Our garden has really taken off and become quite a sight to behold. We have never had a garden do so well before! Our gardens with Fred were good, but this garden is amazing! We did not fence it in and have only had one issue with a rogue rabbit that ate some soybean plants. He was relocated and things have been great on the pest front ever since. We also have had very little infestation with beetles and bugs like we did at Fred's place. We have had to spray things 2 times so far, but it worked overnight and things improved quickly. Our first tomatoes that came ripe had some sort of rot on the bottom of them, but we added calcium to the soil and everything has been fine ever since.
When John and I sat down and planned our garden out in March we planned some things really well, and others...not so much. We picked out our crops and decided what should go where. Then we figured out the row spacing and based that on the width of the rototiller that we planned to buy. We figured that we could keep the weeds in check using a rototiller between rows if we planted accordingly. It worked out well and we have been able to keep the weeds down using the rototiller with only a little hand weeding here and there.We scouted out the best prices on seeds and plants and planted everything right around Mother's Day. Almost a month later the plants looked only ok. They were not dying, but they were not thriving either.
Then we went out and got a soil testing kit. It turned out that our soil pH was way off and our soil macronutrients were all low. Nitrogen was so low that it didnt ever register on the test! We added everything that we needed to add to get the soil nice and healthy for growing and things improved. However, it would have been soooo much easier if we had the foresight to check the soil conditions BEFORE planting! DUH! Lesson learned!
We have been picking stuff daily from the garden. We have picked so many beans that we are begging people to take them now! We have come up with lots of new recipes using our veggies too! We learned that you can grill green beans on tin foil with a little olive oil and garlic.I also have a great recipe for chocolate zucchini bread that the kids think is to die for! We have made fresh salsa using our own cilantro and jalapeno peppers 3 times so far this summer and it is amazing! Tonight I made basil pesto to go with the tomatoes that we picked for dinner, but the kids ate all of the tomatoes before I got any so I put it on tortilla chips. I am going to try and make some yellow squash baked chips tomorrow and see how those taste! Our cucumbers are pickling types so they are small and the kids usually eat those before we can use them in anything fancy. We have some soybeans that are growing and we are looking forward to the edamame, but soybeans take 100 days to mature so it will still be a while.
We also have sweet corn growing. We planted it late, but it will be fun to eat it right after picking! Wyatt, who has never been a corn eater, has learned to like fresh corn on the cob since we moved to Wisconsin!
I also bought 12 strawberry plants on sale for 50 cents each at the end of June and they all have flowers on them right now, so we may have a late season berry crop this summer! Our rhubarb plants (all 10 of them) look good so far. The shock of transplanting most of them from Michigan didn't appear to affect them long term so we are thrilled!
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