Picture of the Day

What ISN'T doing well

Lest I give you the impression that every plant in our garden is going great guns, take a look at this bell pepper plant above. What? You say that all you see is a stick?

Exactly.

Our bell peppers have never really done anything. When they first started growing, the bottom leaves died and fell off. Now, ALL of the leaves are dying and falling, leaving us with what you see above.

And absolutely no bell peppers.

As I mentioned before, we aren't the only ones afflicted with this problem. But we don't really know how to solve it and we are about to pull all of our bell peppers. If it had been up to Adam, we would have pulled them long ago but I'm slightly more optimistic (or naive, take your pick) and we've left them.

But after arriving at the garden and finding the above, I'm about ready to relent.

Something else that isn't growing well, almost overnight, has been our squash. They started getting these milky white coating of fungus all over them and they just didn't look healthy. Adam theorized that it was because we were watering them at night and, after speaking with a more seasoned farmer, he determined that he was correct.

After one day of watering during the day, instead of at night, the squash started making a rebound.

Amazing.

The only other plant that isn't thriving is a tomato. ALL of our tomatoes are doing great except one and, of course, it is the one that was a gift. For whatever reason, it started getting all wilty despite the fact that it was getting just as much water as the rest of the tomatoes. It is a Brandywine tomato so I'm not sure if they have different requirements than roma or beefsteak.

So there. I've sufficiently tarnished your picture-perfect vision of our garden and our small reputations as gardening professionals.

Picture of the Day

Peppers Performing Poorly

Our peppers are not well. At first, all of the lower leaves fell off. Now, the plants are spindly looking and the leaves have brown spots on them. We are really disappointed because peppers might just be our favorite vegetable. But, we are somewhat mollified because all of our neighbors' peppers are doing the same thing.

Someone said it is a bacteria that lives in the soil. When you water the plant, the bacteria splashes up on to the lower leaves and proceeds to kill them.

I don't know if this is true or not.

Adam and I haven't given up on them yet. We have mulched them and are looking into some different fertilizer for them.

We have Growth!

We have potatoes...

...and radishes...

...and peppers...and a pepper blossom...

...and corn...

...and corn n' beans...

...and okra...

...and collards...

...and wildflowers and zinnias!

What did we NOT plant today?

It was a full day at the farm today. Lots of sunscreen, lots of water and lots of planting. We were grateful for the near-constant breeze that wafted up from the river but, needless to say, that breeze will be gone (and sorely missed) come the summer months.

Alright, down to business.

Here is a list of what we planted today:

sweet corn

pole beans

sunflowers

peppers (bell, jalapeno, chili and banana)

tomatoes (cherry, Roma, beefsteak, heirloom brandywine)

wildflowers

zinnias

cucumbers

zucchini

okra

carrots

radishes

red onions

Sadly, I don't have enough pictures to correspond to all of this activity. Once I remembered my photography duties, the sun had already begun to set and the light was no good. But I did manage to get a few off before the sun fully set.

But, as you can see, our shadows were l-o-n-g when we finally started packing up.


Here is one of our corn/bean rows. The corn seeds are in back and were placed every 6 inches or so. The beans are in the front part of the row and placed in-between the corn seeds. Also, the sunflowers were planted in the row directly behind the corn/bean row.

Next up is one of our beautiful little bell peppers. We probably have more bell peppers than any other plant in the garden. Which is good since we eat them ALL THE TIME. We eat them more often than we eat tomatoes.

Most of our pepper and tomato plants are ones we grew from seeds. However, some of our seedlings just didn't look hearty enough for the great outdoors so we hedged our bets and bought some plants at a local nursery.


And here is one of our lovely tomato plants all warm and snug in its cage. The cages, lest you accuse us of tomato cruelty, are strictly for the tomatoes' benefit. They send their little stems out the openings and, as they grow, the cage provides support for those (hopefully) tomato-laden stems.


We prepared all of the beds today in the same manner as before. Hoe and rake the bed to break up clumps. Scatter peat/compost mixture. Water afterwards with the liquid fertilizer/water mixture.

You may have noticed that many of our plants have depressions around them. We made those in hopes that during the next rain, which is sure to come any moment now, some rain will gather in these little "volcanoes" instead of running off the side. We'll see how that goes.

Oh the way home, I quizzed Adam about what plant he is most excited to be growing/harvesting/eating and he, of course, said the chili peppers. He wants to make hot sauce.

My "top plant" is definitely my lovely okra! I l-o-v-e okra and simply can't wait until they are ready to harvest.

We have plans for most of the vegetables. But some of them (ahem, radishes) I'm at a loss of what to do with. Especially in such large numbers. I am excited about learning to can and sharing that (possibly harrowing) process with you. Any tips, pass them along. Please.

Naturally, we are pretty tuckered out after such a day. Off to bed we go....with visions of homemade tomato sauce in our heads.