Kelly Rossiter
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Normally on Friday I bring you a rundown of what I have found at the farmers' market the day before, but with one thing and another I didn't go this week. Instead, I'm going to give you a little update on my sweet little vegetable garden. At the suggestion of my daughter, I decided to put in a pretty basic vegetable garden, beets, radishes, peas, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and herbs.
We got to work and weeded a small area. Many gardeners have rabbits or deer to contend with, but we just have our puppy, Jasper the incredible chewing machine, so Emma built a little fence around our garden using only twine and bamboo sticks but he happily jumped through it to check out what was happening inside. Then she put up the chicken wire and that worked. Once we could keep the dog from eating our lettuce we started planting. Of course, the first thing to pop through the earth were the radishes, which are now badly in need of thinning. Then came the beans which are growing at an alarming rate, and are now providing a bit of shade for the lettuce. I have about 25 bean plants that germinated, so I think some preserving will be in the cards.
It was interesting to me to see what took off and what struggled. Our purple basil died almost instantly, but the regular basil is growing well. Some pea plants are growing up nicely, while others have barely grown since we put them in. Some bean plants are 2 ft high while others are half the size. We lost one lettuce plant and the others started slowly, but they have really established themselves in the last two days. Predictably the mint is enormous, while the tomatoes aren't doing so well. Oh, yes, and I have to get around to planting the peppers which are still sitting on my kitchen windowsill.
The biggest issue we are facing are the little pests that are eating our leaves. I don't know if we have slugs, or earwigs, but whatever it is loves the swiss chard. Interestingly enough, nothing is chewing the lettuce at all. Short of standing out in the garden all night and picking the bugs off one by one, we are going to try spraying the leaves with water and dish detergent. Of course, I use a plant based dish detergent, so I don't know whether it will make a difference or not. We also have rain in the forecast for the next four days, so I guess I'll have to do it a few times. If any of you readers have more experience in this, we'd love to hear your solutions before my chard is picked clean.
Difficulty Level: Easy
More on growing your own vegetables
Grow Vegetables Like George Monbiot
Grow the Ultimate Vegetable Garden
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