Jennie's Garden ~ 12/10/10

Okay okay, I know I am waaaay late on this update, and I am very very very sorry! It's been a sad month. I have officially lost my pepper plant (although, this was expected since we are now into winter), but I have also lost all my spinach plants, and almost all of the beets. I have mentioned it in a few of my previous updates, that I believed the heat wave in October had stunted the seedlings. I was right. They never grew to anything worth while, so I pulled them and replanted some seeds. Well it was a little too late into Fall when I did this, so when they were just teeny tiny little babies, they froze when we had a light frost about a week and a half ago. They are no longer growing. So sad. Same thing with my herbs that I planted. I was too late so they all froze when they were tiny seedlings. I was also invaded by slugs! They continue to eat all of my baby carrots, so I stopped replanted them in the ground, and are leaving them to the raised garden bed. There's always early Spring right?

This being said, everything else seems to be doing well! Again, most everything was planted on September 15th. It has been a whopping 36 days since my last update (eek!), but I will still post the pictures from the last update to see the progress.



Romaine Lettuce
11/04/10



Romaine Lettuce
12/10/10







The lettuce continues to get fuller and taller! Although, I always thought Romaine lettuce to be tall, skinny and compact. Interesting...

Cauliflower
11/04/10



Cauliflower
12/10/10







  The Cauliflower is also getting larger and producing more leaves. It takes several months until harvest, so I believe it's on track. I guess we'll see!

Broccoli
11/04/10



Broccoli
12/10/10



My broccoli has gotten much larger since the last update. The leaves have also turned a darker green. They are much larger than the cauliflower, and take less time until harvest, so I am crossing my fingers that they are on track as well!



Carrots
11/04/10



Carrots
12/10/10

 My carrots are also getting taller and thicker. A couple of days ago, I brushed away some of the soil and could see the little baby carrot forming. They seem to be growing a bit slower than they should be, so I will check again in a couple of weeks.












Beets
12/10/10



Like I mentioned above, I have lost most of my beets. The only ones I have left are these pictured. They were planted in a cinder block and are doing great! Unfortunately, it looks like I'll only be getting about 3-5 beets from my garden...












Peas
11/04/10



Peas

12/10/10

My peas are still my pride and joy! They are so tall, reaching the top tier of my trellis. They are also sprouting flowers, which means peas are soon to follow. So excited!



Peas (flower)
12/10/10

 

Shallots
11/04/10



Shallots
12/10/10

                                                         Shallots are doing well. Can't really see what's going on under ground, but the tops are green and tall, so I can only assume the bulbs are growing!

Garlic
12/10/10

My garlic is doing great! The stems are getting taller and taller. When one sprouts, I plant another one. Garlic takes a few months so I still have some ways to go, but I am extremely excited for these.

Jennie's Garden ~ 11/04/10

Welcome back! We are now into the month of November, and Thanksgiving is just around the corner! I have decided to do my updates every 15 days now, instead of every 10. I felt there would be a larger change to see this way. These pictures were all taken yesterday, Nov. 4th, exactly 15 days after the last pictures.

Things are doing well. I'm still a little concerned about my beets and spinach, as they seem to be growing at an extremely slow rate. According to the spinach harvest dates, they should be ready to harvest, however they are nowhere near ready. I have planted a second row of everything except my cauliflower, so I will be able to see the difference. I still believe that the heat wave we had last month may have stunted the spinach and beets.

I planted a couple other things since the last update; Long White Onions and Rutabagas. Hopefully by the next update they will have germinated! Now time for the pictures! Again these pictures were taken yesterday (Nov. 4th) and everything was planted on 09/15/10 unless otherwise noted.



Romaine Lettuce
10/20/10



Romaine Lettuce
11/04/10

My lettuce is still doing well. You can see that they just keep getting larger and producing more leaves. The plants are thicker and thicker every update!

Instead of planting a second row of Romaine, I planted a row of Salad Bowl Lettuce seeds I got for free at a garden sale. They have not germinated yet, but hopefully by the next update!








Spinach
10/20/10



Spinach
11/04/10



 You can see that this spinach plant has gotten larger and produced another set of leaves, however this is unfortunately the largest spinach plant in my garden bed and really the only one that is continually growing. I will most likely pull the others up and replant some seeds.



Cauliflower
10/20/10



Cauliflower
11/04/10


Cauliflower is doing well. The leaves are much larger, and you can see the differences between the varieties. The green and white varieties have scalloped leaves, and the purple variety has a purple stem and smooth leaves. Can't wait for the heads to form! 









Broccoli
10/20/10



Broccoli
11/04/10

My broccoli is doing very well. The leaves are so large now they are barely standing straight up. The largest leaves are around 2 inches long and the stems are starting to really thicken up. The small leaf you see starting to sprout in the middle of the picture on the left is the large leaf you see in the middle in the picture on the right! There is also a very ruffled leaf starting to sprout from the center, that you can't see in the picture.



Carrots
10/20/10



Carrots
11/04/10





My carrots are growing like crazy now! They were a little slow to start, but they are twice as tall as they were in my last update. You can really see the growth between the two pictures.

Beets
10/20/10

Beets
11/04/10

Several of the beets are still growing, just veeeery slowly. Like I had mentioned in my last update, the beets that I planted in some old cinder blocks, about 2.5 weeks after these are 3 times bigger! These may have been stunted by the heat wave. I planted another row a few days ago, so we will have to compare the growth to these.



Peas
11/04/10



Peas
10/20/10



Just look at how tall my peas are! They have grown over a FOOT in the last two weeks! They are now past the 4th step on my trellis. These were planted around Sept. 25h. Hopefully in about a 4 or 5 weeks we'll have some peas!



Peppers
10/20/10



Peppers
11/04/10

You can see the 3rd pepper has really grown. There is a 4th pepper behind these that is growing as well! The weather has cooled down significantly, but these guys are still growing! We'll see what happens, keep your fingers cross we can get at least one!






Shallots
10/20/10



Shallots
11/04/10

 All my shallots have sprouted! Boy, they really took a long time! They were all planted around Sept. 25th and the last ones just emerged a few days ago. It's actually good that it worked out that way, now I can harvest them at different times! These babies grow extremely fast. The green tops are so tall now, they can't stand up!

Garlic
11/04/10

My garlic finally emerged! They just poked through the soil this morning. Took about 3 weeks, but they're here! Very excited for my garlic, since I LOVE it. I will plant a couple more cloves this week.

My seedlings are slightly larger. I didn't use the best starting soil for them so I don't think they are growing at the rate they should be. Trial and error right? I decided not to use them when I planted the second row of everything a few days ago. Once everything germinates I will have to compare their growth rate with the plants I have now, to see if the heat wave really did have an effect.

I have also planted more herbs in some unused cinder blocks; Oregano, Basil, Parsley and Garlic Chives. I have them planted in my window sill, but I thought I could always use more! Until next time, happy gardening!













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!