Sprayed for insects this morning.  Cucumbers, squash, and zucchini were all visible this morning and the tips of their leaves were all nibbled off.  Noticed quite a few bugs flying around and crawling all over the mounds.

After the good soaking I gave them yesterday morning, the tomatoes are looking much better today.  The leaves greened right up.

Quite a few more peas are visible this morning as well.

Everything that I planted on 5/2 seems to be doing really well.  The onions are still going crazy.  Beets and lettuce are getting bigger, and the new development this week is there are quite a few potato bushes pushing through.

The peas and radishes which were planted last week are already coming up.  The radishes look like a veritable ground-cover.  I may have over-planted them slightly.

After transplanting, the tomato and pepper plants are starting to turn yellow.  I tried keeping everything well-watered this week, and even gave them some food that’s supposed to encourage new growth.  Hopefully they’ll pull through, and it’s not due to a pest or disease.  One thing I read was that it might be a nitrogen deficiency.  I think I’ll focus on more careful watering and see what happens.

Google turned up this website which has some good gardening information:  http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/

Most people who know me know that I’ve been working on starting a garden for over a year now.  I had a “perfect” spot in my back yard, but it needed a lot of work.  It’s about a 20′ square area that the previous owners had landscaped and then left in total disrepair.  By the time we obtained the house, it was nothing but a pile (literally, about 1-2 feet high in the center) of dirt and rock and a buried, rotted stump.

Last spring a friend of my dad’s brought over a front-end loader and a dump truck and leveled the whole thing off.  I didn’t have much time before the planting season, so I just worked up about half of it and threw some seed in to see what would take.  The soil was still incredibly rocky, so I wasn’t expecting much.  And I didn’t get much.  I got some bean transplants from my parents, and we got a small crop from that, but very little else.  We ended up with one small pumpkin and a very small zucchini (which was still delicious).

After the “harvest”, in the fall I completely worked up the entire area, sifted all of the soil and pulled out as much of the rock as I could.  I got a couple trailer-loads of manure from a friend out in Bonduel, and when all was said and done, I probably had a good 6 inches of rich, clean soil.  I raked all the leaves on it and let it “cook” over the winter.

As soon as everything dried out this spring, I was in there with the tiller and had it all worked up.  I was very pleased with the result.  I planned out the entire space and figured out what we were going to plant.  We ended up with ten 15-foot rows, and about a 3-foot stretch along the back dedicated to mounds for squash and stuff.

So here’s my log of what’s gone down so far this spring.

3/28  -I started 10 pepper plants in pots indoors.  We used the Miracle Gro Starter Mix for all of our indoor stuff.  Sadly, we only ended up with 8 plants, but I only had room for six, so my dad got two.

4/11 – I started 20 tomato plants.  I actually ended up with 23 plants.  Every single one of them grew, and some of them I must have double-planted by accident.  My sister took 3 and my dad took 8, leaving me 12.

4/20 – I observed 6 pepper plants about 1″ tall, and 21 tomatoes about 1″.

5/2 – I planted some frost-tolerant plants outside – potatoes, onions, lettuce, and beets.  I observed the peppers about 2″ tall, and tomatoes between 2″ and 3″.

5/15 – I planted peas and pea-pods and finished putting up the critter fence.  I wasn’t going to do any more planting until next weekend, but then my sister called looking for tomatoes, and later my dad stopped by too, so I decided I might as well plant mine too.  So I put in the radishes, carrots, and corn.  Getting late and it’s been a full day, so will try to finish up tomorrow.  Onions, lettuce, and beets are already poking up.  I’m very encouraged by what I’m seeing so far.  Great improvement over last year!

5/16 – Planted the rest – beans, peppers, tomatoes, watermelon, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and pumpkins.  Lauren was a huge help planting and weeding, and Connor was a huge help mowing the lawn so that I could focus on the garden.  Thanks kids!

Now I’m all caught up, except for…

Thanks Dad, for all of your advice, and for the use of your trailer, help building the screen, and cutting and burying the fence-posts.

Thanks Mike, for your mad digging skills in leveling off the pile and hauling it all away.

Thanks Ben, for all of the manure, and for inspiring me with your huge garden.  Mine will never even be close.

You guys all get first dibs on anything I pull out of the garden this year.  I couldn’t have done any of this without your help.

The garden, fully planted

Well, so much for biking this summer.  My mile total so far is zero.  I’ve done some indoors (very little), but absolutely none outdoors yet, a whole month into the season.  So what’s taking up my time?  Work primarily, during the day, and guitar practice and yard work evenings and weekends.  Oh, that yard work.  I’m all gung-ho on the garden this year, and I’ve gotten a great start.  I finished up all the planting this weekend and I have the entire thing fenced in with cedar corner posts and 3-ft critter-caging – hopefully that will keep out the rabbits.  I’m going to use this blog as my gardening log, and I’m a bit behind already, though I’ve been keeping a log the old-fashioned way – with pen and paper – so my next post will be a catch-up and then I’ll try to keep it updated regularly going forward.