Irradiating

So, as much as I need a break from gardening, I am really eager to get back to setting up my garden again because of a new process the government has approved. Irradiating is a new process where food companies will use radiation to rid certain vegetables of bacteria, such as E. coli. By using the radiation, majority of the nutrients in the vegetables will be eliminated. Along, with that, who knows what eating radioactive produce will do to our bodies, especially the bodies of our children. So, the way around buying produce that has been through "chemo-therapy" is to buy Organic (or grow your own). Organic produce will not go through the irradiation process. If you think this is an important issue, you can click on this link to tell the government to shove it. :) http://ga3.org/campaign/Irrad_SpLet 

Hiatus

Since Ginger is due soon and I don't have a whole lot doing well right now... I have decided to let the garden take a break. I'm going to clear out most of it this week and just leave my tomato plant, pumpkins, watermelon, 1 zucchini, and the basil. I'll start fresh for spring planting and hopefully will have a few new tricks to help me do better. I do have to say that I am pleased with how my first try at gardening went. We had broccoli, carrots, onions, zucchini, kale, sweet peas, cilantro, basil, rosemary, and spearmint. I think we will have some really nice pumpkins just in time for halloween. 

Check back in spring!!!

Under Attack!!!

So the garden is under siege! I have ants coming in for breakfast, lunch & dinner and every snack in between. I started out with a combination of sugar and borax around the edge of my garden so I'm going to see how that works. I have an mix to make with essential oils, but I think since Ginger is due in less than a month, I'm kind of letting the garden do it's thing :( However, I'm sad because the ants found my corn and I was so excited because my corn was doing so awesome. I tried to clean them out really well, but time will tell who won.

I also have a problem with my squash. I have the white powdery mold (or whatever it is) on the leaves of some of my squash plants. I need to do something about this asap or I'm going to have to remove all of my squash. I found a mix to make to spray on the leaves, but again have been too lazy to do anything. When I was at Whole Foods I found a spray for the leaves, but when I saw it was $13, I didn't really want to buy it. I figured my own was cheaper. Well now being hugely pregnant and just getting sick, I'm wishing I would have got the stinkin' spray. So hopefully, everything survives and I get out there to water everything before it dies. 

Finally...

Here are some pictures...

          The first baby pumpkin

The pumpkins

I'm going to see if they grow up the trellis

Sweet peas, onions, tomatoes, kale, lettuce, carrots, beets

Spearmint, basil, rosemary, corn (waiting for the bell peppers, broccoli & cilantro to show up)

Corn

Squash

Zucchini

more squash

The first baby watermelon

Watermelon

Attack of the Sweet Pea Monster

While I was watering my garden the other day, the sweet pea monster struck!!! She ate all of the sweet peas off the vine in a matter of 10 minutes. The only evidence that she was there besides the lack of a single sweet pea left on the vine, was the sprinkle of sweet pea casings on the ground that she shelled the peas from. She does love her veggies :)

Squash

I have some beautiful summer squash, watermelon and pumpkin plants coming up. They are doing so well and look so much better than the rest of my garden. I'm wondering if it's the location of the box? They have morning shade and my other boxes have full sun all day. I'm thinking maybe I should put up something to create a little bit of shade for the rest of the garden. I've got beets, tomatoes, new sweet peas, new corn and lettuce coming up too. I had to replant my corn after Presley ate it:( I am having a heck of a time getting my bell peppers to take off. They start to break through the soil and then die off. I've replanted them 3 times. Any advice??

New Stuff

So, for Mother's Day I got what I wanted.... Damin built me a new box. It's just a small one 1'x7'. I'm going to plant watermelon and some squash in it. I read somewhere that you can get watermelon to grow up a trellis and it's not too heavy. I like the idea that it's up off the ground saving some space (not like I don't have space to spare). So, we'll see how that goes. I'm going to plant them today when Damin gets home from work. And I'll take a picture too... Although I have to say that a picture a few weeks back would have been great when my peas were doing wonderful and before I picked a lot of my carrots... but at least you can see how it's coming along. 

P.S. Presley loves the garden too. She thinks the sweet peas are delicious and was part of the demise of my plant, but also thinks the carrots are great too:)