soaphouse's Blog
soaphouse's posts about: beets
Jun 12, 2008 | 7:10 AM PST
Tags: great , gunnera , gunerra , companion planting , squash , beets , beans , bush beabs , pole beans , spinach
At the beginning of the season, I set out on my first companion planting vegetable garden. Well, some things are doing great and some aren't . So, I thought it about time for an update...
We had our first harvest of bush beans the other day. My girl helped me pick them :)
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The bed they are in is looking pretty good. The sugar snap peas that were supposed to grow up the teepee never quite made it (I think it got too hot too fast) So, I picked up some zucchinini seeds to try instead. I also have sweet potatoes, calendulas and radishes in this bed. The radishes are ready to be harvested, but I am still waiting on the other things.
The beet, carrot, okra, brussel sprout and broccoli bed is looking good. The marigolds in it are about to bloom. I picked up some spinach seeds to try to use to fill in the corners of this bed:
The Spaghetti Squash and Pole Bean bed is explosive. I think we may have squash growing all over the place - HAH!
No production yet, but lots of flowers! The corn is looking good too:
As far as the companion planting goes, most of the flower seeds that were intended to be the companions for pest control did not germinate, or if they did, they did too slowly so the veggies just crowded them out. However, so far not much is affected by pests. The most I have seen is ants and they never seem to do too much damage. I am missing the shot of color that I was hoping for with all the flowers though...maybe I should have bought more as plants.
The blackberries are starting to ripen and we enjoyed the first picking last night. Funny thing is that a thornless rasberry that I bought off the internet last year has fruit on it but it appears a though they are blackberries. HMMMM???
The grapevine that I planted last spring is growing nicely and I have high hopes for it!
I worked on some weeding back by the creek and did resort to using roundup of some of the privet and grapevines. Its proving to be a lot to keep up with back there and I can't let all of my hard work of clearing it out go to waste!
On another note, the Great Gunnera bulb that I purchased a few months back never grew, so the company sent a replacement and we got that replanted by the creek. This time, we planted it more in the water with a chicken wire cage around it for protection. Hope it works, I can't wait to watch this plant grow if it does.
Till next time...
Jul 2, 2007 | 5:18 PM PST
Tags: eight ball , zuchini , zuchinni , beets , vegetable , harvest , dinner , fence , pruners , pruning , zucchini
Harvested this beauty a few minutes ago and I can't wait to slice her up and cook her!
This is the first year I have had a real summer vegetable plot. I ordered all of my seeds from Burpee and Mostly picked things I like to eat and chose varieties that mature quickly. The reason I did this is I have never had much success starting seeds indoors. They always die! So, I prefer to sew directly into the plot. I had heard bad things about growing squash and zucchini, but so far I am having luck. This is the first one of this size that is big enough to justify cooking. the others have fallen off the plant at about the size of a golf ball and I have just eaten them right there in the garden. Not sure what causes this. I am also going to cook up some yummy beets from the garden. I have been harvesting these guys pretty regularly over the past month.
I also started on the back fence clearing project today....wow, its going to be a lot of work! Using my hands and pruners, take a look at what I accomplished in about 2 hours:
BEFORE: ( I know its not the best pict... but its all the growth you see on in the back)
AND AFTER:
