really taken off, already climbing up the trellis. I expect to see some blossoms in the next week.

All the beans have sprouted, but I went too long between watering on some of the dry beans and a few of them are toast. The yellow bush beans look like they were eaten by a bird as soon as they came up, so I'll probably just replant some of those squares with something else. The pole beans are doing well.

The broccoli was blown partially over by the wind on a couple of occasions this week. I think I'm going to try putting some horizontal nylon trellis around them to give them support. The broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage are all huge, but don't look like they're even close to producing what I'm actually after.

The summer squash is doing well, each plant having about four true leaves and a bunch more starting. The winter squash is just getting its first true leaves. The pumpkins are growing quickly, and the baby pam and jack-o-lantern varieties already have tiny pumpkins on them. Don't know if they'll actually set, but it's fun to see them this early.

The corn looks good, about 2-3" high already. I need to build up the potato boxes and get some more soil on them. They're growing almost as fast as the morning glory.

The tomatoes are growing quickly, too. The two early varieties have already set some fruit! Yum! The peppers are doing alright, although the hot peppers seem to be struggling somewhat. It may just be too cool for them.

I transplanted the celery sometime in the last couple of weeks and it is pretty much dead. I think I need to start it in early February with the broccoli. I'll probably plant some more radishes and/or carrots in the two celery squares.

And lastly, the melons. I transplanted them this week and they're doing well so far.

I'm really wishing I had put down some weed cloth under some of the boxes, or that I had some protection over everything and could turn the chickens loose in the garden to knock the weeds down. I need to find something to put between the boxes to kill the weeds.

I spent some time earlier this week putting up some more frames. Tonight I got the nylon trellis netting up on all the frames I have. I need to do three more frames, then put a horizontal support in for the broccoli and probably the green peppers and the bush tomatoes. Oh, and build up the potato boxes, too. I thought I was done with all the hard work!