Our rainy weather has been overwhelming to my spring garden. My plot in the community garden soaks up way too much water. Next year I will build raised beds. It’s too difficult to sit and have to watch my lovely plants soak up way to much water, yellow, and then fail to produce the harvest that I was hoping for. The plants seem to be dormant and aren’t growing like they should be. A week and a half ago, I planted 6 more tomato plants in lieu of spinach that failed to grow. Now the tomato plants have turned purple and are waiting for warmer weather. I’m sure they will be very late to harvest, if at all.
On the upside, my summer plots at my parent’s home are doing wonderfully. My tomato plants and peppers are growing beautifully. I’ve never seen such beautiful foliage on my tomato plants. The Heirloom varieties have leaves unlike any found at your local nursery or garden center. I’ve also been excited to watch my beans grow. They took about a week and a half to germinate, but once they sprouted, they took off! I’m growing purple and yellow varieties. Next week I’ll plant two more rows in order to have a succession of plantings. My zucchini, yellow squash, and eggplants are also doing very well. I also planted radishes and they seem to be doing much better than the radishes I planted in my community plot two weeks before.
I’ve been following a blog called Skippy’s Vegetable Garden. (She has a great planting calendar for you to use!) I always get inspired by visiting this site. A down to earth woman that loves to garden. I’m definitely going to take her lead and start utilizing more raised beds. Especially in my community plot! I’ve learned from Skippy’s that I should start a garden journal in order to learn from past mistakes and to remember successes. I plan to do this next year. To create a planting calendar and start tracking what I’m doing in the dirt 🙂 I also realized that I could use a couple more raised beds. Next year I’d like to build a couple more on the south side of my house and utilize them for lettuces, garlic, and onions.
Below is my garden update in pictures.
Summer Plots at Mami and Papi’s
Spanish Variety Eggplant
Franklin Community Garden Plots
My strawberry plot has been prolific!
My spring plot. As you can tell all the rain has made my plants start to yellow 🙁
Fava Beans
Broccoli – I think I need to harvest this as I noticed some yellow in the head.
Can anyone share if I should wait for the head to get larger?
Peas – They have started to flower, but now all this rain is turning them yellow 🙁
Chamomile
Onions – They also do NOT like all of this water!
It doesn't look like your broc head is very large, so I think I would let it grow. However, My sister who i a wonderful gardener, ties her leaves up loosely around the head of her broc and calif when they start growing to keep them from changing color and to keep some pests away. Hope that helps
Hope
Thanks Hope!! I'll try that!
wow I love your plants, hope the rain slows down and your plants make it, so thats why my squash is turning yellow too much rain in NC as well lol
Look at my little Zekie. I can't wait to get home and see him walkin' around the house.
IF it were me, keep an eye on the broccoli. Just because it isn't very big doesn't mean it isn't ready. Different varieties will produce different sized heads. You don't want them to open up, and most plants will produce other heads, side shoots, once you pick the main head. Like other veggies, if you keep them picked well, they will continue to produce for some time. I would also put in a second crop come the end of July for a fall harvest.
Thanks for the input Abby 🙂 This will be my first year that I will actually put in for a fall harvest, so any tips and suggestions is soo much appreciated 🙂