Deirdre's Garden Diary: 2005 Vegetable Garden

:: 2005 Vegetable Garden ::
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:: 06.03.05 ::

Time For a Garden Update !

I have done a lot of work in the vegetable garden since my last post in May. I built four new raised beds for all of the seedlings Brian gave me. Originally I had just bought enough wood to make two more beds, but after getting them put together it became apparent quite quickly that two were not going to be enough. Truthfully, I could still use two more, but instead I will just do it the old fashioned way and put the rest of the seedlings straight into the ground.

I have put most of the plants out and so far everything seems to be doing alright. I cleared away the rest of the bluebonnets after they went to seed and weeded the whole area, pulling up miles of runner vines...yes miles! This made extra room for the new raised beds with space to make rows in the ground for the rest. There hasn't been a big "weed" issue yet. All the beds are mulched with either newspaper and hardwood chips, or straw. A few weeds are coming through the straw, but not nearly as bad as it could have been.

Before (above) and after (below) the garden space was extended.

In the beginning there seemed to be a variety of bugs around munching on leaves. As far as I could tell the damage was coming from thrips (with small patterns of circular holes on the leaves) and rose chaffers which were covering the sage plants in my herb plot along the side of the house. Almost every leaf had holes in them! I also saw the chaffers on some of the pepper plants, and on the cucumbers, but I haven't noticed any major damage yet.

I had heard that Marigolds were good in helping control pests organically without having to spray, so I bought two flats with different kinds of Marigolds and planted them here and there around everything. So far, it seems to be working! I have not noticed any more bugs and the new leaves on the plants
seem to be free of small holes and bites. I don't have any proof it is the Marigolds keeping the bugs away...but it sure does seem like this has worked! (I don't want to jinx myself by typing that...so I am crossing my fingers
that it stays that way). The flowers also look pretty and cheery with their bright orange, red and yellow colors scattered around.

If you want to see some close-ups of the vegetables and herbs that I had growing in the garden then click on the links in the right column.

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:: 05.01.05 ::

Last year was my first attempt at growing vegetables, and it worked out ok as you can see HERE. This season, I have added more plants, and more beds, and may have "bite off more than I can chew" as they say. If all goes well, then I will have a fair amount of stuff to share with friends and family.

I started the spring off with the decision to build a teepee trellis so that I could add cucumbersand beans to the list of veggies I wanted to try and grow this year. I think it worked out pretty well, it is still standing. Click HERE to see more images as I was putting it together.

I moved last year's raised bed closer to the trellis and bought wood to make two new raised beds along the sides. Thanks to Brian I have a lot of new plants to add to the garden. He did a great job getting his seeds germinated this year and he had seedlings in almost any and every container he could put them in. Lucky me, he doesn't have room for everything and I got a bunch of stuff! Now if I can only get him to keep better track of what he puts in which containers! It is hard to separate melons from pumpkins, squash and cucumbers when they are only a couple of inches tall! He also gave me some wild sunflowers that were taking over his yard.

In addition to the veggies...my gourmet dad thought it would be good to have some fresh herbs around for cooking, so he graciously bought me a nice variety of herb plants. I cleared away the extra bushes and random weeds along the side of the house and made a special herb garden for them.

Check back for updates as I see what survives and what doesn't! Hopefully there will not be too many casualties.

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