My Garden Is Ticking Along
By: Jean Crawford Evans
Tags: Garden, Home, Homesteading, Plants, Food

My Garden Is Ticking Along

I should have success with some things

It looks like I should do pretty well with my tomatoes. I looked this morning and saw I had Ida Golds coming on. I swear they weren’t there last night when I watered. But I was pretty tired by then so just may not have noticed.

It is going to be nice to sit on the deck and snack on them. They are cherry type tomatoes developed here in Idaho.

My tomatoes in the raised bed are doing great. They are starting to put on a lot of tomatoes. I do hope I get enough to can so I have summer goodness this winter.

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My tomatoes in the milk crates and buckets are starting to come along. They went out last, so they have a lot of catching up to do. I moved then up the hill as I am now using the space behind the shed for a workshop.

While I was checking out my Ida Golds I discovered my eggs case on the butterfly deco had hatched. Two teeny tiny Preying Mantises were sitting there. Hubby suggested I move it to another spot, so it went down into my bee/butterfly garden so they can hop off the case and straight into a food-rich environment.

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I’d found another egg case when I was painting this spring and put it in with my Shasta Daisies and White Sage, so I am hoping it hatched okay. I love having Preying Mantises in my garden. They are just such cool critters.

I built two more raised beds using reclaimed wood from our old place. The small one is made from the boards from some old steps:

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I built the larger one out of plywood. I painted both with the leftover paint from the deck and another project:

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I have it planted with my watermelon seedlings and some sorry looking calendulas I dug up from the little beds I had in that spot that didn't do too well. You can see where I moved the milk crate tomatoes just behind it.

I’ve almost gotten the compost moved on top of the topsoil. I will mix it with some used grow soil from a local seed grower who can’t reuse it. When mixed in with compost and soil it makes for nice light soil for the raised beds and containers. I will add it to the big bed in front of the deck to make a strawberry bed. My strawberries didn't do as well as I‘d hoped in the gutter planters. I’ll just plant some hardy little flowers in those next year.

The small bed will either be onions or garlic. I pulled all the garlic and onions out of the future strawberry bed and have those for cooking over the next month. The two tire planters not planted with anything will be filled with whichever doesn't go into the small raised bed.

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My greens were not a success this year. What spinach that did come up bolted almost immediately. My sugar snap peas did okay, but just enough for a couple of handfuls for a couple of meals. I will see about starting a LOT more for next year. I don’t think my bush beans came up at all. What is coming up looks suspiciously like millet from the bird feeder.

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I think next year I will plant the beans and peas in the raised bed I currently have the tomatoes in. I had tomatoes there last year, so it’s time to rotate to something else. I will finish getting this square bed built and probably use it for greens next spring, tho I may be able to get some fall greens going. Have to find my little growing guide for the area to see if that is possible. Fresh spinach this fall would be wonderful.

So, all in all, this year’s garden is looking good. My focus has been on getting the beds and containers going for my tomatoes and sweet peppers, so now that I have those down can focus on the other stuff next spring.

I am also planning on putting in a proper greenhouse next year. My little popup is fine, but I need more room since I plan on starting all my greens early to put out when it is time. That way I know what is weed and what is veg!