Gardening Part I

I planted a garden mid-June and forgot to post pictures since things have started growing.  Since I’ve spent too long online tonight looking for New Zealand recipes for an Olympic Wine Tasting on Friday (I think I settled on kiwi salsa), I thought it would be a perfect time to post these. These were taken 10 days ago and have grown even bigger since.

Cabbage…that something has been turning into swiss cheese.  I sprayed these with Neem Oil and I think it helped.

Did you know that you can plant regular garlic cloves and they will grow?  This is good for when you have sprouted cloves (that can taste bitter) or just too many.  I’m not sure whether these will actually grow into a bulb, but I’ll have garlic leaves and possibly scapes at very least.  The leaves have a mild flavor that is perfect for when you want a hint of garlic.

This first picture was taken on June 26…..

This next picture was taken on July 9, so they sprout pretty quickly.  Obviously the third pot failed to produce.

One tomato plant, one yellow pepper plant, and two red pepper plants.  To be honest, I bought these as little plants and they already had little peppers/tomatoes on them so I don’t feel a lot of ownership over them since I didn’t “grow” them myself.  They are getting bigger though.  My neighbor saw me planting and she dropped off some cages that she didn’t need anymore (how sweet!).

The feathery plants behind the tomatoes and pepper are asparagus that came up on its own.  They are still too young to produce edible asparagus, but I’m excited for them to mature in the next few years!

Two watermelons!  I bought these little plants on a whim and don’t even know if I have enough room to grow them.  The vines are much longer than this already.  My mom suggested that i just move the vines out of the bed if they are crowding other things.  We used to grow watermelon at home but I can’t remember how big to expect them to get (or what variety I bought!). 

This week I planted seeds for green onions, radishes, and swiss chard, so we’ll see if they grow!  It’s possible that it could be too hot and I may need to plant again closer to fall if they fail, but it was worth a shot because I have plenty of empty space in my raised bed.