Garden Update

We are now consistently hitting lower to mid 90s for daily high.  With the high temperature, comes explosive growth. :D

Here's a look at the SFG boxes in the backyard.  We now have 6.  I got a bird bath for my birthday to make water available to the bees and other insects that come to the backyard (And to entertain my cats...).

The Spring Veggies Box is overflowing with fresh goodness! :D  The peas in the back are really productive right now, and some of the greens are already bolting.  You can see the yellow flowers of Bok Choy, and pale pink flowers from Radish. ^^;

These pretty yellow flowers belong to Bok Choy.  I guess it's already too warm for them.  They look like rape flowers.  The bees seem to love the flowers though.  I also like the cheerful lemon yellow flowers. :)

And here's a look at the Bee Garden Box.  The Pansy, Snapdragon, and Lobelia I planted fairly early in the season have really taken off and are blooming profusely.  I love the fresh colors! :D  I see different types of bees in this section of the backyard.

A close-up view.  I really should have pulled those "cat deterrent" sticks out.  XD  They're ruining the otherwise lovely view. T_T  I really love the watercolor-like hues!

I put fresh blooms and sprigs of mint in the bird bath to make it look pretty as well as giving bees places to land.  :D

I know this is not a bee, but a wasp, but you get the idea. :)  The insects (bees, wasps, butterflies, lady bugs, flies, etc.) come to drink from the bird bath.  I don't mind wasps at all.  I see them in my garden every season, and they are good pest control (They hunt for caterpillars and carry them away.).

Cornflower (or Bachelor's Buttons) in blue, purple, and lavender.  The deep magenta color is from the Sweet Williams.  The bees love these flowers.

Summer Veggies Box.  Cabbage plants are taking up good amount of space up front.  You can see tomato plants, eggplants, banana pepper, and an ornamental pepper plant.  The overgrown radishes are going crazy in the front as well. ^^;

And this is one of the two newly added boxes.  This one is planted as my Herb Garden (Although I did put a cherry tomato plant in the middle. ^^; ).  I have Sweet Basil, Flat-leaf Parsley, Thyme, Orange Mint, Dill, and Cilantro.  Too small to see just yet are seedlings of Garlic Chives and German Chamomile.  They sprouted up very quickly in this soil mix and are doing very well.   I love having fresh herbs for cooking. :D

The other addition this year is dedicated as a Corn Box.  There's nothing much going on just yet, so I will add the photo of the Corn Box in my next update.

Adding More SFG Boxes

It has been an unusually cold and long winter, followed by drastically different temperatures swinging between killing frost and 80s for some day's highs during most of spring in our area.  This type of spring is very hard on the spring-blooming ornamental trees and bulbs.  I've seen reduced blooms from lilacs and wisterias in my neighborhood, killed or severely delayed performance from red buds, roses, and other plants in general.

Our Spring Veggies SFG box was planted in March (see my previous entry), but some of the seedlings were killed by frost (like Swiss chard and spinach), and had to be started over.  So things were slow to get going. It also pushed back my spring planting for tender annuals.  I'm still in the middle of getting our fifth and sixth boxes filled with soil mix and planted.

Here's a look at the Spring Veggies box.  All green and filled out nicely.  ^^  The peas in the back of the box  is showing some cat-traffic damage. :(   Because the weather has warmed up so fast, my Bok Choy is already bolting. T_T  The salad mix is producing nicely -- enough to give our chickens daily treats as well as give me salads. :D  It's so nice to be able to eat fresh greens again!  Also, the broccoli that comes out in spring is so tender and mild, compared to broccoli that grows in the heat of summer.  Although these four broccoli plants have not produced a large head like we see in grocery stores, it's produced little versions of it, and they are so mild and tender I don't mind the small size. :)

Here's our Summer Veggies box.  This was last year's Corn box, which was later planted with some chrysanthemums and some winter greens.  Two of the chrysanthemum clumps have survived the harsh winter, so they will stay in this box and provide us with some color.  Meanwhile, I've planted some cauliflower plants (the two in the front are doing so much better than the other two behind them -- one of which has already been pulled by me due to what looked like root rot), two hybrid tomato plants, red pepper, two Ichiban egg plants, sweet banana pepper, and an ornamental pepper.  I've decided to stay away from the heirloom tomatoes this year.  I had a very disappointing tomato performance last year due to some disease, so I'm planting disease-resistant varieties this time around.

I read up on the tomato diseases last summer when my plants came down with symptoms.  Some of the articles did mention that there were increased cases of certain diseases that were being spread by the tiny flying insects in dry southwest.  Unfortunately, the increased popularity of heirlooms in home gardens has also inadvertently contributed to this spread.

Something I've also been staying away from growing in my gardens is anything in the squash family.  In my area, there is a problem with those nasty stink bugs.  I've seen plants get completely destroyed by these hard-to-kill (without resorting to nasty chemicals) bugs.  I don't use any type of pesticide on my plants (both ornamental and edibles).  And if I were to battle these stink bugs, I'd be so busy patrolling, removing, and killing them on a daily basis, I'd waste a lot of time which could be spent doing more fun things.  Incidentally, our SFG boxes had "inspired" one of our neighbors last year into growing some veggies of their own in their backyard.  They had three zucchini plants among other things, but these plants were all killed by the stink bugs well before the season's end (Their banana peppers did very well though.).

Here's a look at the Strawberry box. :D  Look how lush it is!  We are really excited about the strawberries this year.  I've had some experience growing them in my childhood and I remembered how well these plants did the second season after planting -- we had berries rotting on the ground because they kept coming faster than a family of four could eat!  I worried about them so much during winter since it was so cold and I had forgotten to give them straw mulch in the fall for protection.  Luckily, they had thick snow covering them for most of winter when it was the coldest.  But during the early spring's unpredictable weather in extremes, they were pretty much exposed except for the couple of nights when freeze warming was issued and I did cover them with tarp.  Under all these leaves, there are a lot of white blossoms and some developing berries.  I can't wait to smell the berries!!!

The following two shots are from our Bee Garden SFG box (last year's Summer Veggies box).  We are planting the entire box with flowers.  Right now, only about half of the box has things growing, but I will post a photo of the entire box soon. :)

Corn Box Day 61

   The Corn Box on Day 61.  The tallest measured 48 inches/ 4 feet tall.  I'm starting to see the fronds of corn 'flower' at the top of some plants.  Daily high has been record-breaking lately with triple digits on consecutive days and the leaves show signs of heat stress.  Today is a bit overcast, so they get a bit of a break from the harsh western Colorado sun.

   The view of the four SFG boxes in our backyard.  I was giving the plants something extra in the form of the kelp solution this morning.  You can see one of our adopted cats, Loki, sitting between the spring SFG box and the corn box.  The kitties love hanging around the boxes.  Luckily, most squares have filled out enough to discourage them from going in too much.  The one bare square in the middle of the spring veggies SFG box where I pulled the bolting spinach is still being targeted, though.    The peas, amazingly enough, have still not died out, but producing some tiny pods still.

   The summer veggies SFG box is looking nice and lush!  I really like the way this box is looking.  The different shades of green from yellow green to grey green and all the different textures are so beautiful!  The eggplant, broccoli, bell pepper plants are really getting big and looking healthy and so are the string and soy beans.  The basil (There are 3 plants in one spot.) is overflowing its square.  The once-lanky Italian parsley has gotten greener and more compact.  I still have a few empty squares in the picture.  I planted more Swiss chard and soy beans this morning so all squares are being used as of today.  I like leafy greens and I am not quite getting enough from that one square of Swiss chard in the spring veggies box, so I'm hoping that I'll start getting more plants to harvest from in about a month. :D

Day 57

   Day 57 of the Spring Veggies Box.  The salad squares are still producing a lot of greens to give me salads every day.  The spinach is starting to slow down and started to bolt (trying to flower and set seeds).  The carrots still have ways to go before we can harvest. ^^;  The sweet williams have really started to grow and began shooting up longer stems with more buds.  I'm so glad I mixed in some flowers for color.  Also, there are insects that come to my garden and flowers will help entice them.  I see a fair number of wasps in my garden, but they are not at all interested in us.  They seem to patrol the greens, looking for worms and other insects to capture.  I have seen a few ladybugs here and there, but not many.  The snowpeas have caught up in height to the Alaska peas, but they are not liking the heat by the look of yellowing leaves at the bottom of the plants.  I will start them much earlier in the season next spring.  And I will plant a little more densely than suggested. ^^  I am thinking about a fall crop though, for which I will have to sow them around first or second week of August, I believe.

   My garden fairies are starting to be obscured by the plants.  The bachelors buttons (tied with a string to a railing) are still blooming strong, but starting to turn a little yellowish at the bottom.

   The Corn Box.  Looking very green and vigorous.  I still have issues with my cats trying to get into the box and laying between the rows... XD

   The snow peas in the Spring Veggies Box are producing nicely.  I like to just munch on them as I water the boxes every morning.  It's cool, sweet, and crunchy -- such a delicious combination.

   I have really been enjoying the Swiss chard "Neon Lights" this spring.  As you can see in this picture, the colors are gorgeous on the stemps and veins.  They are mild enough to be used in most anything.  I take outer leaves often and use in soups and stir-fries all the time.

   And last update today is on the Summer Veggies Box.  Everything seems to be enjoying the hot weather.  All three tomatoes actually have flower buds although you can't see them in the picture.  The Italian parsley is looking less leggy now that they are out in the sun and no longer in the hot house.  The four o'clocks seemed to take forever to germinate, but they did come up and slowly growing.  Of course, when they are seedlings, everything grows so slowly.  I am finally seeing bean seedlings show up.  I really don't know what took them so long.  I was expecting them to germinate in 7 to 10 days as the packet said, but it was more like 20 days (Starting to suspect a batch of old seeds in new packets for 2012?  Do seed companies do that?).  In the little black seed starter pack (in the upper left of the box), I have seedlings of flowering kale/cabbage -- pink Kamome, a Japanese hybrid.  I have never grown flowering kale ever, but always enjoyed their rose-like appearance and color late in the season when nothing else seems to be growing.  I purchased a small packet of seeds from a seller on eBay.  They germinated in 5 days.  I will be moving one into a square in the Summer Veggies Box and hoping to get two big pots to put in the front yard.  I'm also thinking about starting another box for late season color -- flowers like kale and chrysanthemum.  We'll see. ^_^

Day 31

   Looking at all four of our SFG boxes at once.  (In the right upper corner, you can see the frames of the chicken coop that my husband has started building.)  The spring veggies box closest to us is starting to look nicely loaded with fresh green colors.  I do notice a bare spot in one of the Mesclun salad mix squares where a cat had dug around. T_T

   Oops, I took this photo from the north side.  I have been taking the pictures of this box from the east side all this time.  I put the peas along the west side of the box, although the book recommended to put the trellis in the north of the box so the sun doesn't get blocked.  The peak summer sun in the afternoon will be so harsh for the greens, I figured they will be able to use a break later in the season.  We'll see if this works out ... or not. :D

   Visiting the boxes counter clock wise, starting with the spring veggies box, the next up is the corn box.  I just planted the second variety of corn on the south half of the box (8 squares).  The variety planted is Honey and Cream -- an yellow and white bi-color.

   The summer veggies box (Box #4).  I have two heirloom tomatoes, Black Krim and Brandywine.  Brandywine is a favorite of mine for the classic tomato flavor and the size of fruits, and Black Krim is something I'm growing for the first time ever -- it's a variety from Ukraine and has purple/black shoulders and the inside of the fruit shows the color as well.  I'm curious how this tomato will do in our climate.  I haven't grown tomatoes in several seasons.  I've missed them and am extra-excited about growing them in  the SFG to see how they'll perform.  I'm the only one in the family who enjoys unprocessed tomatoes straight from the vine.  I guess I will be sharing them with neighbors. ^^;

   Also in the summer veggies box so far are: Japanese eggplant "Ichiban", Italian flat-leaf parsley, red bell pepper, all from the local nursery.  I have also planted squares of soybeans, garden beans (bush variety), broccoli, carrots and four o'clocks (for color).  I'm also planning to plant sweet basil and some other veggies (not all the squares are filled yet in this box).

   Finally, the strawberry box.  They have stayed healthy without wilting since the transplant, and also managed to avoid any intrusion by our kitties for some reason.  I have seen only tiny fruits so far, but they had strong strawberry flavor.