Vacations and storms

Well, I went out of town for 8 days.  My husband watered my garden faithfully and I am pleased with that.  While I was gone there was a very big storm with winds that destroyed grain bins and buildings.  It took some shingles of my roof and branches from my trees and ripped doors off my garden shed and knocked over my grill and broke it.  So, that is the property damage.
Garden assessment.  My tomatoes are a loss, but it is early enough this season to replant.  Most of my black-eyed  peas are gone and all of my peas are gone.  The spinach was almost at its end and has gone to seed, but the remaining spinach is ok.  The lettuce looks surprisingly good.  My seedlings must have been small enough to avoid damage because my pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini, and watermelon are all broken through their mounds minus 2 mounds that haven't sprouted.  They all look as they should.  In the front flower bed, my mums are stripped to stalks and a lot of twigs are in my flower beds.  Roses look good and my herb pots survived.
So far I see no green beans or carrots or green peppers or parsnips.  I may need to replant green beans and peas, but it is a bit early for the peppers, carrots and parsnips.  My spinach replants are sprouting too.
I don't have much planned this coming week except baseball practice for my son and 1 game, so I have plenty of time to do a recovery for the garden.  As for today and tomorrow, I have birthday celebrations and church and rest, rest, rest!

Day 57

Well, It's been 2 more days and the stems of my tomatoes are still firm and fully green.  Some of the leaves are still droopy, but I think it's a good sign that they are no worse for the wear.   We went shopping and found some new sprinklers, so I'm going to set us up with the sprinklers for watering instead of hand watering now that the whole garden plot is planted.  I was going to put out soaker hoses, but I would have to buy more and I think if I change my watering to evenings, the sprinklers will do just fine.  I can put them in each corner and water the whole garden at once.
We also put up a fence of chicken wire to keep the nibbling bunnies out and tonight I came home and found a very small rabbit near my fence.  I scared it half to death I think and it ran into my fence and bounced off 2 times and finally broke through, but ran completely through the garden and I'm pretty sure it got out between the pickets of the front fence.  There's only so much I can do.  Since the chicken wire has larger holes than I planned on, a baby bunny can get through them if it bounces a few times first.  I just hope not to hurt one.

This picture was taken just after my planting on May 14, but before watering.

Tomatoes, Come back!

Well 4 days ago, I transplanted tomatoes and they look pretty pathetic at this point.  I've been told that they go into shock, but I've never had this trouble before.  I've had tomato plants since I started gardening about 5 years ago and they've always transplanted well.  This time they are all droopy.  The stems are firm, so I haven't lost hope.  I've done a little research and found they have transplant shock.  OK, now what?
According to the bloggers, you are to pinch off some of the leaves so that the roots concentrate on growing.  That goes along with what I heard from some Master Gardeners last night.  I did that Tuesday.  Still today they're droopy.  According to these Master Gardeners, roots also need oxygen so they recommend spading the ground about 12 inches before transplanting.   Well, its too late for that for me, but I poked holes in the ground around the plants about 12 inches with an iron fence rod that is about 1/2 inch diameter.  I watered away from the plants and pretty much filled these holes so the water will saturate deeply.  I'm hoping that once the water soaks through the deeper soil that these holes will become air pockets.  One of my plants was a little perkier this morning, but I did the same for all.  We'll see how they all come out.
I'm also traveling for a week next week.  Last time I did this and left my dearly beloved husband in charge of my garden.  My seedlings were dead and my garden was wimpy when I returned.  I'm giving him instructions now to hopefully prevent that while I'm gone this time.  I might just put out a soaker hose and turn it on to a trickle for the duration of my absence.  That way the only thing left is my herb pots.  Surely if I move them inside, they'll be seen and taken care of... Maybe.

Day 51 of 2012 garden

Finally every crop is in the ground that I want to grow ... okay, I really want some carrots, but can't find the seeds.  Yesterday, I weeded the current crops in detail and wrote about what I learned in my Reflections blog. My husband and son tilled the soil in the rest of the garden to make it ready for the final planting.  I got that done and I'm one tired Mamma.
I planted green beans along the fence and pumpkins behind that.  I planted most of these others in mounds as the package instructs.  I was going to do a row of cucumbers, but changed my mind.  I have 7 hills of zucchini and 4 hills of watermelon.  I planted 2 hills of pumpkin and 6 hills of cucumbers.  Since I was running out of space, I may have made a mistake by putting these rows of hills too close together, but I staggered the hills.
The last thing I was going to do was tomatoes, but I had to go to the store anyhow so I bought 6 tomato plants.  I bought 1 German Queen Heirloom, 2 Cherokee Purple Heirlooms, 1 Black Krim Heirloom, 1 Pink Brandy-wine Heirloom and a Sweet N Neat cherry tomato plant.  I miscounted my tomato cages, so in the extra cage, I planted some cherry tomato seeds.  If it doesn't come up, I will just grab another plant and put it in later.  At the end of the tomato row, I planted about 6 green pepper plants.
If I find some carrot seeds I will sprinkle them between my tomato plants per recommendation of my husbands grandma.  She had great gardens!  She doesn't garden any more because she's too busy and the property owners don't allow it.  I trust her, though, and hope to share some veggies with her.
Pictures to come, but I need to finish out my garden chart.  I include instructions from the package, germination date and harvest expectations.

Salad, Please!

I can tell I'm going to need to weed again already, but it's okay because I enjoy being outside.  I haven't planted anything else because we haven't gotten a rototiller.  We put the ashes from the fireplace in the area that is not yet planted.  I'm told it is good for the soil.  I don't know, but I did it.
I've pulled a few spinach leafs here and there to nibble on, but tonight my son and I harvested enough spinach and lettuce to make a small side salad for 3 of us at dinner.  We added a little feta cheese and a little Parmesan and our favorite dressings and had our first "garden" salad of the year!

Day 35

My largest spinach plant

Everything is looking great so far.  I might add to my garden tomorrow, but I'm not sure we can retill the rest of it so soon.  We need to borrow a rototiller. 
I've been watering every day that it doesn't rain.  I hoed between rows and finally wedded near the plants today.  I accidentally pulled off a few spinach leaves and lettuce leaves while I worked but they tasted good.  My potatoes got fill dirt in the trenches today.  I also thinned out about a dozen green onions.  I brought some to my neighbor but she wasn't home so I'll probably bring them to church to share in the morning.  I checked my chart and everything is right on time including my patio herbs.
My losses are chili peppers and asparagus. 

The garden so far

Insect update

I opted not to treat my garden for insects at this time.  The plants are growing stronger as they are.  The formulas for homemade insecticide all require a waiting period for the spray to become more potent I assume.  Garlic and onion blended up and put into water. Some times hot pepper.  I'm really not excited about putting that on my young plants yet, and there is a warning to test a few leaves first.
I've used a mixture of flour and cayenne before, but I was treating the wrong insect with that combination.  I had squash bugs then and I was able to get rid of them with a solution of original formula liquid dish soap and water squirted directly on those bugs.  It was amazing to see how quickly they keeled over and then it rained and I had soap bubbles in my garden and in my downspouts from the house gutter.  It was funny.  I'm going to prepare a onion garlic solution to have ready for when problems arise again.
Getting ready to put in the green beans, cucumbers and zucchini this weekend.  I might drop some tomatoes in next week too.
Happy gardening!