Photo update

Time for a photo update!  The garden is doing well, in spite of the heat.  It's taking a lot of water though.

Global Buckets

Here's a pic of the global buckets.  They are called that because a couple of high school age boys came up with the idea to help third world countries grow more food in arid or poor soil areas.  They are pretty easy to make and seem to work.  I've only had my two for a week or so, so the jury is still out, but looks like they are working as advertised.

My Radishes were a disappointment

I got my radish seeds from Gurney's.  I picked an unusual variety instead of the normal round red ones. They sprouted up fine and grew like crazy, with the stems and leaves getting almost a foot high.  Problem was, every time I pulled one to check on the radish end, it was small and no more than a half inch in diameter.  Huge stalks and leaves, little bitty radishes.  I cleaned one off and tasted it, and it was hot and stringy, not tender at all.

After three tries, I decided to pull them all and toss them in the compost pile.  I replanted the squares with Leeks.  I did that today.  Hopefully I will like the leeks better.  I also got a pack of seeds for the traditional radishes, and planted them in and around some of my cabbage and pepper plants.  If they grow that will be a bonus, if not then I'm out less than two bucks for a pack of seeds.

This past week I also made a couple of SIPs (sub-irrigated planters) from 5 gallon plastic buckets.  You make them by using one as a water reservoir and the second one inserted into the first as the plant container.  There's quite a bit more to it than that, but I won't bore you with it here.  Look up Earth Buckets on line and you can learn all about it.

I'm tempted to try the rain gutter self-watering method, but it's getting late for planting new stuff.  I guess I will just continue with what I have and see how the garden does.

By the way, I am now harvesting kale, beet greens, and strawberries.  My herbs are also available, but I haven't used any just yet.  I also have lettuce, but I didn't plant much, and spinach.  My tomatoes are producing fruit too, as are my snap peas.  My garden is much more productive than it was last year.  The jury is still out on some of my carrots and onions.  They are growing but still young and weak, and the temperatures are getting hotter.

Nuff for now.

The garden is growing well

I've harvested spinach, kale, beet greens, and a few strawberries.  The tomatoes are starting to get some fruit on them.  Here's a photo of one of the Grow Boxes showing the progress of things.  The last post of the same box was on May 15.

The square raised beds are doing well too.

I'm kinda disappointed in my radishes.  they are the huge plants in the middle and right middle.  The tops are really big but if when I pull one the radish is really small.  I won't buy that variety again.

My Kale, Swiss Chard, and strawberries are thriving!

The box below has cabbage and broccoli, and a tomato.  Also some red onions.

This square has peas, dill, basil, red onions, and a pepper.

As you can see in the above picture, I used tomato cages for the peas to attach to.  Seems to work.

One more grow box pic, for comparison to the last blog.

That should be enough for today.  The plants are doing so well that I want more.  I hope I get a huge tomato crop this fall.  I'm starting to see fruit on some of the plants.  It looks like the peppers are starting to fruit too.  I am interested in seeing how they do, because the last few years my peppers have always stayed small and puny.  Maybe this new method will change that.  Bye, everybody!