Garden Goodies and Lessons Learned

All of this rain is helping our garden plump out nicely.

Like these pole beans! (And what might prove to be the last of the sugar snap peas.) Pole beans are kind of crazy.


And these tomatoes:


My attitude toward labeling plants is label, schmabel, you'll know what it is when it grows. So, unfortunately, I can't remember what these guys are! Super choice, maybe.

I'm pretty sure these are black krim:


And I'm hoping these are sungolds:


Also, check out our first pepper!


I'm thinking jalapeno, perhaps.

Finally, here are some squash buddies:


Butternut and delicata, no confusion here.

So, as you can see, there are lots of good things happening in the garden. However, we've also had some minor difficulties. It's all a great learning experience!

Here's what I'll keep in mind for next year's garden:

• Start pruning tomato plants early, even if the plant seems too small. Otherwise, you'll end up with sprawling plants with a million stems.
• Investing in some fancy tomato ladders might not be a bad idea! Our stakes are working well, but the sprawling nature of our plants has us improvising with sticks and other things. Sometimes it works, sometimes the stems collapse.
• Start the squash trellis early, and use thick material. I started ours too late, and the thin bamboo doesn't seem to work well. Tonight I pulled up our lettuce (which was getting bitter anyway) so that the squash and melons have more room to spread out.
• When people say that you need sandy soil for root crops, listen to them! My beets and carrots are nonexistent because the soil is too thick, and my onions are flat! I'm considering pulling things up this weekend and mixing in some sand. I really want beets!

Flat onions! Not good!


Also, I might relent next year and label what we plant.

Good night! Keep on growing!