Jennie's Garden ~ 10/25/10

Welcome back fellow gardeners and chefs! I apologize for being late on my garden update. I usually try to update you every 10 days, however it has now been 15 days! But do not worry, the pictures were still taken exactly 10 days after the last ones, so they are from 10/20/10. (I was just a little slow on posting them...oops!)

Well, I'm not going to lie... everything is looking good, but I am a little worried about my spinach and beets. They seem to be growing very slowly and I am worried that they may have been stunted from the heat waves we had a few weeks ago. I say this because about 2.5 weeks after I planted them in my garden bed, I planted a few in some old cinder blocks in the backyard. These cinder blocks get partial shade, so they weren't directly hit by the sizzling sun during the heat waves. These spinach and beet seedlings are almost twice as big as the ones in my garden bed! While the sun may be to blame for my slow growing beets and spinach, I also realized I should have fed my veggies with another round of fertilizer about 3 weeks ago... Soooo maybe that's to blame too? Whoops... I will be adding some fertilizer to the bed in the next couple of days, and we will see if that gives my little seedlings a boost!

Here are my most recent pictures, all taken on 10-20-10. Again, I have also posted the pictures from my last update for comparison. Remember that everything was planted on 09/15/10!






Romain Lettuce
10/10/10

Romain Lettuce
10/20/10

As you can see, my lettuce is still doing very well. There are now four large leaves, and you can see in the middle another two have started to grow! The tallest plants are about 4.5 inches tall.












Spinach
10/10/10

 

Spinach
10/20/10

This is one of the spinach plants that is actually doing better than the others. You can see it is getting larger, just not as fast as I think it should be. In this picture you can see the stems are now growing in red! This is Bordeaux spinach, so it has red stems and veins. This tallest plant is about 3 inches tall.




Cauliflower
10/10/10



Cauliflower
10/20/10

My cauliflower is doing well. the leaves are getting bigger and bigger every day! They now have four leaves on them. My seeds were a blend of purple, green and white varieties, and you can actually start to see a tint of purple on some of the leaves and the stems now! The tallest plant is about 4 inches tall.







Broccoli
10/10/10



Broccoli
10/20/10

Broccoli is getting taller and taller! You can see how large the leaves are getting now. They have four large leaves and a 5th is beginning to emerge from the center; you can kind of see it in the most recent picture. The stems are also starting to thicken up and they are standing up on their own a little bit better. The large leaf looks like it's been munched on a little, but it's just the angle of the picture. No munching going on here! The tallest plant is about 5.5 inches tall.





Carrots
10/10/10



Carrots
10/20/10

This isn't the best picture of the carrots... Sorry about that. But they are also getting very big! They have many leaves growing on them now and are getting bigger and stronger! The tallest carrot is about 3 inches tall now!





Beets
10/20/10

Beets
10/10/10

Like I said earlier, my beets are slowly getting larger. Unfortunately, when I went out this morning I notices that two of my largest seedlings had been dug up! Most likely from a squirrel. We'll see how they do in the next 10 days. The tallest plant is about 3 inches tall.





Peas
10/10/10



Peas
10/20/10

My peas are still growing like crazy! You can see how much taller they have gotten in just 10 days. I lost a couple to slugs, but just planted a couple more seeds!  They have already passed the second step on my trellis and are well on their way to the third step! The tallest plant is almost 2 feet tall, and remember, they were only planted on 09/25/10!






Peppers
10/10/10



Peppers
10/20/10

This picture was taken from a different angle as the last one, but you can see the pepper is much larger, and there is now a second one starting to grow! You can't see it, but there is a 3rd one on the other side that is just starting to swell. I'm not sure how much more they will grow, because we are now at a steady 65 degrees. It has been raining for the last few days, so I think the heat is gone for good!



Shallots
10/10/10



Shallots
10/20/10

Well, I guess my shallots just need a little time because all but 3 have sprouted and are doing fantastic! They grow so fast! The tallest one is about 12 inches tall already! They were just planted on 09/25/10

Seedlings
10/10/10



Seedlings
10/20/10

 My seedlings actually had a slow start, but they are doing well now! the spinach, lettuce and broccoli are all starting to sprout secondary leaves, and the beets are getting taller!

Some sad news ~ I lost my chives =( They were eaten by some kind of critter, so I will be sowing more seeds very soon!

I also planted some garlic on 10/19/10! I am very excited for these because I LOVE garlic! Hopefully by the next update I'll have some little garlic seedlings.

All of my herbs are doing great in the window sill. I will post some pictures as they get bigger. Well, that's all I have for now, until next time! Happy gardening!