Unfortunately the rabbits slowly discovered the sweet peas and green beans. They decimated about 60 beautiful pea plants, and almost all of the green beans. They seemed to avoid plants that were surrounded by other plants so one idea to protect them is to plant a variety of plants in a complicated mess. The rabbits seem extremely timid and careful, and this might be enough to slow their attack.
Hey look a little acorn squash has started to grow!The bees are definitely doing their job
One sweet pea, at least the rabbits left us one!
Squash is making a break for the border
Cantaloupes are trying to escape by air
These ones think they're going to swim to freedom
Some beets are doing pretty well
June 21
I'm experimenting with growing a garden this year! In order of how well they seem to be doing as of June 21, here's what I've planted:
Peas - Sugar Daddy - Burpee Organic - These have been doing just awesome from the start. I planted them along the fence, and they immediately started growing and climbing up the fence. Some are 2-3 feet tall and one is starting to flower. There must be a hundreds of them sprouting. If these do as well as I think they will, I'm going to need to figure out what to do with all the sweet peas come harvest time!
Garden Bean - Big Kahuna - Burpee - I meant to get pole beans to climb up the fence, these are "bush snap". I planted them along the fence, so they look a little uncomfortable trying to grow up and out with the fence right there in the way. But they seem to be growing well. They have been munched at a little bit by animals, but so far there are plenty of healthy plants that the few missing leaves are fine.
Cantaloupe - Hearts of Gold - Burpee - It's hard to say, but these seem to be growing well, both ones I started indoors and also ones I started outside. Apparently these are also good climbing vines so I should have made better use of the fence.
Acorn and Butternut Squash - Burpee - I can't really tell these two apart too well, but so far they seem to be doing pretty well.
Cherry Tomato - Chadwick Cherry - The indoor seedlings did very poorly. One of the seeds I dropped in an overcrowded mess looks great. The rest are about a third the size of that one. They may pull through and do well, there's still plenty of hope. I think these would have done well along the fence as climbing vines as well, but time will tell.
Cabbage - Copenhagen Market Heirloom Variety - Page's Seeds - A lot of these have sprouted. They are alive but seem like they are surviving not thriving. Time will tell.
Basil - These didn't seem to do well where I planted them in careful rows. They are doing great in the little bed where I just dropped a ton of misc seeds, and now the basil looks extremely happy under the protection of the surrounding larger plants.
Dill - Greensleeves Dill - It's hard to say, not a large number of plants have sprouted. They look pretty light and small, and growth is slow so far, but they seem healthy. There's a good chance these will hit their stride at some point. I feel like these would have done better if they were planted in a less organized way - seeds scattered in an area around other plants.
I also planted eggplant (Burpee's Black Beauty), this haven't done well, I think any of these sprouted.
These were all planted directly in the ground. I started a few seedlings, but I wasn't super successful. So far, the best garden bed is a small one that gets a lot of sunlight, that I haphazardly dropped an excessive number of misc seeds into.
Some ideas for next year include:
Grow lettuce and kale
Make better use of the fence in growing cantaloupes, squash, beans, and peas. Maybe try watermelon as well!
We'll see how things turn out come later in the season, but it seems like some plants do well with haphazardly planted seeds rather than organized rows.
I have several larger areas where not much is growing at all. I think I can fill some of that space with lettuce.
Look into how to diversify a little. It seems as though marigolds provide some protection, are there other ways to plant that will ward off pests?
Definitely try growing hot peppers, jalapeños and maybe something like habeneros
Other possibilities: sunflowers, cucumbers (they should grow well along the fence!)
Garlic and potatoes (need different planning!)
Blueberry?
Maybe regular zucchini and squash
Pumpkins?
Try starting seedlings in the larger container, the little ones didn't work out very well.
You know what to do with peas! All those years of "pick your own" and helping me freeze! And the home frozen always tasted better than the store-bought frozen. Once when you were maybe 10 or 12, I ran out of home frozen and served store bought frozen. Your comment, "These aren't your peas, are they."
You know what to do with peas! All those years of "pick your own" and helping me freeze! And the home frozen always tasted better than the store-bought frozen. Once when you were maybe 10 or 12, I ran out of home frozen and served store bought frozen. Your comment, "These aren't your peas, are they."