The Garden

You'll have to forgive me, for two reasons: one, I'm not quite sure where the better camera is...it got stuck somewhere when we got back from San Diego, just not sure where, so the pictures aren't the best.  Also, this is one of those posts that is just as much for me, so I can remember things, as it for you fine folks out there.

 

So...that's the main garden area, with my 6 raised beds.  From left to right: Tomatoes in the front bed, tomatoes/tomatillos in the back, the middle has peppers/summer squash in the front bed, and peppers/cucumbers in the back, and finally, to the right, there are cherry tomatoes/winter squash in the front bed, and in the back there is cauliflower, and a cucumber, and winter squash again. 

I'm kind of stumped, because in the right side bed, my cherry tomatoes look OUTSTANDING so far.

 

Meanwhile, in the left-hand beds, my tomatoes look, well...not as outstanding.

 

 

Hmmmm.  It could be 3 threes(well, many things I'm sure, but only three that come to my simple mind): Too much shade(it is the shadier half of the garden), the soil is not as good, or I didn't do a good enough job of breaking up the roots. 

 

I just don't know how patient I want to  be.  I've already decided that I am going to replace the tomatoes in the rear bed...they look even sadder than the ones in the front bed.

 

Other than the raised bed, my beans are starting to look pretty good, having survived some early chewing on.  They are at the stage now that I walk by once or twice a day and help convince the beans to wrap around the twine.

 

 

Finally, I have my container garden. 

 

 

We've got some cauliflower, two of kale, two of tomatoes, and then the one on the very right is pumpkin...little sugar pumpkins.

 

Now, one thing I am committed to this year is pumping extra goodies into my plants...the ones in containers, raised beds, or even the ground.  We have no shortage of eggs, so those get crushed and added to the soil, and then I've been making compost tea, AND in one of those 'don't hurt, might help' things, I've been adding Epsom salt to the soil as I plant, and then weekly when I water(one tablespoon per gallon).  The magnesium and sulfur are supposed to help.

 

It's still not even June, so I don't want to give up on anything too soon.  One of my goals for the year was to start as much as I could from seed, and see if it worked.  It's why I'll probably keep those slightly stunted looking tomatoes going...