Hanging baskets are doing amazing! Tomatoes, tomatillos and cucumbers seem to love the baskets (maybe it’s the soil?) because the same ones we planted in the veggie patch are not doing so well.
In the last photo, Papa planted beet and lettuce seeds as an experiment to see if our compost that was on top of our garden bed was affecting the plants from starting properly. He used a container with old potting soil (not amended this year). Interestingly there’s no sign of any of the lettuce seeds popping out; however, the beed seedlings are happy!
Veggie Patch
This is the veggie patch. It’s so sad. Somehow last year (when we weren’t even trying to do a proper food garden) it was growing faster than we could harvest (kale, lettuce, chives). Yet this year, with all the TLC, the only things that seem to be surviving are the nursery-bought plants that Mom got. As for the MANY tomato, pepper and eggplants that we transplanted… well… you can’t even see them in the photo because they are so scrawny. Asparagus we planted seems happy and is giving off lots of shoots (though skinny and ridiculous). The companion flower plants also seem to be struggling to grow much since transplanting (nasturtium, yarrow & calendula).
Annex
Snap peas are looking like they’re getting established and climbing readily up the trellis. They’re now firmly attaching themselves to the trellis (as opposed to being tied to for support). Look at those climbers! Garbanzo and edamame (on the left) are slowly getting there. We threw in some marigolds in the fringes.
Rhododendron Corner
Wasn’t planning to do anything here. Alas, there was empty space after the spring flowers. I planted beans and broccoli & cauliflower. We have a morning glory encroaching. Will have to deter that from taking over. Like the Veggie Patch, these plants seem to be struggling to grow.
Under the Arbor
Lone zucchini that I decided to put in an empty spot. Seems ok.
Lower Fence
Also wasn’t planning to grow veggies here, but our flower seedlings didn’t take off, so the plot is empty. Hence random zucchini, broccoli & cauliflower got put in here.
S bought seed potatoes on clearance for $4.00 and thought “what the hell?” So we planted some in a potato grow bag on the rooftop. We had lots left, so he dug up some of the very thick, clay soil at the backyard and planted the extra there. We’ll see how they do. So far the greenery is growing, so that’s a good sign. As for tubers, fingers crossed.
Three Sisters Trellis
“I have high hopes for this one” S says. All the plants that we wanted in the grow bags are really taking. The peas and beans are starting to grip the trellis really well and the corn has popped up while the squash transplants seem also happy. However, the in-ground side is much sadder. Maybe it’s the soil?
tl;dr when you amend soil, it doesn’t mean just dumping another layer of stuff on top of it. But that’s what we did. we had old really thick clay wet soil that was difficult to work with.We needed to build it up, so we got soil amender, which is almost like an “incomplete compost”. It’s got lots of broken down organic matter in it, but it also has a lot of wood chips and pulp that haven’t broken down. Our working hypothesis is that the plants have been struggling in part because they were transplanted just into the layer of soil amender.
If we were properly amending our soil, we probably should have gotten a shovel or hoe and actually mix it into the top layer of the existing soil. In short, we did not do that (live and learn…)
Dad was saying that too many wood chips will deplete available nitrogen in the soil while it finishes decomposing. Right now our seedlings are probably nitrogen deprived. *cry*
Front Yard
Some stuff is growing. But again, not to the degree which we had hoped.
Broccoli & cauliflower transplants seem happy enough, but there is damage on many of the leaves. Ugh SLUGS! Stefan put down slug pellets to hopefully curb that. We sowed more lettuce and beet seeds a couple weeks ago, but no sign of them yet. However, the lettuce that did come up continues to produce new leaves that we’ve been using for salads. Spinach bolted.
Thoughts for June Summary
“Stay strong and keep hold alive. This too shall pass.” – Stefan
A little disheartening to not see as much thriving as we had hoped, especially with all the TLC. However, we’re learning and growing and, at the end of it, failing forward.