Confession - I have no idea what I'm doing.
I've read books and googled my heart out with little success. Other than a good book, I found surprisingly few "Help Me!" pages specifically for MT gardeners! One of the reason's I'm journaling my gardening adventures online is that it may help future would-be Big Sky gardens bloom by allowing others to learn from my mercifully-not-too-frequent-but-who-am-I-kidding mistakes BLERG!
In short, I'm hoping that with a few deep breaths and a little prayer, my dirt-toiling will bear fruit... or more appropriately, vegetables :P
And thus begins the gardening chronicles...
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August 3
So it's been two months since I put most of the garden in and the plants are BOOMING!!!
I definitely underestimated how much space these puppies needed... see for yourself...
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| First tomatoes! |
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| But it looks like there are going to be many more where those came from... can you say pasta sauce? |
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| I mean look at those tomato plants - THEY'RE HUGE!!! Dwarfing the pepper plants in front of them. |
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| The beans are making headway - climbing climbing climbing but no beans yet... hopefully they'll come soon :) |
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| Ear of corn coming right along - they were "knee high on the 4th of July" as planned |
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| Another plant that has completely exploded - the ZUCCHINI!!! We're going to have zucchini coming out our ears! |
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| Sadly the spinach did not fair so well... it shot in the heat wave and hasn't quite recovered... |
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| We've been eating lots of lettuce though :) |
More details to come...
June 4
Quick update - In an attempt to de-bitter my attitude and rectify the whole "cats destroyed my carrots" issue, I planted more :P I extended my rows in to the empty space I had left for future plantings and moved on with my life. I also extended my row of beans (and I found two bean sprouts from my first planting eeek!) to the end of the bed - bring on the green beans :)
Coffee grounds have now been strategically placed around the garden to be followed by cayenne pepper if needed - who says escalation can't win a war!?!
Still no flowers or pumpkin sprouts... may have to re-seed those too and I don't think I can blame the cats :P
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June 2
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| Zucchini! |
... I'm getting impatient... I know... I'm ridiculous.
I just want to be able to eat the "fruits" of my labor :P Soon...ish.
Despite the message my downer-impatience is sending, the garden really is making great strides! In light of my current sleep-deprived mood (thanks for that one Baby, Mommy really appreciates it...), I'm thinking a pro's and con's list is the way to go update-wise. Enjoy.
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| Lettuce! |
Pros...
- Lettuce and spinach are coming along BEAUTIFULLY :)
- Some of my onion sprouts are already 4 in. tall
- My tomatoes and peppers have thus far survived the icky weather we've been having - brrrrrrr (I covered the tomatoes with black trash bags and also put supports around them to make them easier to cover)
- I have green berries on my strawberries!
- Corn sprouts are poking through and growing fast.
- My rhubarb is going to town!
- AND one of my zucchini plants is already flowering - woo hoo!
- Lettuce and spinach are coming along BEAUTIFULLY :)
- Some of my onion sprouts are already 4 in. tall
- My tomatoes and peppers have thus far survived the icky weather we've been having - brrrrrrr (I covered the tomatoes with black trash bags and also put supports around them to make them easier to cover)
- I have green berries on my strawberries!
- Corn sprouts are poking through and growing fast.
- My rhubarb is going to town!
- AND one of my zucchini plants is already flowering - woo hoo!
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| Spinach! |
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| Tomatoes! |
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| Rhubarb! |
Cons...
- My pumpkin sprouts have yet to peek out of their mounds and I'm getting a little worried :(
- But really, the only HUGE con is my on-going war with the cats. Truly, they will be lucky if they survive the summer with the way they're going. I've been told that sprinkling coffee grounds around the plants will keep them away - we'll see how it goes because so far, they have destroyed most of my carrot sprouts, dug holes in my pumpkin and zucchini mounds, made "deposits" in my lettuce box and would-be-compost-pile-hiding sunflower patch, and reeked general havoc that is threatening-letter-worthy...
Dear Cinderella and Violet,
We feed you, clean up after you, and give you a warm place to sleep. If you value that AT ALL you will cease and desist your current bombardments against my plants. Let it be known, if I had to choose between my garden and you, it'd be the garden (... yes, I am a dog person who married a cat guy... he soooo owes me).
Ladies, you've been warned.
Hallie
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May 23
And we have SPROUTING!!!
We have one corn sprout and a few onion and carrot sprouts that I can see. They started showing up over the weekend but it wasn't until today that I knew FOR SURE they were what I hoped they were :)
The last few days have been rainy with pretty intense sun yesterday and today. I was glad to be able to fill up my water barrel (and then some - holy moly lots of water!) but my beds were looking pretty dry today. Someone suggested I lightly mulch pretty much everything I planted since my beds get so much sun. Luckily Ben had mowed over the weekend so there was plenty of cut grass to go around - we'll see if the mulching helps keep things from drying out...
P.S. - May 25 - LETTUCE SPROUTING :)
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May 19
YAY! I think I've gotten in all my seeds/ plants for a while aka until I decide to do my next "batch" - my plan is to plant a few of my carrots, onions, lettuce, spinach, and beans at a time so I'm not overloaded with more crops than we can eat :P
Today I finished everything off by planting my....
1) Beans - Blue Lake Pole Stringless FMI
- Planted in a row in front of my "bed/" pole-bean-holder-upper, full sun
- One seed every 3 in, 1 in depth, watered in hole before covering
- Matures in 65 days (July 24ish)
- Planted in a row in front of my "bed/" pole-bean-holder-upper, full sun
- One seed every 3 in, 1 in depth, watered in hole before covering
- Matures in 65 days (July 24ish)
- Plan to plant another line in ~ 2 weeks (June 2) to spread out harvests
Also, I planted a sprinkling of Nasturtium's (Peach Melba Superior) randomly around my bed and at the back of my salad beds to add some color (AND they are edible so I'm thinking they'll be pretty in salads AND you can grind the seeds and use them like pepper - can't go wrong there eh?). They claim to be low maintenance... time will tell.
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May 18
Mommy's little helper :)
With the sun shining, rain clouds looming on the horizon, and a supposed forecast of moderate temperatures for the next week or so, I chanced fate and planted my lettuce, spinach, tomato, pepper, and zucchini plants today… hoping I won't regret it :S
1) Tomatoes – Early Girl (2) and Celebrity (1)
- Mulched, watered in hole before planting
- Planted up against the house ~ 1.5 feet apart - will get plenty of sun!
- Staked
2) Peppers – Green Bell (1), Mohawk (1), Red Beauty (4), and Early Red (1)
- Mulched
- Planted most in sunny spot in a row ~ 8 in apart between tomatoes and onions with the Early Red at the front of the bed in the unseeded onion row... there just wasn't room :P
- Staked the Early Red and Green Bell... will probably have to stake them all as the get bigger!
3) Zucchini
- Mounds, watered in hole before planting
- Planted three mounds with a plant a piece ~ 1.5 ft apart between rhubarb and chives, full sun
4) Spinach - Bloomsdale Long-Standing
- Sprinkled seed in three rows 1/2 in deep in planter box, sun/shade mix
- Germination in 7-10 days (Memorial Day Weekend)
- Maturity in 48 days (July 5)
- Plan to plant another crop in ~2 weeks (June 2) to spread out harvest
5) Lettuce - Grand Rapids TBR (Leaf) and Select Salad Blend (Crimson Butter, Red Salad Bowl, Iceberg, Bibb, Lolla Rosa)
- Sprinkled seen in four rows (alternating types) 1/4 in deep in planter box, sun/shade mix
- Germination in 7-10 days (Memorial Day Weekend)
- Maturity in 45-50 days (first week in July)
3) Zucchini
- Mounds, watered in hole before planting
- Planted three mounds with a plant a piece ~ 1.5 ft apart between rhubarb and chives, full sun
4) Spinach - Bloomsdale Long-Standing
- Sprinkled seed in three rows 1/2 in deep in planter box, sun/shade mix
- Germination in 7-10 days (Memorial Day Weekend)
- Maturity in 48 days (July 5)
- Plan to plant another crop in ~2 weeks (June 2) to spread out harvest
5) Lettuce - Grand Rapids TBR (Leaf) and Select Salad Blend (Crimson Butter, Red Salad Bowl, Iceberg, Bibb, Lolla Rosa)
- Sprinkled seen in four rows (alternating types) 1/4 in deep in planter box, sun/shade mix
- Germination in 7-10 days (Memorial Day Weekend)
- Maturity in 45-50 days (first week in July)
... really hope my cats stay out of my salad boxes :S Might have to go "Hulk" on them if they don't!
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May 17
... I love rocks because they are low-maintenance - you don't have to mow it, water it, weed it (often). Easy -peasy. However, for those of you you are not aware of this, most rocks are gray... I am not a gray person. And thus I decided to make a bed along the border of my rocks and plant some Johnny Jump-ups! Supposedly they will re-seed and we will see their cheery faces again next year... time will tell.
On the veggie front - I've left my tomato, zucchini, and pepper plants outside a few times now and am hoping to get them in the ground today as it is supposed to rain and have fairly moderately temperatures for the next week or so... please God don't kill my plants!
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May 7/8 – first weekend in May
1) Rhubarb
- Mulched lightly
- Planted in far western corner of bed by house - it's a perennial so wanted to put it some where out of the way where it can grow in plenty of sunshine :)
2) Onions – Evergreen Bunching
- Scattered seeds in 1/2 inch deep "trench" and covered lightly with soil
- Planted two rows in front of bed (east of chives) - plenty of sun
- Germination in 10-14 days (May 22)
- Maturity in 60-75 days (July 17ish)
- Plan to plant a new crop in ~ 3 weeks (Memorial Day Weekend)
3) Carrots – Carrots, Rainbow and Little Finger
- Mixed the seeds with sand and scattered seeds in two rows
- Planted one row of each type in front of bed, east of onions... we'll see how each does :P
- Germination in 7-21/ 10-14 days (end of May)
- Maturity in 75-80/ 60-65 days (July 24/ July 10)
- Plan to plant another crop in ~ 3 weeks (Memorial Day Weekend)
4) Pumpkins – Small Sweet Sugar/ Pie
- Planted four seeds per mound about a foot in to mound
- Two mounds in back bed - lots of sun
- Germination in 7-14 days (May 22)
- Maturity in 100 days (Aug 19ish)
5) Corn – Early Sunglow
- Planted one seed every foot-ish, one finger depth
- One row along the back of the bed by the house – rhubarb to mid-garden
- Maturity in 65 days (July 10)
Thus far, I've been watering once daily in the late evening... no rain so have been using water from my make-shift rain barrel aka big plastic tub with a lid so we don't get mosquitoes :S So far, so good!
haha love it keep plugging along best of luck.
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