June 8, 2012

Vegetable Garden 2012


I am so glad it is spring! Technically almost summer, but I digress. Last fall I set up a new vegetable bed, four feet by twelve feet. I planted 18 garlic cloves, and I am proud to say that every one of them is growing and doing well.

If only I could say the same for the rest of the garden. I used a different seed starter tray, one with joined peat pots. The seeds germinated fairly well, but by setting them outside to become adjusted to the weather, something happened. They just stopped growing even though I tried to keep them well-watered. I transplanted three tomato plants and one broccoli, and all but one tomato died. I had extras, so I replaced them, and two of those died. I had to resort to planting the broccoli and one tomato plant by seed in the bed directly. I also lost several parsley, rosemary and thyme seedlings. I water them every day in early evening, after the bed is in shade, but they dry out so quickly. It is so dry around here, I wonder if that is the issue this year. I have never (in my whopping three years' experience) had such a hard time getting the plants to grow.

Not shown in the photo, I also bought a blueberry, a raspberry and a strawberry plant. I put them each in their own pot for now. I had them in full sun for a while (that's what the directions said!) but I think the raspberry and strawberry plants have given up the ghost already. I deliberately bought live, well-established plants and I still killed them (I have had zero success with berry plants so far). Here's hoping the blueberry can hang on....

The good news is many of the seeds I sowed directly in the bed are sprouting. I have several lettuce and spinach plants, one or two green onions, and one corn. I think I'm going to work on a more efficient watering system, but in the meantime, I'll be hoping the monsoons come early this year.