We've been so busy!!

Things have been crazy busy lately, so we've neglected our blog (but not our garden!!).
We're helping Kerry and Susan (Kurt's parents) do the finish work on their new home in Belleville
(check out their blog), and it's been a blast.

The biggest news lately - we got engaged! Kurt asked me to marry him at Summit Lake, which is a lake in the mountains north of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. We set a date - 9/25/2010.







We've neglected taking lots of pics of the garden this summer, but we've been pretty good about taking pics of our harvests - so here are a few for you to enjoy :)

A CLOSER LOOK

The plants are really growing. Heres a brief look at whats growing.:

GARDEN IN AFTERNOON

DARWIN OVERSEES KC'S FLOWER GARDEN WHILE SHE'S AWAY

TIGER LILIES (RAIN BARREL IN BACKGROUND)

IF YOU WANT TO ENTER YOU MUST FIRST TAME MAYA THE TWO HEADED HOUND GUARDIAN OF THE ORANGE DOOR TO PARADISE


BED 1: SUNFLOWERS, ZUCCHINI, AND OTHERS



BED 2



BROCCOLI CLOSE-UP



SWEET PEPPERS



TOMATOES



BED 3


ONIONS & CARROTS



DARWIN WATCHES THE WATERMELON CLIMB TO THE TRELLIS



LOOK CLOSELY: SNAP PEAS READY TO BE EATEN !



THE POLE BEANS AREN'T MESSING AROUND

IN THE GROUND

This post is from a few weeks ago. I will add updated images shortly.:

We've fallen behind at updating the blog. Not to worry, we've made a lot of progress with the garden. Most of the plants are in the beds now and with all of the rain and warmth we've had lately they are growing very well.

Here is a brief introduction to the garden:

VIEW OF ENTIRE GARDEN FROM ABOVE
(KC WEEDING IN THE BACKGROUND AND KODIE PATROLLING THE PERIMETER)

All of the beds are deep beds. This means that they are between 8" and 10" deep. Deep beds allow you to grow more plants closer together. The roots are able to expand downward rather than outward. Besides the benefit of having more to harvest, closer plantings reduce space for unwanted plants to grow between the vegetables.

The first bed is 4' x 4'. This is mainly a flower bed but also includes zucchini. The zucchini plants are rapid growers.. We thought it best to separate them from the other vegetables to avoid crowding. The zucchini plants also attract squash vine borers. These are little white maggot-like insects that burrow into the stalks of the plant and slowly eat their way through the stalk, disintegrating it from the bottom up. We are going to treat the zucchini plants with an organic neem oil concentrate spray (natural insecticidal soap) to try to ward off these little monsters. This is another reason for segregation.

Along with the zucchini, the first bed includes a butterfly bush, several types of sunflowers, primrose, and a surprise lily. The thought is that these types of flora will attract birds and butterflies to keep down the bug population. We also want to install a bat tower for this purpose but haven't gotten around to it yet. Note: The bird netting is only temporary and will be removed after the plants establish themselves. Birds will pluck the seedlings of seed-bearing plants completely out of the ground.

You will also notice small orange flowers dispersed among the beds. These are marigolds. Their purpose, aside from looking nice, is to increase planting density and to attract birds. It may seem contradictory to apply bird netting to keep birds out while planting flowers that will attract them within. But after the seedlings are established, birds are no longer much of a threat and become a welcomed visitor to an organic gardener. Kind of an interesting harmonious pest control system. We've found that researching and testing these sorts of relationships has been just as interesting as being able to grow your own food.

BED 1: ZUCCHINI, SUNFLOWERS, BUTTERFLY BUSH, LILY, PRIMROSE, MARIGOLDS

ZUCCHINI PLANTS

The second bed is 4' x 8'. This bed includes a few varieties of tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, sweet peppers, spinach, Crimson Carmello lettuce, Black Beauty eggplant, sweet peppers, and broccoli. With the exception of the tomatoes, eggplants, and sweet peppers, all of these plants are 'cold crops'. In this climate zone these will only grow well at the beginning and end of the growing season. So after harvesting these, the garden will be opened up for the 'warm crops' to fill out. At the rate of growth we are seeing, the lettuce will be ready for harvest within the next couple of weeks. The other 'cold crops' will be soon to follow.

In mid August we will start these plants again from seed indoors and transplant them back into the garden in early September. We're hoping to have a steady supply of vegetables in some capacity from now until mid October. The next step is to grow all year round!

BED 2: TOMATOES, EGGPLANT, PEPPERS, LETTUCE, SPINACH, & BROCCOLI

BABY TOMATO PLANTS

RED LEAF, SPINACH, CRIMSON C, BROCCOLI

The third and final bed includes garlic, flat Italian onions, green onions, carrots, watermelon, snap peas, & pole beans. We layed this bed out for maximum production. The onions, garlic, and carrots are all underground. The watermelons will be grown on a horizontal trellis to take up space above the ground dwellers. The peas and beans grow vertically. We're hoping to produce a lot out of this plot.

BED 3: GARLIC, ONIONS, CARROTS, WATERMELON, SNAP PEAS, POLE BEANS

BEANS AND PEAS STARTING UP THE TRELLIS

(Our original trellis design didn't work out well, but we improved it and the plants are moving upward)

MAYA & DARWIN OVERSEE THE GARDEN

Beginning the 2009 Garden

We've started our cold crop seedlings and they're already doing well. Next week we'll thin them out and build some cold frames.

I'm pretty excited about this years garden - we're doing a lot more to help us stay on track, including keeping a thorough calendar and task list. At first, all this gardening stuff seems overwhelming, but when you break it down into a week-by-week basis, it's much more manageable.

We've put in "garden walls" to keep the grass from growing in. We've also removed one of the Watermelon trellises to make room for the beans and peas. Kurt is thinking about setting up a second rainwater barrel so we can be more conservative about water usage this year. Our goal is to keep any of the pests we had last year out by paying attention to the garden on a daily basis.

I'm thinking about giving the garden door another coat of paint - that bright orange is beginning to look a bit faded (pictures to come).

Also, check out our plant listing on the right side of this blog. Those are all of the plants that will go in to our 3 garden beds.

The blog might be a bit slow until things really start growing, but check back now and then to see pics and descriptions of what's going on.

Last Year's Garden

Last year (summer 2008) was our first garden. Kurt and I have never really been gardeners before, so starting was a bit intimidating. Using a book we got on Organic Gardening, we figured out what we wanted to plant and how to go about setting everything up.
We started from seed (not too sure if I remember all these right):

• Watermelon
• Pumpkin
• Tomato
• Sweet Peppers
• Eggplant
• Zucchini
• Cucumber
• Onions
• Carrots
• Red Leaf Lettuce
• Spinach
• Acorn Squash
• Mustard (to get our compost bin going)
• Yellow Sunflowers
• Red Sunflowers
  

The Zucchini grew like crazy! I made so much Zucchini bread, it was ridiculous.

Problems we ran in to:

• Weather (rain) kept us from preparing the beds, so we got a late start.
• Lettuce and Spinach were started too late.
• Didn't put up borders around the beds, so some grass and weeds over grew into it.
• Didn't water enough.
• Lost some little seedlings to the birds, so eventually we figured out to put up bird netting.
• Lost some plants to pests (mostly Squash Vine Borers. That was a bummer.
• The sunflowers grew really well, but some fell over in a storm.
  

Things that didn't survive and we got no harvest from:

• Red Peppers
• Spinach
• Pumpkin
• Acorn Squash
• Eggplant

We were pretty bad last year about neglecting the garden and not watering enough, but this year will be different!


Some Pictures of the Pests!

Acorn Squash killed by the Squash Vine Borers













The Culprit.













Something was making the cucumbers unhappy.













Not sure if it was him or a squirrel who ate that tomato.