As the Garden Grows

As you all know, we have a garden every summer, and sometimes through the fall and winter.  It's safe to say that only a few of our garden plants are still thriving; some squash, zucchini, green chile, green and green peppers.  In the next few weeks, I will be turning over the soil and preparing for our fall/winter garden.  I wanted to share with you a few photos, and a few lessons learned this year.

 We expanded our garden, doubling it's size.

 Adding maneur.

 The spice garden and a few sprouts growing.

Okay, now for the lessons learned:

*The okra needed more sun.  The tree in the garden grew and we planted the okra on the east side of the garden, where it got too much shade from the tree.

*Don't plant carrots along the path.  The hose killed most of them.

*We had an ant attack.  It wasn't just in our garden, it was everywhere.  They were in our house and all over the yard.  They didn't hurt the plants, but they made it unbearable to work in the garden.  I was covered in ants after thirty seconds. So, I will need an organic way to control them.

*Water one day.  Let the garden dry and then pick the fruit the next day.  This worked really well.  In years past I didn't follow this rule.  I didn't even know it existed.  Our squash and zucchini always got weak and had a strange growth on them, and then died.  I thing it was a bacterial infection of the plant.  I read somewhere this spring to not pick your vegetables until they are fully dried out from watering.

*Even if you are sick you must drag yourself outside and water.  I asked Erik to water, which he did.  I was sick this week.  Almost all of the green beans are dead as are the pumpkins I planted earlier this summer so the boys could have their own for Halloween.  I'm hoping they will revive.  Keep your fingers crossed.