Picture of the tomato and zucchini

Our ripening tomato.

Heeeeere's the zucchini.

I took the above pictures this morning. Mary pulled weeds while I watered the plants.

We visited some of the other gardens to see how they planted things. I think we decided that we were going to remove one of the black plastic strips and create a mound in the ground. Then we are going to replace the black plastic and plant something there, probably more corn to replace the plants that don't look too good. I'm not sure but even those may come back. The corn stalk that one of us accidentally broke off, appears to be sending out another shoot, or maybe it just a blade of grass, we can't tell the difference. We'll let the corn go for a couple of weeks to see if it recovers before we pull it up. We decided to this on Tueday, but we can't because we have a lunch date with Nick, Mary and our other friends. We'll have to do it another day.

Mary is still feeling badly about the soap spray. It really isn't that terrible. I think most, if not all, of the plants will recover with no problems. She's calling herself Dr. Kevorkian. Perhaps she'll feel better when the worst of them start to come back. I don't think the few tomato that were sprayed are lost, and the squashes, peppers, etc only have a couple of burnt leaves on them. There is no root damage, so I truly believe that all is well.

We continue to have problems finding Sevin at a reasonable price. Most places have the granules instead of the powder. I sent an email to Bayer to see how to use the granules and if they would be just as effective. We really don't want an insecticide that we have to mix and spray. Mary did find some powdered Sevin at Walmart but they wanted as much for 3lbs as Watson's did for 5lbs. She did try at Watson's but they were sold out. Our problem has been the Colorado Potato Beetle and from what I can find out on the Internet they are prevalent in May. Well, here we are at the end of June, perhaps they are about over with and we won't need any more insecticide.

I also read that eggplants need calcium, so I'm going to see if I can get some lime to put around our plants and that should help them.

I think both Mary and I have a new appreciation of what farmers go through. You think you put a plant in the ground and just wait for it to produce a vegetable. You don't think you have to feed it multivitamins and shoo bugs weird bugs from Colorado away and all that. I hope we don't have a $64.00 Tomato. I hope we at least have two $32.00 ones.

OOPS!!!!

Yesterday I got a call from Mary. She was very quiet and very timid in her telling. We had been told that a good insect repellent could be made by mixing a little dish detergent with some water and spraying it on the plants. So Mary mixed up some "insect repellent" and sprayed the plants Wednesday evening. On Thursday when she visited the garden, apparently this home made insect repellent had burned the plants. To hear Mary tell the tale, the plants were all dying and gasping their last breaths and saying things like "Tell Mama I love her" and going into the light. Well, I did visit the garden last evening and it wasn't as bad as I had prepared myself for. Some leaves are burned and we might lose a plant or two. It looks like we did lose one row of corn, but all in all, I think the most of the plants will survive. It's a good thing that Mary was the one to try this experiment because she does things with a much lighter hand that I do. If I had been the one with the dish soap spray, I don't think any of the plants would survive.

This morning I revisited the garden because I wanted to go for a walk around the pond. The plants are coming along. There are still a couple that may not make it, but we can always replace them. I did notice that one of our tomatoes is starting to color and that the zucchini is getting bigger. I hope we know a lot of people that really like yellow squash. We have 7 squash. plants and there are about 6 to 8 little to medium yellow squash on just about each one of them and more coming. So send us your recipes for yellow squash!!!! I did put some stakes around the eggplants. Mary had erected some lattices for the cucumbers because she said that they looked like they wanted to climb.

This afternoon I going to see if I can find places where we can buy Sevin in larger quantities for a reasonable price. Mary and I each bought a 5lb bag and it is quickly being used up. I dusted today because I saw a beetle on one of the tomato plants and another one on one of the eggplants. I don't know if we are going overboard or not. It's just that Mary and I want to be the ones to eat our crop not some beetle.

Tomorrow, I plan on posting some pictures of the riping tomato and the growing zucchini.

A sunny day!!!! Finally!!!

Mary and I worked in the garden today. Mary filled in some low spots in the ground. I staked the tomatoes. Together we weeded and laid some of that black paper/plastic stuff to keep the weeds down.

The tiny yellow squash are about twice the size they were on Monday. Mary discovered an zucchini that was about 6 or 7 inches long. It was hiding under one of the big zucchini leaves and we had overlooked it before. The tomatoes are appearing. Perhaps this warm weather will help them grow and turn red.

I'm concerned about our eggplants. They are getting beautiful purple flowers on them and then they blooms break off at the stem. I read that not enough water could cause that problem or the lack of pollination. I really don't think the lack of water has been a problem. Not too sure what we can do about the lack of pollination. I also read that they should be staked. I'll do that Saturday.

The sad news for today is that either Mary or I inadvertently broke one of our corn stalks down to the ground. We can now have a moment of mourning for the deceased corn stalk.

This afternoon Mary lightly watered the plants WITH THE MIRACLE GROW. I'm not sure if she trusts me enough yet when I say that we will not over fertilize them and burn them up. But Bravos to Mary for being brave enough to give it a try.

I did move the stakes to include the extra footage that we took to plant the corn. The colored flags now show the world that that portion belongs to the most colorful lot in the whole place.

I will not be blogging tomorrow because Mary and I have a picnic with the Friendly Seniors and will not be working on the garden.

June 21, 2009

The sky as we usually see it. Clouds, clouds and more clouds.

Our 3 cantaloupe plants. So far, only blossoms, no cantaloupes.

We have two peppers so far on our 6 plants. Here is one of them.

There are 3 small yellow squash on the plant above and two on its companion plant.

These 3 pictures are of the tomatoes that are currently on 3 different tomato plants

Above are a couple of different views of the garden that I took today.

Currently our biggest problem is keeping the weeds at bay. The newspaper and straw have helped a great deal but they are not perfect. I did rake away some of the straw today and lay more newspaper under it, after I had dug up the weeds. We have decided that we didn't want to get any more hay because it makes such a mess in the car. I would have put some of the black paper/plastic strips on the area where we have the corn, cabbage and watermelon, but as you can see from the position of the flags, it was too windy for me to attempt by myself. We will add more of the strips if Mary and I can find time to get together. Lately, it seems when one of us is available, the other is busy.

I did plant some green bean seeds today. Someone from Alabama told Mary that down there they plant green beans next to their corn. Apparently, the corn grows faster than the green beans and the green beans use the corn stalks as poles. It's worth a try since this is a learning experience this year. Next year we will be expert farmers and know all the tricks----right!!!!

Since our experience with the spaghetti squash seeds, I tend to be pessimistic about planting any seeds.

I replaced the watermelon plant that died with a pickling cucumber plant. I don't think either Mary or I are planning to make any pickles this year, but the lady at Watson's said that they were very good when you use them as regular cucumbers. And they have very small seeds. We'll see.

I think next year we'll be better able to plan what we would like to plant in this garden. We still have space for more plants but I don't know if we'll use it or not. I would like to have more arugula plants and some lettuce plants but you have to start them early and we did not get an early start.

I don't think I'll have an entry tomorrow unless Mary does something at the garden. My grass is growing like crazy and needs to be mowed. How come my plants don't grow as fast as my grass!!!

On Tuesday, I plant to at least stake the tomato plants that don't have cages. Don't know if I'll be able to do anything else or not.

6/20 another rainy day.

Today's post will be short and sweet. It was raining, AGAIN.

Mary had some running to do today, but, if it was dry enough, I was going to work in the garden. Rumbles of thunder early this AM ended that plan.

Hopefully tomorrow, I will have some pictures and be able to report some progress.

PS--This comment was added about 30 minutes after the above one..........
The rumbles have returned. Does anyone know how to build an ark?????

Althought, I'm very late in starting this blog, I will be attempting to make a record of the garden that Mary and I are cultivating this year. We regretfully neglected to take any pictures in the beginning. This is something I intend to remedy in the future.

The seed (pun intended) for this garden was planted a couple of years ago, when exercising in Stansbury Park, I saw that people had garden plots there. Since the back yard in my house is completely cemented in, I've never had an opportunity to have a vegetable garden in the backyard. So I wanted to see if I could get one of those plots to plant some tomatoes instead of buying them all the time from the Farmers Market. After calling the Baltimore County Department of Parks and Recreation, I was given the number for the Eastfield Recreational Council, which in turn gave me another number to call. Finally I reached someone who could help me. Since I was a newcomer, I had to wait to see if anyone surrendered their lot. I was lucky enough that someone did and I was assigned Lot 91 and I paid my $12.

Well, after I got this lot, someone said something about the rabbits eating up all the plants of someone that had in a lot there. So off to Lowes I go and buy a ton of fencing. Then I realize I need someone to help me put the fence up. I asked a friend of mine if her son could help me. Well, every time we set a date to set the fence up, it rained! As it would happen, I mentioned this to my friend Mary. Mary thought having a garden would be a great idea, so I got a partner and a helper. Wonderful!!!!! We decided against the fencing and went off to Ogos to get flags to go around the perimeter of the 19 X 19 lot. So we now have the most colorful lot in the whole park.

Our next challenge would be to get the ground tilled, since the county waited so long to let us use the lots after they had plowed it. Off we go to HomeDepot to see if we can rent a tiller small enough for us to handle. So we had plans to rent a tiller, until Mary saw someone tilling and was concerned that it would be too much for two old women to attempt. So I decided to see if I could find someone that would till the lot for us. It so happened that I went to the lot that evening and there was a wonderful young man there tilling his lot. I asked him if I could pay him to till my lot too. He was kind enough to say that he would do it for us for nothing. I don't know how we would have gotten it done if it hadn't been for him. I told Mary not to worry about the tilling because I already did it. I let her think that I had tilled the lot by myself for a while but I finally 'fessed up.

After many trips to various garden stores, Walmart, and other assorted places, we got our plants and started planting. After we planted our plants, we laid newspaper on the ground and put hay on top of that to keep the weeds down. We've repeated this several times. Right now we have 11 tomato plants, 6 pepper plants, 3 eggplants, 2 cucumber plants, an arugula plant, 3 cantalope plants, 3 zuchinni plants, about 6 corn plants, 2 cabbage plants, and a watermelon plant. We also have about 6 yellow squash plants due to a miscommunication between Mary and I. Mary bought some yellow squash and I didn't realize it, so I bought some too. So I hope our family and friends like yellow squash. We also have a cilantro plant, a parsley plant and several basil and marigold plants in our garden. Our attempts to grow spaghetti squash from seed did not succeed. We also lost a watermelon plant. Other than those two problems, all seems to be doing well, despite the rains and more rains that we have been experiencing. We actually have some tomatoes on the vine, blooms on the squash, cucumbers, cantalopes, and eggplants. We're happy with the way things are progressing.

All that remains for us to do, is to plant a single cucumber plant, some carrot seeds and some green bean seeds. Since we haven't had too much luck with seeds, I'm not too optimistic about these. We are learning as we go along, so who knows we may have enough carrots to feed an army of Bugs Bunnies. We need to continue to weed and fight off the insects. Mary and I have armed ourselves with Sevin and soapy water to fight this pests and we are pulling weeds all the time. The paper/straw helps a good bit, but you still have weeds.

Hopefully, we will have a bountiful harvest later this year. I will looking to purchase little life jackets for our plants if the rains continue. I will take some pictures from time to time and report our progress as time goes on.