Whistech's Little Garden

[whistech]

Mike wanted to know if I had any pictures of my garden. I am going to post a few here of my progress from last October to early May of this year. I haven't taken any pictures since May, but I will update in a couple of weeks. This is how it started in September 2012. Built boxes in late September and filled with garden soil around the first week of October. Planted cabbage, broccoli, radishes, snow peas, and beets in mid October. Notice my grandson placing a horse shoe on each garden box for good luck.

 

[whistech]

The winter did pretty well for a first try. Cabbage was small but tasty, snow peas were not real productive but sure tasted good. Broccoli produced pretty well. I decided I did not like the smaller box that my grandson is standing beside. It was only 16 feet long and 3 feet wide. At the end of January, after the cabbage was harvested, I tore out the small box and replaced it with a 5 feet wide by 24 feet long box. At the same time, I added a 2.5 feet by 24 feet long box by the back fence for blackberries and asparagus and built another 4 feet by 24 feet long box at the side of my house for herbs and strawberries. Below are a few pictures of the garden and new boxes.

 

[whistech]

I have included a few pictures below of the early Spring garden. Blackberries started Onions and garlic, transplanting tomatoes and peppers

 

[whistech]

Next is a few early April 2013 garden updates. Tomatoes, peppers, onions, herb bed, strawberries, green beans and cucumbers.

 

[whistech]

Here are a few late April pictures. More growth on tomatoes, peppers, green beans, and cucumbers.

 

[whistech]

The last pictures I have right now were taken on may 9th. My Spring garden is just about had it. The tomato plants are about burned up, with the heat we have experienced in June. The onions were harvested at the first of June and the green beans were tilled under about the second week of June. I planted pink eye purple hull peas where the onions and green beans were. I will take some new pictures next week.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Beautiful!!!

 

[Northernfox]

I love it!!! what a wonderful garden!!!

 

[Phins Fan]

Beautiful!! A bit jealous as in the northeast we cant do squat from October thru the end of April. Great lookin harvest!!

 

[Slowngreen]

Very nice setup! Great work, would love to have all those goodies.

 

[Mike]

Great looking garden, love the setup!

 

[finkikin]

Very nice garden! I really like the layout!

 

[Rahab222]

Whistech, WOW! You've really got some gardening going on up in Spring. I'm amazed at how much space you have for the sun to come through, considering that the north side of Houston is so wooded. Your gardens are perfecto! You even made some really nice tomato cages. Good thing you have a garden helper. I need to train my garden dog, Lily, to at least pull my wagon for me instead of chasing birds and squirrels. I've almost got all the planting done. I had hoped to finish last weekend, but still dealing with cleaning up the spider mites. The plants loved the liquid seaweed I applied. My tomato plants went from being a pale green (due to the spider mite infestation) to a dark, forest green color after just one application. I needed to do a second application today, but we had rain. The pill bugs are still eating my strawberries and I'm waiting for the Sluggo Plus I ordered from Home Depot on-line to arrive. Everything else I found to kill pill bugs has a minimum 7 day waiting period before you can harvest and the strawberries are in now. The pill bugs are having a FEAST! I went to a business meeting this evening in Sugar Land and was talking to another gardener, asking her how things were going? She told me they have a MAJOR spider mite infestation, pill bugs chowing down on her strawberries and one other bug she couldn't recall the name of. She said her neighbor has a lagoon swimming pool in his back yard that is surrounded by densely planted, tropical plants. She thinks their spider mites came from there, while I think mine came from the high grass on the bayou. We are both pretty much exhausted from fighting the bugs already and it's only April. Bugs are pure kill joys. Keep up the good work on the north side and keep us posted with pictures. I love seeing gardens from my area, as we run into common problems/growing environments. A couple of friends posted their 2014 spring gardens on Facebook this week. One just finished converting to raised beds with the cedar fence pickets like I did and is still hauling in dirt. She plants a lot of herbs because she makes soaps, lotions and potions out of them. Another friend still has about half of his winter crops still growing and is just starting to set his spring plants in. Both these gardeners are also in our area and they do a really great job. Keep us posted with pictures and I'll do the same. I didn't make it to the garden today, but I hope to be out there tomorrow in the early afternoon reapplying the liquid seaweed and completing the planting process.

 

[majorcatfish]

very nice beds you have whistech....

 

[whistech]

Rahab and Majorcatfish, thank you for your positive comments. Last year was my first year gardening in many years, so I have a ton of stuff to learn. I am way behind on my garden this year compared to last year. Last year I was canning green beans at the end of April and this year I just planted green beans this week. I grew contender green beans last year and they are certainly a productive and tasty green bean. This year I planted Roma II green beans because I really like the flavor of the flat Italian beans. This year I have also planted onions,okra, 2 hills of summer squash, cucumbers, 4 bell peppers and 4 tomatoes, and an 8 feet long row of Russian Banana Fingerling potatoes. in the bed beside my house I have rosemary, oregano, majoram, chives, and strawberries that were planted last year and lived through the winter. The strawberries are really crowded so I don't know how well they will do this year. If they make through the summer, I am going to divide them and replant in the fall. We do have a lot of trees where I live, but thankfully my back yard gets a lot of sun. I will post up a few pictures when stuff starts growing.

 

[Rahab222]

I'll be looking for your pictures!