The Busy Mom's Garden Update

As I've mentioned yesterday, we've been hard at work on our garden. Well, I've been hard at work. The girls simply reap the rewards.

This year, we did things a bit differently. I put together a spreadsheet so I could track when we planted the seeds and when the crops needed to be harvested. Not sure if that will help, but I never claimed to be a master gardener.

So far we've planted:

sunflower
bean
cucumber
broccoli
pea
spinach
squash
cauliflower
pumpkin
igloo lettuce
heirloom lettuce
onion
potato
parsley
basil
thyme
rosemary
oregano
tomato
strawberry

The broccoli, spinach, squash, and cauliflower haven't done anything. I had trouble with the same seeds last year. I ended up buying a spinach plant at the store and added that to the garden last weekend. I tried again, unsuccessfully, to grow tomatoes and strawberries from seed and never got any seedlings. Then a storm came and blew down our small greenhouse, so that was the end of that. I bought two tomato plants and one strawberry and added them this weekend, too. Might be a bit too early for the tomato, but usually I plant on Memorial Day weekend, so it should be okay.

The sunflower, bean, cucumber, pea, and pumpkin seeds are sprouting. My onions are also doing well. I bought herb plants instead of trying to grow from seed this year. Last year, I didn't get much from the herb seeds, so I figured it would be easier just to buy the plants. All of them are doing well except the oregano. The leaves are turning brown. The darn rabbits are eating my parsley, too. Not seeing much progress in the potato bag, but it's probably too early yet.

The one surprise this year is the lettuce. I've never had trouble growing lettuce from seed before, but this year I'm not seeing any progress and they've been in the ground since the first week of the month. I'll probably try to plant again this week, but it might be too hot soon.

I've got to put up the temporary fence so the animals stay away, but for now the planting is done. I'll have to buy two or three more raised beds in order to add the corn and watermelon later.

I'll share more gardening news as it comes.