I have two grow beds for my garden this year, started in the first week or so of June. With such a late start and knowing only what I've gleaned from reading the Norma (which would be more, but I'm pretty bad at the plant thing), I talked to some people at the farmer's market selling seedlings. I have one tomato and 6 pepper plants in this bed. There is also an empty spot for swiss chard seeds that I've been too lazy to plant (they are growing like mad on a paper towel) and a filled spot with a purple potato that decided it wanted to LIVE!
With the tomato and the peppers, I have the little labels that came with the plants. I can tell you that I have Zebra tomatoes (which may or may not happen by the end of summer) and Flamingo peppers. We're all about the animals here.
In my narrow grow bed I have corn. I would show you the picture, but it is apparent that I turned the soil over and buried some grass and that's about it. If I took a picture today, I would be able to show you two whole shoots. A far cry from whatever number I actually put in there (umm, 5 or 6??).
Next to both of these I have a mound. It's a very small mound, considering it is for pumpkins. Everything is probably way too close together, but I didn't want to turn over a large amount of ground. There is no picture worth showing of this either, because it looks like I did even less effort in turning the soil over (and getting rid of the grass) than with the thin grow bed. Also, like the thin bed, until this weekend, I could show you nothing growing until about Saturday. Now when I looked over the weekend, I had two decent sized shoots. Not sure when or how I should thin them out, or if I should even bother despite how tiny the plot I've given them is. We'll see.
All is not lost in my growing efforts. In the middle of the picture (ignore the grass... I'm pretending it is mulch) is the potato plant I plopped into the ground.
See! I can grow things. And now I have the rest of the summer to prove that I can either 1) really grow things, or more likely 2) show how quickly I can kill them off. Of course, killing them off would be a lot easier if Mother Nature gave me less rain and more blistering hot sunshine.
(I'm actually pretty proud of the plants, because they are growing and mostly look happy despite being in one of the shadiest spots in the yard. It's what I get for not spending a good day thinking about how much sun everything gets back there.)
I also have a PowerPlant in the kitchen slowly growing basil for me to use the rest of the summer. Right now it is almost time to take off the little domes. Just a couple of days more!
