Last week ended up being rather busy as my last week of work. I was actually surprised at how busy it was.  I did not post an update even though I had the pictures on my phone.  At least I am off to a better start this week.

I mentioned before that I am slightly disappointed in how the garden is looking and growing. So I decided to try an get a better result. First, I used the some miracle grow water can fertilizer on Wednesday of this week. I added one pack to each water can so everything go a dose of it.  I really did not notice much of a difference, so I continue to do some research and order “Blood Meal” from Amazon. This is a appears to be a game changer. Matt and I added it last night and this morning I am telling a difference in the coloring of the leaves and the size of the blooms. The instructions say that I can add one time a month.  We will definitely add again in the middle of July.  Now to the proof. The squash is the biggest so far!

I can spot a difference in the cucumbers as well. We are starting to see lots of little cucumbers form!

Beans and watermelon are starting to grow!  I did replant a section of beans this week as well.

I did not add the Blood meal to the tomatoes because they appear to be doing fine! Even seeing some tiny ones

And last but certainly not least we are picking blueberries so far we have brought in the house a quart and a pint!

We continue to have both success and failure in our garden.

So as usual let’s start on a positive note…the GreenStalk planters are almost completely full.  We are getting some nice color and strawberries to eat!

On a failure note, something is eating our strawberries. We actually moved a camera down low to figure out what is enjoying bites of strawberries.

We have 2 separate patches of green beans growing. I am amazed at how tall they are!

Even more cucumber seeds have germinated! We have a full row of cucumbers around 25 total plants!

In less than a month we should have at least one gallon of blueberries!  I am even more excited that we have three smaller starts growing as well. The ultimate plan is to transplant these to open spots in the bed so we will eventually have a wall of blueberries!

All 5 of the squash plants are growing but this is probably the most exciting thing I have seen all week…. tiny squash!

I don’t have any germination of the Cherokee purple tomatoes behind the house but the banana peppers and summer squash are growing!

Tiny snap peas are hanging on the pea plants, we will likely start eating this week!

Our first tomato has reached the top of the bed!

And several more are close behind!

Watermelon and cantaloupe are starting to spread!

Now to the biggest failure, we are now down to 7 green pepper plants from our original 14!  I did learn today that peppers do not like temperatures below 50 so this might have something to do with the problem. As a last ditch effort, I add some fertilizer to the plants tonight.  But the bell pepper plants we purchased as well as the one that we started that are in the vertical green stock planters are looking awesome!

Plans for the week
1. Purchase and transplant at least 3 if not 6 green peppers from the farm stand.
2. Sow at least one more packet of green beans.  This will be a month spacing between which should be perfect.
3. Thin out the basil seedlings putting some in the green stock planter as well as spacing those remaining in the bed out to allow for better growth and development.

The chickens deserve their own update this week so hopefully I can get that posted on Tuesday or Thursday!

What  a difference a week makes.  This week we have had more seasonable temperatures and I had lots of germination this week as well.  But on a sad note I also lost all three of the Cherokee purple tomatoes that I planted and at least 2 green pepper plants.   I decided to try something different and plant 4 more seeds for Cherokee purple tomatoes behind the greenhouse. I had the packet and seeds and empty slots so I have nothing to lose.

I have at least 10 cucumber plants that have germinated! The ones that I planted several weeks ago are starting to climb the wire as well.

I decided to try and utilize all my available space so I took a packet of pea seeds and plant those at the very front of this box all the way across.  I also planted one cantaloupe plant in the middle between the peas and the cucumbers.

Six of the eight zucchini seeds that I planted have germinated as well.  I also planted an additional four seeds to fill in the space where the tomato plants died and for hopefully a few next plants. You may also notice that the snap peas are starting to bloom.  I am hoping to enjoy at least a few dozen of these in the very near future.

The tomato have started to grow. Some are starting to touch the first ring of the cage!

And most of the green beans that I planted have germinated!

You may notice the spaghetti squash in the bottom picture. I decided to pick up a three pack which was actually 6 plants at the farm stand this week. I also purchased a three pack of watermelon and cantaloupe as none of those seeds germinated.

And the continued struggle of the week is basil. NONE of those basil seeds germinated so I planted both packets that I had in a bed on Thursday of this week. So this will be another week of waiting to see what happens.

This will be a picture heavy post. I wanted to make sure that I documented the garden this year.  I know in my mind that gardening is a slow process but days like today I want to make sure that I look back and confirm just to give it time.

I planted seeds 8 days ago, but none of those seed have germinated, probably because this past week has been extremely cool. I need to allow an extra week for most of these plants to germinate.  We have not lost any of the transplants so that I am going to count as a success.

Both of the GreenStalks (vertical planter) are full of plants! I am waiting for the Basil to germinate. I had absolutely no luck last year. I have another 2 packets of seeds. My theory is that I need to keep using the seeds until I have no more. If they don’t germinate, I can always purchase a start even in June. The bottom row of one of these contains 4 bell pepper plants. I ended up purchasing 3 plants to get started.

These are the current plant located behind the greenhouse. I am debating on if I need to go ahead and purchase some tomato start and fill the empty 6 buckets?

This is the bed in front of the office window. I have 8 zucchini plants seeds and 3 Cherokee tomato plants along with the sugar snap peas that are climbing. I will be replacing any zucchini that don’t germinate because I have none in the freezer!  Again not sure about any more tomato plants.

This bed contains 5 squash plants that I purchased. I thought I killed one when transplanting but it appears to have survived!

Tiny tomato plants. We currently have 21 plants in the tomato beds along with 8 marigolds. I am ready for these to take off and fill the entire bed!

No new cucumbers have germinated but so far these 5 plants have survived well!

14 additional green pepper plants they have survived but are struggling.

No signs of life in the green bean beds. I have planted 2 entire seed packs… Waiting is not easy for me.

Last ditch effort to grow either cantaloupe or watermelon. I used all the seeds so I may purchase a couple of starts the last week of May.

We have already watered twice since planting a year ago. Tonight we discovered that our front water barrels  has a huge crack. This is not something that requires an immediate fix but we will work on upgrading to a water tote sometime this fall.