How Good Does Your Garden Grow?

I last posted in June about the progress of our vegetable garden, and this is how it looks about a month later.

Garden July 2013 view from above

My little kitty, Snowball, always comes down to the garden with me, as do the dogs, if I let them.  The border collies are so afraid of getting yelled out for walking on plants and such, that they usually stand up above the flower beds and watch.  Rollie and Guinness (our Bostons) will come down though as well as some of the other kitties around our place.  As there are snakes around, I like to have someone with me in case a rattler happens to be in the garden.  Thankfully, I have not seen one in the vicinity of our house *knock on wood* for a few years.  I think I owe the cats to that. 🙂

Snowball with Rollie above

Everything is growing very well!  So far, I have not had a problem with gophers.  Last year I spread castor oil granules (mole max) around and I believe that it seeped into the soil and got rid of them for me.  It was very bad last year with the gophers, especially paired with the birds, wild turkeys and deer.  This year, I put reflective bird tape all around my garden, and so far, they haven’t eaten anything, including seedlings.  I put stakes in the ground and re-used our wedding signs, plus tied some on the tomato cages.  It has worked with keeping the birds out, plus looks kind of cool with all of the holographic rainbows and such out there.  I also have reflective pinwheels that I bought at Joanns for a couple bucks a piece.  Seems to work so far!  To keep the deer out, we have motion detector sprinklers and that has proven to work as well.  Plus, it waters the garden when it sprays and feels good on a hot day. 🙂

Garden July 2012

One of my favorite things to watch growing is corn!  PS I accidentally left a hose on down there the other day, so the corn gor a little flooded…… hence the reason that the ground is darker.  Also, I think someone needs to weed….

The corn is growing!

Garden July 2013

I have all kinds of tomatoes, pepper, beans, carrots, beets, radishes, okra, turnips, eggplants, beans, corn, squash, melons, etc. planted.  So far, I have been harvesting radishes and tomatillos.  There are some peppers and tomatoes on the plants, plus flowers on everything else that has blossoms!  I also have some plants next to my house and I have some banana peppers about done and some romaine and spinach.  I think it will be quite a bounty when everything is ready!  Keeping my fingers crossed!  For now, we are enjoying my inlaws garden as they live in the valley and planted theirs back in March or April.

Rollie in the garden

I have heard that marigolds help keep bugs out of your garden.  This was disputed when I went to a gardening workshop last year.  I planted these last year and they replanted themselves this year.  Even if they don’t keep harmful bugs out, they bring in bees and look pretty in the garden!  I also have numerous sunflowers planted around (mostly volunteers), that are growing and will also help with that.

Volunteer marigolds

We love to use these plastic pools to plant in.  They are cheap and last a few years and easier than making an raised bed.  I like to plant squash and melons in mine, plus I have my salad fixins in one by my house.

Cantaloupes and honeydews

For anyone interested, our garden is watered with drip tape irrigation and is watered automatically with timers.  One million times better than coming down every day and watering!  I am currently watering my squash as I haven’t set that drip system up yet (that takes a different type of drip system).  I also still have some things to plant (winter squash, pumpkins) and will be doing that very soon.  It has been so hot that I haven’t felt like planting anything…. Anyway, by planting later, that means that I can have crops further into the fall/winter as I learned in my year-round gardening workshop.  This will be my first year with a winter garden, so we’ll see how that goes!

Our garden, July 2013

Happy Gardening!