Tag Archives: watermelon

Catching Up

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The lettuce is coming in, but the celery did not. The carrots are coming in, but the spinach is not. The Sugar Snaps are doing great but neither the tomato nor the pepper plant came up. The lettuce came in really well so I thinned by transplanting a dozen or so to where I had planted the celery. I bought a few tomato and pepper plants a week ago and planted them. They are doing well and I look forward to eating them. The watermelons have sprouted.

I weeded my gardens today. It's so much easier to do when the dirt has never been stepped on.

While weeding I found this egg. It was inside the fence and near the edge.

I have taken to a strange practice with my rain barrel. I grow catnip in it. Maybe none of the reasons I do it are any good but here they are anyway. First, because I can. Catnip grows very easily and quickly puts out roots in water. Secondly, I have found the water, if left to it's self, will start to smell bad. With a plant growing in it that usually goes away. I suspect that the catnip feeds off bird droppings and other dead plant life such as algae that sometimes grows.. Thirdly, I found that catnip is a pretty good deterrent to ants. If I can water with a natural ant deterrent then I will. I'll never forget the nightmare of stepping onto the walkway of my garden to find that it woke up the colony. I've since planted some catnip in that spot and I haven't had trouble since, but spreading the love around is OK with me.

Maybe I'm just crazy but I feel like this helps.

Starting Planting

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I planted a few seeds this evening. In Garden #1 I planted a square each of spinach and carrots next to the garlic.

In Garden #2 I planted lettuce, celery, sugar snaps, watermelon, Old German tomato and bell pepper. I was careful to not plant the tomato and pepper too close to where I had the tomatoes last year. The watermelon seeds are left over from the watermelon that grew last year.

I forgot to update on the rain barrel. It works quite well for me. The gutter system captures less than a quarter of my roof area but even an inch of rain fills the barrel. I think I have space to add an additional barrel if I could find one on the cheap.

Mid-Week Update

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I've been steadily watering my garden, except during out latest rainy spell. Anytime you want to feel good about gardening toss some beans in the ground. They do well almost anywhere.

I have a dozen or so tomatoes that are still green, I'm sure they'll come along eventually. I picked a cayenne pepper, it's doing OK despite being shaded out by two tomato plants. I have a tiny watermelon growing! I'm excited to get at it eventually. The pumpkins seem to be getting ready to make a fruit here or there.

The corn didn't turn out too well. Not very many kernels were fertilized. I don't really have the space to do it, and I might not next year, unless I do a whole bunch in a larger area.

Growing up Gardening

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Ok, I haven't really grown up gardening but, I have continued to come back to it.

When I was about 5 years old my parents helped me grow a garden in the back yard. We purchased the book Kid's Gardening, and planted the seeds from that book. I don't think I did very much weeding there, my memories involve long and large patches of grass growing up along side watermelons and tomatoes. This garden was a row garden.  We moved during the winter after this and the new house didn't provide a good place to start another one.

kevinWhen I was 18 I worked for Morning Glory Farm. Morning Glory was run by a couple that lived in Union county. The farm was located on roughly 50 acres. The Raibles ran a strictly organic farm. I learned a lot from them and most of my opinions on gardening came from what they taught me while I working there. There were two sections of planted area, one in the front almost strictly of flowers and one in the back, fenced in, mostly of vegetables. Also near the vegetable plot they had a greenhouse and a bee hive. The greenhouse was of simple design, a long room with a semi-circle shape made from PVC pipe and covered with plastic sheeting. The bee hive served two purposes, first to pollinate the plants so that the vegetables could grow well and secondly, to get delicious honey. I worked there for about 2 years before school and an internship took up too much of my time.

Now, at 25 I own a home and am trying to garden again. You've seen the website where I try to keep an updated record of what's happening and obviously you are reading this where I'm keeping track of my progress.

I hope my future remains in farming. I would like to have a dozen or two acres with room for some grain crops along with a garden, some livestock and of course a beehive of my own.