Vegetable Gardening

[bambu101]

I have radishes and peas coming up, and planted carrots and collard greens last weekend. My poor garden is all confused- last Wednesday we had a dusting of snow on the ground, and by Sunday it was close to 90 degrees!

I am going to try Sugar Baby watermelons and an heirloom variety of canteloupes this year that I got from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds. It's always fun to try something new every year!

[OakLeaf]

As always being a snowbird I get a late start, but I have my perennial herbs, most of my red Russian kale overwintered (yay!) and I cut a good bunch of volunteer baby mustard greens before tilling them and all the weeds under.

Got the soil prep done before it rained... now I have to wait for my plot to dry out enough to dig beds and plant!

[OakLeaf]

As I do every year while constructing my dug beds I wonder about building permanent raised beds....

Here's the issue I have though: My sweet corn patch is a different size and shape from my pole bean patch, which is a different size and shape from my basil and cilantro rows, my greens rows, my tomato and pepper rows, etc., etc. Squashes need lots of room to splay out; with carrots, I need to be able to get close in to weed them.

Those of you with raised beds, how do you manage your crop rotation?

[spokewench]

As I do every year while constructing my dug beds I wonder about building permanent raised beds....

Here's the issue I have though: My sweet corn patch is a different size and shape from my pole bean patch, which is a different size and shape from my basil and cilantro rows, my greens rows, my tomato and pepper rows, etc., etc. Squashes need lots of room to splay out; with carrots, I need to be able to get close in to weed them.

Those of you with raised beds, how do you manage your crop rotation?

It is difficult to deal with crop rotation with raised beds. I have raised beds with limited area, they are approximately 4 feet wide and 6 feet long and I have three of them. It does limit you. I do not plant sweet corn for two reasons; one is I really don't have the room for it; and the other is that my growing season is too short and I never get developed ears so I gave up!

I tend to plant closer together than I would plant if I had a great big garden out in the yard that was unlimited in size. and I mix things up quite a bit; companion planting type style. However, I do try to put the tomatoes and eggplants, and beans in a different bed every year to try to rotate in order to keep wilt, etc. from setting in. So far, I have done okay to keep wilt, etc. from setting in. My biggest challenge and all the garden books think this should not be a problem; but I have an infestation of earwigs that like to eat my small seedlings (they love chard) and eat holes in my salad stuff, etc. I am going to try the rolled up wet newspaper to trap this again this year and hope for the best.

I will planting seeds this weekend; and a few plants. We had snow last weekend and some really cold nights still, so I have been lazy this year; I'm also travelling a bit this year; so it is always a challenge to keep the garden watered while I am away.

[skhill]

I'm so psyched-- the beans I planted last Friday are poking up!!! No big news, except that we had about 7.5 inches of rain over the weekend. I was afraid that the seed I'd planted had washed away into my neighbor's garden. Still waiting on the sweet corn, but there's still time.

Today, I put in some more tomatoes and corn, summer squash, and pole beans. All of it's in the new bed, in my side yard. Great sun, and away from the dog!

[bambu101]

Thought I would ask for some more recent, middle-of-summer updates.

Here in New England, it has been very hot and humid, and dry up until a few days ago. My beans, melons, cucumbers, collards, carrots, tomatoes, etc were hanging in there, but were looking a bit crispy. The snap peas and radishes are done.

We had rain 2 days ago, and I went out for a quick check this morning to see how things were looking. I was amazed at how fast things have grown in just a few days! The mustard greens in pots grew about 5 inches, and the cukes and melons have blossoms. The heirloom tomatoes I started from seed in late May might actually produce some tomatoes! Very exciting!

And how are things in your little patch of earth?

[skhill]

After a dry and extremely hot 2 weeks, the garden was looking a bit crunchy. But thanks to the miracle of a wet weekend, everything's looking up!! Right now, I'm getting lots of green beans-- the bush beans are tapering off, but the pole beans are ramping up. Still have some swiss chard going. Lots of ripe cherry tomatoes, the romas are just starting to ripen, and a couple different varieties of slicing tomatoes are showing signs of pink. And I'm planning on eating my first zucchini tonight (many more to follow), maybe with the first bell pepper.

Herbs: my cats are loving the fresh catnip, and I have basil for me. The cilantro didn't make it, tho...

Yet to come: the sweet corn's looking a lot better after the rain (but I never get much). Pumpkin and butternut squash are looking promising. And I planted some more stuff recently, looking towards the fall (beets, carrots, cabbage).

One of these years the garden will take over the yard!