Blog Needs A New Name (and Post-July Update)

I didn’t get the whole garden area planted. What I did plant is doing well(ish).

• We started with Asparagus harvests of course, and scallions – the perennials
• We’ve had Sugar Snap Peas – peas are a rare success for me.
• We will soon have beans, although I only planted one full double row and one 1/4-ish row. Just bush beans. Never got any more rows of bush or the pole beans in.
• The broccoli is budding! I haven’t succeeded with broccoli before but I don’t try growing it all the time. I think I did get them as far as this once before, a loooong time ago. The plants are smaller than they should be so I assume the harvest will be small as well, although one variety of the two grew a bit larger than the other so we shall see.
• I didn’t buy seed potatoes, but I planted left over potatoes from last years’ crop. They are doing well…I assume they’re doing well when the plants are big ‘n’ bushy and have pretty flowers on them.

  

• I tried onion sets again, this time possibly with a small amount of success, rather than the usual total failure. Many disappeared. I don’t know what ate them. I have onion seedlings which I haven’t put in the ground. Probably too late but what have I got to lose…worth a try.
• I put the tomatoes in the row where the Swiss Chard never materialized. Same idea as the onion seedlings above. The tomato seedlings were sitting there. It might have been too late but they’re not going to do anything in the little pots. As soon as they were planted they took off growing like a SOB. So I have some hope. 🙂
• Same story with the peppers as the tomatoes. I put them where the beets never grew. They didn’t take off like the tomatoes did but they are growing. I also planted the tiny-as-usual Habanero plants in the bathtub garden, in front of some Ghost Pepper plants I bought.
• I did plant a few squash varieties (summer because they’re faster). Two varieties (I didn’t label them) are just starting to poke out of the ground so I don’t hold out much hope for squash. Again, we shall see.

  

I didn’t make compost tea as I had planned, but as I said above, things are doing pretty well. I might get some started anyway – it can’t hurt.

I hilled up the rows this year, and that looked pretty darn nice. It also made things easier to work with and weed, etc. But it also created a lot more work for myself in initial preparation of the rows. It may even be one reason why I didn’t finish planting the whole garden.

But there are other reasons too…

• • I’ve been hauling water from the rain barrels, two two-gallon sprinkler cans at a time. I tried loading the cans into a wheelbarrow but that seemed troublesome too, with splashing and spilling. I could use the hose but I have found the plants do much better with the rain water. No chlorine, etc. Looking into a pump for next season.

  

  • I’ve been slow moving. My ankle is healed I guess but still in a lot of pain. I’m also still building up the strength in that leg still. It’s getting there and the pain is finally decreasing somewhat.
  • Not only my ankle, but I have had an ulcer on my foot that was infected (yeah, no barefoot gardening for this guy), a commonly occurring event for me the past few years.
  • I work in short bursts because of my emphysema and – little known fact – my heart. That makes me have to stop for breaks every couple minutes depending on what I’m doing.
  • Losing weight will help all of the above issues (and more), and I’ll live longer hopefully.
  • Of course, weather sometimes plays a role but I could work around it and I often do.

  

  So it’s no longer really an “impossible garden”. It’s mainly my health that’s the problem now. When I started this blog, I didn’t have the money and resources to solve the problems that come along with establishing a new garden. Now I’ve been able to fix situations and make the garden less impossible! I mean I did have health issues back then too but not as many…I guess…or as bad maybe…

   

  …which got me thinking. Besides trying to get my body back in shape, I need to gear the garden toward much easier upkeep. I have been working on that a little at a time for a couple seasons but it’s time to step it up. More raised beds, more perennials, more helpful tools, more HELP!, etc.

  

  

  Obviously, I haven’t given up on this season’s garden. We’ve eaten asparagus, sugar snap peas. I’ve had salads from lettuce (in containers) and scallions (in containers and the garden). I planted some things late and we’ll see how they do. We’ll be eating beans soon, and maybe broccoli. I also plan to get a fall planting going.

  Update (since I still haven’t posted this): We ate beans (Yay) and a small amount of broccoli. It’s the first time I’ve gotten broccoli to the harvest/eating stage, even if it was just a small harvest. Now to keep the plants healthy and see if they bear side shoots. Plus there are some more first heads coming but with the heat lately I worry they’ll go right into flowering.

   

  Well…I know I wanted to say more but the draft has been open for about a week (give or take) so I should get this posted and I’ll post again soon.

  Happy Gardening!