Garden progress
It’s feels slow. I’m trying to put it into perspective. I seeded in early February the first things. A lot of it didn’t come up, but the okra did, and the zucchini. I transplanted both but neither has made much progress.
I directly planted some leafy greens to give myself hope and just see something grow. The arugula is doing best. Something is eating my spinach and the masculine is meh. The radishes have leaves but no radishes.
The two tall tomato plants and all four pepper plants were purchased and transplanted. They are doing well, but I take less credit from them.
The nasturtiums and sunflowers have come up and seem to be doing well. No blooms yet but strong growth from direct planting. A few wild flowers are coming up but the cosmos haven’t. I find the wild flowers are very satisfying. The color and variety really provide a lot of impact. They feel more than worth the effort. I dream of a backyard full of blooming wildflowers.
The beets haven’t done much. I direct planted yellow squash which looks great. The melons have come up but haven’t exploded. I direct planted cucumber and more okra this week. One bean plant has popped up and looks good
It’s only early April, so maybe I just need more patience. Soil temperatures weren’t staying in the 60s or better until recently. We will get a lot of sun from now on and at least the melons, okra, cucumber, and squash were all selected because the thrive in this heat.
I don’t know how the shade is affecting things. I can see that the water evaporates less quickly after a watering, of course. The thriving yellow squash is in the bed that gets the most full sun. But even the mallow that thrived all winter has begun to dry up and yellow. I think the shade will help in the long run.
I have had to feed any of the worms yet. They are evidently enjoying the glut of compost. I encountered some while transplanting throughout the bed. I can only hope the survive as it heats up.
If plants die I will plant cover crops of clover, buckwheat or oats. Or maybe go with more flowers. I’m having more irrigation tubing sent so that I can expand a bit. I want to get the tree and surrounding grasses irrigated so that I can seed the whole area more aggressively with a new batch of seeds I ordered.
The potato trench is still not filled. It needs 13 bags of compost, which is two trips to the worm farm. Maybe I will save it for the fall when maybe some of my own compost will be ready.
The compost system is working ok. I’m still adding to my original pile because it keeps shrinking down and getting cooler. I build it back up and move it and soak it then it really cooks. I’ve hit 150F for a few days.
All told, much progress was made these last two months. I started digging the first hole at the end of January. I did early planting in February. I didn’t have all four boxes set up until early March. The shade structure went up late March. Here we are in early April just getting used to regular watering by irrigation, warm weather and good shade.
April and May should show some yield. The leafy stuff might die. The flowers should bloom at least. I’ll keep documenting and we will see what happens.