Garden 2013

 Its my first year with my raspberry patch and surprisingly enough, I have had some growing!  They are delicious!

 I had Dayton stand next to my tomato plants to get a perspective on how big they are getting.    (Dayton is 43 inches tall)

 Here is a picture of my beets, carrots next and in the far way back all the lettuce.  (I had just picked the lettuce the day before so that's why its looking small and short)

 here is my corn.  The tallest stuff stands the same height as Dayton (43 inches)

 My peas

 I too this picture to show my cucumbers growing behind the tomatoes.

This is a closer shot of my onions that I'm growing.  They are doing so well.  These pictures make everything look so small but right now these onions are sitting around 2-3 inches in diameter.

 I am growing on my back patio in pots, watermelon, Dayton's spaghetti squash, on deck corn, strawberries, and potatoes.   My watermelon is what is pictured above.  It just has taken off in the past few days.  There are little watermelons growing on them too!   Everyone says its not possible to grow them but I am bound and determined to make it work. 

I ran out of room in my back yard for gardening so I moved some of my garden in the front yard this year.   The first three bushes are the pumpkins, followed by zucchini, crookneck squash, another spaghetti squash, and another zucchini at the top of the garden area.   Everyday my front yard garden is growing by leaps and bounds, I come home from work and it always looks like my plants are doubling in size.

 

I also have growing: bush beans, Cantaloupe, and honeydew.  They are all doing well its just every time I go to take a picture its all really shadowed  in the morning and you cant see the plants.  

 

I am very pleased with everything that is growing this year.  Seems we had a really cold spring so everything has had a really late start.  By what I could tell from being in Utah a few weeks ago, my garden is 2 weeks behind what Utah gardens are doing.   Weather people are talking that we should have a really warm fall which would be really great for my pumpkins, honeydew, cantaloupe and watermelon.   Beans this year have gave me more of a challenge than last year also.  For some reason only maybe an 1/8 of what I planted actually grew.  I think the birds are finding the seeds and taking them.  I dug up some area to see if the seeds had rotted and they weren't even in the soil.   As it stand right now I have 8 bush beans plants growing which is enough but I was really hoping for 20 so I could bottle some dilly beans.   

 

personal notes:  -Corn (on deck hybrid) doesn't like the pots on the patio, I think its too hot

-Raspberries only like water 3 times a week

-Try growing potatoes in a different container next year

-Dayton's spaghetti squash started out great but now its progress isn't so impressive.  I think the squash doesn't like the pot or the heat.

-Cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon need to be started indoors 2 or 3 weeks before 2nd week in May 

-Watermelon and strawberries are loving the pots on the patio.  Watermelon loves heat as well as well-drained organic soil.  I have both of those and my watermelon are showing it.

-I read to keep onions around lettuce, carrots and beets to keep out rabbits as well as some insects.  This has worked, but I don't feel I have enough onions and I feel they would do better in rows.  Also the wind here isn't the onions friend.  Onions like full to part sun.

-Beets and carrots have loved the extra deep organic soil.  I tried thinning both of them out really well this year and it has done wonders.  My beets are HUGE!  And super tender as well. 

-The beets, carrots and lettuce that are closest to the onions have an extra wonderful flavor. 

-cucumber love warmth and afternoon shade.