The Shadrick Garden Project

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Birthday Veggie Basket

My neighbor had a birthday and we brought her this basket of veggies and herbs from our garden. She had a baby earlier this spring and did not have a chance to get her own garden planted.

Friday, July 13, 2012

mid July... part 2

West bed and Sidney.

Sidney

Silly Alli

Baby pumpkin in Sidney's garden?

Sidney's garden

Alli's garden. Can you see the watermelon plant between the petunia and pumpkin?

mid July

White onions

Can you spot the jalapeño in that mess of tomato plant?

Middle bed.

I had to stake the tomato cages to keep them up. Note to self: prune the tomatoes next year.

Whole garden

East bed.

I love this trellis!

Watermelon, YAY!

Little lettuce growing under the cucumber trellis

Tangled. A twisted love story about overgrown tomato plants.

The tomatoes are trying to reach out to the Blue Spruce.

Pumpkin plant. No pumpkins...yet.

Squash. Why did I think this needed a trellis?

Teeny tiny broccoli.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

4th of July

July 4th. The mid summer holiday that makes everyone realize SUMMER IS HERE AND GOING FAST! You'd better get out there and enjoy it or it will be gone!

Little green tomatoes! Just a glimpse of what is to come!

Baby Cherry Tomatoes. This is the best biggest tomato plant I have in the garden. I'm glad I only planted one. Otherwise I would have more cherry tomatoes than I know what to do with. I don't know of any way to can cherry tomatoes!

West Bed. My potatoes have decided to lay down and have a nap I guess. They seem to be growing fine despite laying down and all the damage the aphids or whatever other little critter is munching on their leaves. Perhaps they were just too tall to keep standing. I did dig down a bit and was surprised to see a red potato just an inch or so down!

West Bed.

Poor broccoli. I think whatever was eating it (aphids and his bazillion family members) have taken off for another garden. I haven't noticed any further damage and don't see the pests hanging around anymore.

Guess what I am slicing up and sautéing for dinner?

Middle bed. Curly parsley. I like to make tabouleh, middle eastern salad, with parsley, but didn't have the right ingredients on hand. So I made a chimichurri sauce inspired by Dan & I's recent visit to Highland Tap & Burger. They make great burgers. I had the Chimi burger, which had this sauce on it. I had never had it before. Basically a garlicky pesto type of sauce made with parsley. It is a South American thing. Anyway. Delicious.

East bed. Cucumbers are making a home out of the trellis. As with the squash, I think I planted them too close. We'll see if it hurts production.

Watermelon. East bed. These are my lone 2 plants of watermelon. I find myself rooting for these guys like the underdog team. They were SO slow to sprout and when they finally did, only 2 of them popped up. They don't grow very fast and I'm having my doubts on whether we will actually get any melon from then by the end of the season.

Lettuce. East bed. I harvested some of this. We've been eating it and unlike the bitter sample I took a couple weeks ago, this tastes great.

Red leaf lettuce. East bed. This is so pretty I don't want to eat it.

Green beans. East bed. See that tiny little white bed? Yep, that is a teeny tiny baby bean.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Late June

I fertilized again over this past weekend.

Middle Bed.

I had to stake up the tomato cages to keep them upright! I found the one on the far right laying sideways a couple days ago. I think I am going to have a GREAT tomato crop this year!

East Bed. This is my beautiful butter crunch lettuce. It is quite a sight. I grabbed a couple leaves off last night and ate them up. BITTER! Ugh! I guess I'll just admire them for now. :-(

East Bed. Spinach HATES the hot weather. I planted some new. I'll try make sure it is shaded.

East Bed. The red sails lettuce also looks beautiful. I have not tasted this yet.

Middle Bed.

White onions are kicking the ass of the purple onions

Middle Bed.

The purple onions

My first yellow squash. Think I planted them a little too close together? I do. Well see how well they do in the end.

West Bed.

There is my squash growing up through the trellis. We'll see if they actually use the trellis as a climbing wall. The potato plant to the left is taller than the trellis.

West Bed.

Broccoli getting over shadowed by the potato plants. Lost 1 broccoli plant to shade. RIP.

This little teeny tiny bastard and his bazillion brother, sisters, cousins and friends are having a heyday with my potatoes and radishes. I think they are aphids. I have been using an insecticidal soap on them, which seems to kill them. I just can't keep up! I pulled all the radishes because there were so many of these little pests on them. Not stellar radishes by any means. Looks like all the energy was spent growing the greens on top and not the radish underground.

West Bed.

Pumpkins.

West Bed.

Pumpkins again.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Halfway through June

Here we are half way through June! Dan helped me build awesome trellis' for the garden today. We bought a hog panel from a ranch supply store, cut into the right lengths with bolt cutters and hinged the pieces with some extra springs that came along with my expensive compost bin from Gardener's Supply. It took about 15 minutes to make and install. It cost $22 for the panel and it made exactly two trellis' that are about 3 1/2' x 3 1/2'. See a better picture below.

I planted some more seeds today. Loose leaf red lettuce, kale, spinach, green beans and carrots. I merely sprinkled the carrot seed on the soil and lightly brushed my hands around on top of it. So few carrot seeds sprouted when I actually planted them, that I thought I would give this a try.