i don't have a lot of pictures to share of this years garden, it just isn't very impressive at all. i've had a lot of problems with insect pests this year. i garden organically and do not use any types of pest control other than manually picking off the insects. Occasionally i will spray with a cayenne pepper spray or soapy water. i think next year, i'm going to try floating row covers, because the insects have been so bad.
i planted about 20 zucchini plants...yes, you read that right 20. Well, only two look this one. The rest appear stunted, or just failed to really do much. i planted three zucchini per hill and it seems that one plant would do great and just shade out the other two. So with 20 zucchini plants, i'm still waiting to see if i'll even get any zucchini. A couple of my smaller plants are already showing signs of vine borers and i'm already seeing cucumber beetles.
Tomatoes are doing great this year, better than they ever have! There is no sign of blight so far. i'll try getting a pictures of the plants in my next garden update. They are about 3 foot tall, and getting some good looking tomatoes on them. This little green tomato is not quite big enough to pick, but just another week and we'll be enjoying some fried green tomatoes.
This is the first sunflower of the year! i had sunflowers come up on their own all over the garden this year. i moved a few around to border the garden a bit, but i didn't actually plant any. Despite not planting any this year, i have 7 in my front garden and 15 in my main garden. :) i hope they don't shade out my tomatoes too much. It does make for a pretty garden though.
i have flowers planted along the front edge of my main garden, separating it from the road. Every year i expand the flowers out a bit more, and every year they encroach into my garden a bit more. This year, they really look stunning, and are always covered in butterflies. Next year i'll work to thin them out more, but this year they look so amazing they are taking the attention away from my struggling garden. hee hee.
i call this cottage gardening, although it's really just an overgrown mass of flowers. Black eyed susan, oxeyed daisy, purple cone flowers, bee balm, tall purple phlox and holly hocks.
Sweet potaotoes are doing great again! Leaves are getting munched a bit, but not enough to cause any problems for the tubers growing under the soil.
This is a pretty crappy picture, but this is the kids garden. It's starting to fill in. Lettuce is raging, and then we've got a few peas...they were planted late and anly a few came up. Two rows of purple bush beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and a zucchini. :)
For some reason many folks are under the impression that i am a master gardener. ha ha. Yeah, i'm not. i love to garden, but that doesn't mean i'm good at it. This year, that is especially obvious...and everything is struggling. My neighbors all have beautiful gardens, but i know their secret formula. Apply round up to kill off the weeds. Add 10-10-10 chemical fertilizer, then dust everything in a nice layer of seven dust insecticide.
Yeah, i think i'll stick with my struggling organic garden. It may not be pretty, but i can feel good about eating the veggies fresh out of the garden and not have to worry about a layer of poison and what kind of affect it may have on me or the environment.
- I'd rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate. ~ George Burns
Beautiful garden!!
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