Jennie's Garden ~ 09/30/10

I am so pleased to say that my garden is doing GREAT! It has been 10 days since my last post about my garden, and things have only gotten bigger (only a few casualties). While my veggies are still doing well, I have discovered a few unwanted guests...

I went out a few mornings ago to check on my veggies and noticed one of my broccoli seedlings moving back and forth. Well, there was no wind and nothing else was moving so I immediately turned to my dad and sure enough, he saw it too. I kneeled down and started to dig a bit around the seedling... I didn't find the culprit but I did find a tiny little larva. NOOOOO! I took it to my local nursery, and the lady nicely broke the news to me "you've got grubs." On top of the grubs, I also found that I have a pretty nasty case of mites in the garden bed. So, I did exactly what they told me. I watered the top of my garden bed with soapy water to get the buggers on top, and I also released Beneficial Nematodes in the garden bed, as I was told these should take care of both pests without harming my vegetables. We'll see what happens! Cross your fingers!

I also found footprints inside my garden bed from the neighbors cat! Luckily it hasn't caused any damage...yet.

Here is an update on all my veggies. I have all Botanical Interest Seeds in my bed, and they are doing marvelous. These pictures were taken this morning, and you can see the significant growth in just the last 10 days. (These were all planted 15 days ago)


Romaine Lettuce

  

Spinach - Bordeaux

 The Romain Lettuce took a little longer than expected to emerge, but they are up and doing great! My spinach is now beginning to sprout a second set of leaves in the middle. You can kind of see them in the seedling all the way on the bottom of the picture.



Cauliflower - Chef's Choice Blend



Broccoli - Di Cicco

 My cauliflower and broccoli are doing great, and growing very fast! The broccoli has also just started sprouting a second set of leaves in the middle, just like my spinach. The broccoli is just reaching 2 inches, so I will need to begin thinning soon!

Carrots - Little Fingers



Beets - Detroit Dark Red

Just thinned both my carrots and beets this morning. The beet seeds are actually dried fruits that have 4-5 seeds in them. That's why there are couple seedlings right next to each other. You can see I have a heavy hand when it comes to the carrots. I have a cluster of seedlings about every inch; which is fine, just lose a lot when it comes time for thinning...




Peas - Super Sugar Snap
Late Afternoon

 

Peas - Super Sugar Snap
Morning

These peas are my pride and joy right now, along with my Green Arrow Shelling peas. If you are looking to grow something that is fun and fast growing, I would definitely recommend peas! These babies were planted only 8 days ago. They are about 1.5 inches tall already! The picture on the right was taken around 10 in the morning. The picture on the right was taken around 3pm. In just that short amount of time you can aleady see drastic growth. The leaves are larger and have

 started to spread out. These are very exciting,

every morning the first thing I want to do is

 run outside and check out my peas!





Peppers - California Wonder



Here's a close up of my pepper plant. I bought it on Saturday from Target (they closed their garden center), and even though it's a bit out of season I just had to give it a home. Expecially when they were selling it for only $1.30. With the heat wave we've been having  (and should be lasting a couple more weeks) I was hoping maybe I could get at least a couple peppers out of it. As you can see in this picture, that might just happen! The blosson has started to swell and you can see the little guy starting to form!

 We have been having a pretty nasty heat wave this last week, reaching about 100 degrees. I've been giving my bed a good water then covering with a cut up carboard box to keep the sizzling sun off my seedlings. I had planned to sow another row of spinach, broccoli, lettuce and beets in a couple weeks, but according to the forecasts it's going to be in the upper 80's low 90's for the next couple weeks. I didnt want to risk that my seeds wouldn't germinate in the heat, so I instead planted in my homemade starter pots. Click here to learn how to make these quick and easy homemade starter pots! We'll see how well they do in the next few days!

I Hope you enjoyed the update, and check back in another 10 days to see how much progress there is!