and so it grows

About a week after I came back from the arctic I began digging in the dirt. I arranged and tilled and planted my little vegetable patch. This is my first attempt at growing things in the ground. I tried the container garden on my back porch in Savannah, but alas powdery mildew got the best of it.  It sets behind the carriage house so it is the first thing to see every morning and the last every evening.

May 8, 2011

I planted lettuces, cucumbers, garlic, watermelon, cauliflower, beans, and peas.  My mom's giant sunflower stalk I left in the middle of the plot.  The sunflowers reseeded themselves and so we transplanted a row of them along the wall.

This sounds silly but at first it was really slow going because I didn't know what the plants were even supposed to look like.  Weeding was difficult being that I wasn't sure what was supposed to be there and what wasn't.  Mom helped me through that.  As the plants grew larger it became easier to tell the difference and I memorized the weeds and unwanted self starters pretty fast. 

 May 24 this what my lettuce started to look like.

 And here is the kale.  (Weeds galore!)

Aunt Mayrea gave me a sundry of a dozen tomato and pepper plants she started from seeds.

I found good spots for them. That was June 6th.

And this was yesterday.  Things are growing really fast.  I'm going to have to start whipping up some salads and green smoothies to handle this lettuce - probably a good idea anyway.

 

Kale to be victim to Lizzard's kale salad recipe.

 

Carrots that I should probably thin but I'm not quite sure how much.

 

Tender lettuce leaves.  Mmmm.

 

One of Aunt May's 'mater plants all happy caged up and duck mulched.

 

I started these in the sunflower bed a little later than the others.  Watermelons and a second crop of kale.  Mostly because I think it might be too warm for the lettuces to be happy midsummer.  (Correct me if I'm wrong and I'll plant them tomorrow.)

 

Peas or beans I'm trying to coax up the bamboo poles.

 

My evening view.

It's all looking good.  I like to get in their once a week to weed...usually really early on Sunday mornings while the sun is still climbing and everything is peaceful.