Just some updates to show how the plants have grown. I did a pretty poor job planting some things because they took a while to come up, some things are still trying to come up. I had to replant a couple. I don't think I kept the seeds moist enough or otherwise didn't plant them deep enough in the soil and they had trouble trying to sprout in the mulch. Overall, we'll looking pretty good.
The tomatoes have taken off. I'm surprised that so many of them already have flowers. For some reason it seemed like it took longer last year to get flowers, could have something to do with the age of my transplants. I'm happy to see that without any additional fertilizers, the leaves are all very green and healthy, the plants are strong and vigorous
The corn I did a really poor job of planting into the soil so they've come up really sporadically and I had to replant many of them. I guess this will end up being a good thing as the stalks mature at different rates I'll have available pollen for longer. The sprouts are struggling though, I've just given them a dose of blood meal. Hopefully the rains this evening will water that in good and I'll see some positive results next week. Hopefully I can take the bird netting off soon because the weeds are starting to get really bad. I need to pick them and add more mulch.
Considering I always have horrible results with peppers, I think my plants look pretty good. No additional fertilizers and the leaves are very green and the plants are sturdy. All good signs. There are some flower buds but I don't think any have opened yet. Won't be long.
The cantaloupe had to be replanted and the watermelons are really struggling to sprout. The sunflower had a slow start too. It's looking yellow so I gave it a good dose of blood meal also. I think once they get their roots down the small plants will take off.
The beans have all come up and the cucumbers are looking happy, much better than last year. I hope they take off soon and start climbing the trellis. Eggplant always does well, I've never had problems with eggplant.
You can see the potatoes here on the right have just exploded. I mulched around them, they could probably do a second mulching once the squashes get a little larger. The sweet potato has struggled though and the yellow squash had real issues sprouting but I think it's going to do alright now. The strawberries to the left seem happy enough, they have some small berries, but not much to speak of. I added some more cucumbers here but they have yet to sprout, I'm not sure what is going on with them, they're the same seeds as in the bean bed. Something happened to my parsley and the stem rotted and the whole plant died. It was very similar to squash vine borers but I didn't notice any larvae, just a mushy stem and root.
The fig tree looks so happy this year. It'll keep filling out pretty nicely and hopefully I get figs.
DD's garden space, she has 4 or so corn plants coming up and 1 green bean and several onions, including those that I planted. I managed to find two blueberry plants at Aldi in Atascocita. One is a Superblue and the other is an O'Neal, they are southern highbush varieties. I've never tried blueberries so I'm excited to see how they do. They are very small and twiggy, but I only paid $5 a piece for them. I dug each a nice big hole filled it with rabbit manure and potting mix, added the plants and then some topsoil. Then I mulched each one pretty good. I got a little worried about the soil ph, which I haven't tested but I'm pretty sure it's not acidic enough so I just went and pulled the mulch back and fluffed in some elemental sulfur I got from Ace Hardware. It's slow acting but I felt it would be thee safest way to go. Hopefully a few months down the road the plants won't be dead but surviving and hopefully thriving. I also planted some baby lima bean seeds here just cause there seemed to be some open space. Lots of weeds too but oh well, we'll see what happens.
Since we're expecting some rain tonight and tomorrow (and a cold snap, seriously possible lows in the high 30s!) I went out and gave several of the plants some booster doses of blood meal (for nitrogen and leaf growth) and bone meal (phosphorus for flowering and plant vigor). Once plants are well established and flowering and bearing fruit, I usually from then on just use cottonseed meal and fish emulsion to fertilize.
I love looking at my garden, I finally sewed a replacement canopy for our outdoor swing so I can sit out there and admire my plants.
