Wednesday, October 30, 2013

The particulars of my garden

Started my seeds indoors in April. Forgot to plant my forget-me-nots in June. May 22 planted peas and pumpkins along back fence. Peas were too late and died from the heat. Pumpkins got eaten the night after I planted them. They didn't have there true leaves yet.

June 1- is when I planted sprouted corn, sprouted bean plants, zucchini & wee be little pumpkins. Also transplanted those started in April. 4 roma tomatoes, 2 Anaheim chili peppers, 2 squares of corn 5-6 bean sprouts, cantalope, squash, eggplants. One roma died and came back from the roots. I only got 4 bean plants to survive. Cantalope, eggplant, and squash got eaten by bugs.

July 3- I planted the plants that I got from my mom. Diva cucumbers, lime basil, super steak tomatoes, Juliet Hybrid tomatoes (looked like Romas tastes like cherry tomatoes) must have planted carrots in June but have no record of when it actually occurred. In a week or two after this planting I planted an eggplant that I had started in April but didn't plant yet since it was with my flower plants I did for my hanging baskets. My baskets were a bust. I planted the flowers too late so they were not as mature as I wanted by May and only 3 inpatients grew. I tried growing a few more from seed in the basket but they died. The batchelor buttons were pretty but sparse and since the inpatients didn't work out they didn't look all that well. Then I got tired of watering them around Aug or Sept and they died before the first frost.  They are still hanging up with dead plants in them.

By August sometime I was harvesting cucumbers  14-16 a week starting sometime at the beginning of Aug till the end. Ate the corn around the 25th of Aug. I need to be better about spacing my plantings instead of just doing a lot all at once. All the corn got ripe at the same time and it was a bit much. We each ate 3-5 ears a meal and served them 2 meals by the third time only one kid was willing to eat any and no one else wanted corn. The ears were half sized so we didn't get much on each ear. Also I waited to pick them too long and they were a bit old. A few Romas got ripe around the 25th of August. Juliets I got a few handfuls by 25 of Aug then they had slowed down around the end of August first of Sept.

Sept 1- The Romas were being picked a few each day. Cucumbers slowed down to 4-6 a week. The Super steak tomato plant had set one tomato by this time. This is the end of my actual record that I kept.

I don't remember if it was a few weeks into Sept or the first part of October when the first frost hit and killed my plants. I am thinking the first or second week in October. I was able to pull in all the Roma tomatoes and Juliets. Just before the first frost the Super steak had set a few more tomatoes and they were close to starting to turn red; about 6-8. I also picked about 12-18 peppers. I put the tomatoes downstairs to ripen in  cardboard boxes on a sheet. I put some romas on the sheet since I didn't have enough room for all in the two boxes I had.
They were in bloom and were beautiful then the
Oct 30
Most of my tomatoes have ripened. I didn't watch them close enough and have lost about 2 pounds of romas and some of the beef steaks. As well as some of the Juliets. I ate 1 of the beef steaks. I like the juiciness of them. The flavor is good. There two more waiting to ripen. I went and checked on them and one is ready to eat and the other is an orange color.  The rest either rotted before they ripened or were too ripe and were thrown out or buried in the garden as fertilizer.  I have been trying to bury cucumber peels and the peels from canning in the garden. I just threw out the peaches since the pits were mixed in and they mainly consisted of pits not good as a fertilizer since they don't break down. And the tomatoes that were wrinkly before they ripened or got wrinkly before I could use them. I have made 2-3 batches of salsa with the peppers and roma tomatoes. I have gotten at least 4 handfulls of Juliets to ripen and we have eaten them yum. I eat them and one other child does. Sometimes I think my husband pops a few in his mouth so one plant is more than enough for us. I possible need to find a home for some of the others unless I can get them into a salad. I fear they will end up as compost which isn't so bad but I like to see them eaten. I did throw out 4-6 of the peppers because they became wrinkly and old before I could use them. I was going to freeze them but was unable to.

I also tried to plant Viola's and forget-me-nots in the front flowerbed. I also planted Morning glory in the back flower bed; but I planted it too late for any flowers. Only one of the three I planted grew at all. I was able to bring home home some flowers when we cleaned up the cemetery the day after memorial day. Most thrived a few in the back died. Most of them were mums. I got three geraniums two lived the other died. Then I got some other ones I don't remember the name of that were red. The geraniums and other red flowers bloomed all summer. One of the red ones I don't remember died as well. Also all the mums I planted in the backyard died off. The mums I planted in the front finished blooming and survived the summer and have just bloomed again. They are so colorful and I am glad I got a second bloom out of them. I don't expect them to come back next year but have heard they can if they aren't the flower shop variety but are bought from a nursery and mulched well in the winter. I plan on mulching them once it freezes and see what happens next year.

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