Rain and cold is good :) and bad :(

The rain brought lots of water to the garden this past week.  The seedlings have grown tremendously.  I noticed that a few seedlings did not grow and reseeded about 15 corn, 10 green beans and 4 asparagus beans.  I was also very pleased with how most of the garden held up to the rain.  The cold, unfortunately, hurt two asparagus bean and three green bean seedlings.  They look really sad with their shriveled leaves.  If they do not make it then I will be reseeding again in the next few days.

NEW ADDITIONS!

Soybean

There are five new additions to the Morrison Victory Garden!  First, I planted three zucchini plants.  They are looking very good after the transplanting process.  The zucchini is located in the main garden at the south end of the middle row of corn.  I also planted three watermelon plants.  I have not grown watermelon before and I am very excited to see how many melons I am able to harvest.  The watermelon is located at the northwestern corner of the main garden.  There are two new herbs in north side of the lawn.  First we have Queen Siam Basil, also known as Thai Basil, which is planted next to the sweet basil.  Second, I planted curly parsley between the basils and the Juliet tomato plant.  Now for my absolute favorite addition: Soybeans!  Yes, you are reading this correctly.  I found two beautiful soybean plants at the nursery today.  I eat soybeans on a daily basis and I cannot wait to see how they grow and taste my very own homegrown soybeans.  Keep a look out for my very own Morrison Soy Milk on store shelves soon... just kidding!

Watermelon

Zucchini

Thai Basil and Parsley

WHAT'S ROCKIN'!

Corn

The lettuce is just about ready to harvest.  The arugula and musclin mix have grown in nicely and I am already thinking about what to plant next after the lettuce harvest is complete.  The rain did a tomato plant good!  The plant has doubled in size and had many flowers ready to bear fruit.  The squash leaves are ginormous!  Out of the three plants two have really taken off.  The third plant is struggling in the shadow of it's two siblings but I think the little guy will pull through.  Lastly, the corn is doing great!  The seedlings are almost full grown plants and will soon shoot up straight to the sky.

Squash w/ Bitter melon

Lettuce

Tomato

 INTRUDER ALERT... INTRUDER ALERT...

The gastropods have retreated to the far west.  Four large gastropod warriors were fought and sent to their doom this afternoon.  The war is on-going but hopefully the garden will come out victorious!

The Morrison Victory Garden is home to many animals.  Every once in a while you can find a quick cameo of each inhabitant.  There was a visitor tonight that left some foot prints in the garden after I watered.  They were left by the lion of the victory garden.  His name is Mooch.

Political Veggie: Gooooo Composting!

Political Veggie: Gooooo Composting!: "Composting is awesome! It is also a great way to recycle your food waste and help build a more sustainable environment. I have attended a ..."

"What's rocking!" and "What's not."

Green Beans

This week brought lots of growth to the garden and the backyard.  First, I have started to build a retaining wall to help define and separate the garden from the lawn area.  The wall is three cords high and will curve and extend southwest.  The space between the grass and the wall will be filled with stepping stones and will lead south towards the back of the house.  I do not plan on extending the retaining wall to far southwest but that idea could change in time.  The second growth is to the garden.  Lots of the plants have started flowering and the seeds have begun to sprout.

Eggplant

Squash & Bitter Melon

Dill

Corn & Asparagus Bean

Lettuce

Which plants are rocking in the victory garden this week; eggplant, squash, bitter melon, dill, chives and strawberries.  I have included a video of my search for  ripe strawberries to give you and idea of how many berries are on the plant.  I am hoping that I can make a small strawberry pie this year.  If not I can always freeze the berries and use them in a frozen smoothy during those hot summer days.  The corn, asparagus beans and green beans, planted by seed, have sprouted and are starting to reach for the sky.  The warm weather over the past week was needed and help the seeds sprout quickly.  The lettuces seeds have grown leaps and bounds!  I can really see the leaves take shape and the base of the lettuce take form.  What is not rocking; the basil and pepper plants have been attached by a hoard of gastropods.  These little critters found their way past our perimeter and chowed down on most of the basil and a few of the pepper leaves.  Our armies fought back and now we hope the gastropods will retreat and go elsewhere.

Let the growing continue...

The victory garden is beginning to take root.  After a few days of warm weather I saw my first corn sprout and picked my first strawberry of the season.  The greens on the south side of the lawn are looking 'sprout'tastic and will start taking shape soon.  With the growing comes the loss of a few seedlings.  Two of the four Japanese cucumber plants have wilted and passed on.  While the arugula is growing fast and strong, the mesclun classic mix has only a few sprouts.  On a more positive thought, I noticed an abundance of flowers in the tomato and pepper plants tonight and hope to see some fruit pushing out in a few weeks!

Irrigation, seeds and plants... OH MY!

The irrigation for the garden has been laid out and tested and the seeds have been planted.  This year I planted seven rows of illini extra sweet corn, one row of yard beans (aka asparagus beans) and one row of french fillet (string less) green beans.  All of these items were planted by seed.  My father purchased the corn and green bean seeds from Burpee's.  I bought the yard bean seeds from our local nursery.  In past seasons our victory garden included no more than four rows of corn.  In addition our green beans grew and grew until we ran out of space in our freezer.  With the cooler summer weather and the desire for corn I decided to increase the number of rows of corn and decrease the number of green bean rows this year.  Additionally, this is the second year I have grown yard beans.  I found that the beans are extremely delicate and need lots of sun and space to grow and crawl.  I decided to plant the yard beans in the front row of corn to allow for more space to grow and eliminate the need for netting or a lattice.  My hope is that the yard beans will grow and crawl up the front row of corn.  In the picture above you can see vertical bamboo stick indicating where the yard beans were planted.  The corn stalks will not be strong enough to immediately support any crawling yard bean sprouts.  This is why I placed a bamboo stick next to each planted seed which will allow the yard bean sprouts an object to crawl upon.

I also planted a variety of vegetables plants I bought from a local nursery.  I planted five bell pepper plants (two black, two yellow and one red), two Japanese eggplant, one Romano tomato, one Juliet tomato (aka grape tomato), three bitter melon, three yellow squash, three Japanese cucumber and three crane melon.  I transplanted all of the plants in to the main garden except for one.  I transplanted the Juliet tomato plant on the north side of the grass next to all of my herbs.  Although the Juliet tomato plant will grow in size I felt the small delicate fruit will be more accessible next to all of the herbs and peppers.

2010 - bitter melon grown from saved seeds

Moreover, my mother and I have searched for bitter melon seeds and found one nursery that sold seeds and plants.  We bought three bitter melon plants and a packet of seeds this year.  We have included bitter melon in our victory garden for the past two years and grew them with saved seeds from the previous year.  This year we wanted to see if there is any differences in the quality and taste of the fruit from previous years and decided to not use our saved seeds.

For more information about seed saving visit http://www.seedsave.org/.

Begin the planting!

North side: Herbs & peppers

After a few trips to a variety of nurseries in my area I have found a variety of vegetables and herbs to plant.  I have decided to plant my herbs and pepper plants in a smaller section of my backyard.  My family has a small grassy area in our backyard with either side available to grow herbs and leafy greens.  I have chosen the north side of the grass to plant rosemary, oregano, sage, basil, dill, chives, Thai dragon peppers, pepperoncinis and banana peppers.  Most of the items were either bought this year or transplanted from pots which were grown from seed in previous years (i.e., chives and sage).  I have bought a few basil plants but I have also planted Thai basil and sweet basil by seed. 

South side: Leafy greens are sprouting!

On the south side of the grass, shaded by the house, I have planted a variety of leafy greens.  I chose to plant all of these greens by seed and am very pleased with the sprouts that have pushed through the ground in a little over a week.  I have planted a variety of lettuce mixes, arugula, and cilantro.  I am also planning on planting long green onions and radishes if the leafy greens reach maturity before July.  LGOs and radishes grow very quickly and are a great addition to any salad.

Lemon Grass

In previous years I have grown strawberries and herbs in large pots and this year is no different.   I chose to keep my aloe plant in a large pot so that the plant does not spread and grow to large.  Additionally, I love catnip plants but find that my feline companions just love rolling, sitting, eating and squashing the delicate plant.  To keep the catnip protected I have decided to keep the catnip in a pot and have placed a cage around it to keep out unwanted purring intruders.  A new addition to the potted garden is a small lemon grass plant my received from a friend at work.  I have never grown lemon grass before and hope that it takes off and fills the pot by the end of the summer.

Strawberries