A Little Bit of Catch-Up

We now have a proper fence to replace the weird string

So, gardening is a lot of freakin’ hard work!  After all the  tilling and digging, weeding and watering, and the building of 10 crazy Eiffel tower trellises, I can honestly say that the vast number of hours put into this garden already rival the time commitment of a part time job.  All the work in the summer sun has actually given me a tan…  OK, so a wicked farmer tan, but the point is that my normally pasty, overweight, video-gaming self has actually spent enough time in the sun to have actual physical proof that I’m not a morlock.  All the hoeing has left me with some increased definition in my forearms as well…

     yes…

          I know…

               “that’s what she said”…

                    …anyway

All the hoeing has left me with some increased definition in my forearms, which isn’t saying much considering the only “reps” I typically do involve the lifting of a coffee cup… though it is a big coffee cup.  However, we’re reaching a point in the growing season where all this work is beginning to pay off.  The plants are now growing at full tilt, producing blossoms and the beginnings of fruit, and in the case of the watermelon and cucumbers, growing several inches in a single day!  Being that the last few posts have been highly specific in subject matter, I figure I would offer up a quick post that highlights the garden as a whole, and give you all a quick update for each crop.

Marigolds:  The marigolds have certainly taken off, though their ability to deter deer have been doubtful at best.  One deer made it into the garden last month and nibbled here and there.  However, just this week something got in and ate all but two heads of lettuce, and several bean blossoms.  So, we’re left with 3 rows of horrible smelling, completely ineffectual flowers… yay!

Potatoes:  Despite all of the issues that these tuber have given us so far, they are doing surprisingly well.  Blossoms are open, and the ground beneath them is beginning to push up and crack, which tells me that potatoes are forming.  We still deal with Potato bugs, but daily inspections has limited any damage they can do.  I’m actually very surprised at just how forgiving these plants are.  I screwed them up in nearly every way possible, yet they’re still growing strong.

Peas!

Peas:  The “Minnesota Monsoon”  that came through a few weeks ago really did a number on our peas, and they’ve never really recovered.  however, they are at the end of their growing cycle anyway, and had already started offering up pods.  Once the dead plants were removed, we were left with quite a few young pods, which were promptly thrown into our wok, and turned into a stir fry.  The few remaining healthy pea plants have been producing a fair amount of peas, but they rarely make it home.  This row of peas has turned into a snack bar for my son.  He picks the peas, shells them, and eats them as soon as possible.  He insists that they’re “better than M&Ms”.  I’m inclined to let me maintain that idea for as long as possible.  We’ve already made plans to replace the finished pea plants with pepper plants.  That switch will probably happen this week sometime.

Our first tomato

Tomatoes:  For the most part, the tomatoes have been doing incredibly well.  The only issue we’ve had is that in deciding to plant them next to the corn, we failed to account for how quickly the corn would grow.  This means that the the tomatoes are largely shaded from the evening sun.  Not a big deal really, but I still think we’ll place them on different sides of the garden next year.  In any case, the tomatoes still quickly outgrew their cages, and I had to go out and get giant heavy duty tomato cages to replace them.  Blossoms have already started producing fruit.  So, I’m predicting a fairly decent harvest.

Our giant mutant corn is already tasseling

Corn:  “Knee high by the fourth of July”?  Our corn has turned the popular saying completely on it’s head, easily reaching over 5 ft by 4th of July.  So, unless you’re some freakishly tall monster, the above statement has been rendered false.  Our corn towers over all our neighboring gardens.  The tassels are already out, and ear shoots are already forming.  Translation:  Our corn could beat up your corn. 

Our first cucumber blossom

Cucumbers:  Here’s where I get excited.  I love cucumbers.  They have always been among my favorite foods, and they are really taking off.  Any doubts we had on the effectiveness of the trellises are quickly fading with each day.  These things are shooting up the inside of the trellises so fast, I’m beginning to wonder if we made them big enough.  If this pattern continues, these creepers will overrun the Eifel Towers easily within a few weeks.  At that point, the plan would be to tie strings between the trellises, thus creating a large trellis, made up of other trellises, or a meta-trellis, if you will.  This “trellis-ception” is looking more and more necessary everyday.  Meanwhile, the first blossoms have appeared.

Watermelon as of July 8th

Watermelon:  The picture to the right was taken only 4 days ago, and the watermelon have since doubled in size.  Vines are shooting out of those plants so fast, It’s becoming very hard to keep them trellised.  I’ll train them up on the string, then the next day, each vine has grown so long that it has passed the trellis, creating an increasingly complicated web of watermelon vines.  I have counted several blossoms on each vine, so its not just growing out.  These plants will definitely produce fruit.  I’ve heard that it’s a good idea to prune several of the blossoms off, in order to concentrate the vine’s efforts on producing a few high quality fruit, but I keep finding conflicting advice on just how and when to prune.  So if any of you have answers, let me know.

The results of Lettuce vs Bambi

Lettuce:  I no longer find Bambi or Thumper “cute”.  Gardening has removed any sense of wonder that I now feel when seeing a group of white tail deer frolicking in a meadow.  After investing hours into the garden, discovering that you’ve lost a portion of your crop to a single animal is crippling.  I’m almost to the point of cheering for the hunters in Bambi.  (I said “almost”. So, no hate mail!).  The lettuce was our hardest hit.  This last weekend, Bambi and his friends did this to every head of lettuce we have, except two.  We have a second planting on the way up, but this first crop of lettuce is pretty much gone.  On the positive side, we’re determined to be much more aggressive in our pest defenses next year.

An onion, beginning to peek through

Onions:  Our onions have been the easiest crop thus far.  I have barely touched them since planting and they’re doing great.  Even the ones that my son buried in random places sprouted.  At a few inches across, we’ve even managed to harvest a couple so far.  At this rate, I’m anticipating a crop of super onions, each so large that they each have detectable gravitational pull.

Bean blossom

Green Beans:  The beans have been growing incredibly fast as well.  I’ve been told that each blossom will eventually yield a bean pod.   If that’s true, We will be swimming in green beans this fall.  These things shoot out of the ground at an amazing rate.  It seems that every day we find another clump of blossoms, or a whole inch has been added to the height of the plant.

So there you have it, You’re now caught up to the ever important issue of how our crops are growing.  Oh, and just in case you hadn’t noticed, I have added a running total along the side bar, detailing what we’ve successfully harvested so far.  I’ll do my best to keep that up to date, so that you all can see proof that even a crappy gardener like me can net results…   or you can watch me fail horribly.  Either way it will be entertaining.

Next: “…And We’re Back!”

This is an ear-shoot, which will develop into an ear of corn

New tomato cages; too close to the corn. (this picture was taken just after we dusted for beetles)

Our second planting of lettuce is coming up

Watermelon Blossoms

Beans

Whole Garden after dusting