Recently in Gardening Category

It's well after Labor Day and I'm still picking plenty of tomatoes.  I don't really know why, but I kind of thought tomato season would end by early September.  At least my tomato season would.  I suppose In all honestly, I really have no idea how long tomato plants can be expected to continue to produce.  'Til the first frost?

Sadly, I'm sure the end is near.  The backyard is filling with dropped leaves.  The nights and early mornings have a definite chill to them.  It's ok, though.  My two little plants did me proud.  They even outdid me in the height department.  I've had lots of fun watching my plants grow and they ended up doing way better than I expected based on past experience. 

I think next year I need to think about expanding....

I just wanted to provide an update that yes, I actually am getting edible goods from my garden.  Pretty tasty goods, too  :)  Tomatoes and cucumbers are doing well.  Yellow squash and zucchini, not so much.  At least not yet.

My garden this year is completely surpassing my original expections.  When I was first placing the delicate little plants into the ground I really didn't have high hopes.  My previous attempt failed pretty miserably and didn't really believe this year would be much, if any, better.  I was wrong.  Very wrong, and I am thrilled!  I should have some very fresh veggies atop my dinner plant and in my salads very soon.  I am practically bursting with anticipation.  I am having so much fun going out to check and work on the garden every single day.  It's so fun when you can see a difference in even just one day.  It really does grow that fast.  I greatly underestimated how well these veggies would do and how much space they would take up.  But I suppose it is better to have than over the opposite problem.  :)

left: green beans; front row: cucumbers, carrots, yellow squash, zucchini; back row: red pepper, and two tomato plants

green pepper

patio tomatoes

yellow squash

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Related Posts:

2010 Veggie Garden: Day 1

2010 Veggie Garden: Mid-June Update

Back on the 29th of May I took a bunch of pictures of the vegetable garden I had just started.  I wasn't really sure much was happening in the side garden over the last three weeks until I took some pictures today and compared them.  There was a fairly significant difference.  Enough to make me pretty happy.  It's amazing when it's such a gradual difference, and you keep an eye on it daily, that you barely register the changes.

Overall, so far so good, I just hope things continue to do well throughout the rest of the summer. 

Sorry about the almost obnoxious number of pictures below.  I just couldn't help myself.  I may post about my small herb garden, and a bunch of spring flower pics I took a little bit ago, later on, but for now I'll spare you.

Then:

Now:

I am once again going to attempt to grow a vegetable garden (click the links at the end of the post to see my attempt from last year).  A couple of adjectives I might use to describe it are experimental and modest.  I have been in my house 2.5 years and am still trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.  There are lots and lots (and lots) of trees in my back yard which is pretty awesome overall, but not so much when you want to do vegetable gardening.  This year I am going to try a small spot on the south side of the house.

I took the day off of work on Friday and the plan was to do lots of yard work.  That yard work included starting the vegetable garden.  I headed over to home depot and bought:

• 3 bags of Scott's potting soil
• a large container "Patio" tomato planto
• a topsy turvy
• a small "Mountain Pride" tomato plant
• 2 "Big Boy" tomato plants
• a red pepper plant
• a green pepper plant
• a cucumber plant
• a yellow squash plant
• a zucchini plant

Hmmm... listing it out like that makes it seem a lot less modest than it looks in the ground/yard.  Anyway...   

Friday evening I set up the topsy turvy with the small tomato plant and some of the new soil, and then called it quits. 

Saturday we were blessed with even more gorgeous weather so I spent the day getting everything all set up.

And so the experimental garden of 2010 begins.  It's almost all set, except I am waiting on the return of my boyfriend to help me erect some sort of fence.  I will be curious how the topsy turvy works out.  I decided to try it because last year, even with a 4 ft. fence, the deer got a lot of my tomatoes.  I was hoping I would be able to outsmart them this eyar hang it where they couldn't reach.  I may end up having to figure out how to fashion and hook somewhere else and moving it though because I'm not sure it's high enough or gets enough sun.  I am also curious to see if there's enough sun where I planted the 6 plants.  In addition to the plants youc an see, I also planted some green bean and carrot seeds that I got last year.  No clue if they'll sprout or not since they've been sitting around for last year.  Another fun mystery/surprise!

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Related Posts:

2009 Vegetable Garden: The Plan

2009 Vegetable Garden:  All Set Up

2009 Vegetable Garden: Lessons Learned and First Food From the Garden