Snapshots of How It's Growin'

Overview

Elijah's Carrots

Cabbage


Salad Lettuce (looks like lunch for tomorrow!)


Green Beans

Peas Appease

Well friends, I am not going to be harvesting any broccoli.

No raw broccoli for my three year old (he doesn't understand what happened, but neither does anyone).
No fresh cream of broccoli soup.
No broccoli for my freezer.
The plants are large and healthy, but no stalks are growing. Nada. Nothing. Just leaves, leaves, and more new leaves in the center of every single plant!

I do want to show off my whopper broccoli, though (it almost covers a 4 square foot area). Here is one of nine gigantic leafed plants that's going in the composter tomorrow...



However, the peas are a-coming, and so it makes me forget my broccoli woes (momentarily). Very soon I will be popping fresh sugar snaps in my mouth. Maybe my three year old can be appeased with peas.

Got Turnips?

Looks like Lisa's got ladybugs, but I have turnips! :)

They aren't huge, but they are big enough to do something with.

The Ladybug Neighborhood

It has only been recently that I learned my great grandfather was an organic gardener. And honestly, when the big beautiful leaves of salad greens and zuchinni plants start to show signs of buggy diners, it is very tempting to try and find a "mild" pesticide.

Instead, I'm using ladybugs to fight my battle. I'm not sure how many lady bugs were in each container, but there were a TON! The store estimates 500 per container and 4 containers were released.

A friend jokingly told me the perferred method of releasing the bug: "On a windy day, walk three to four houses down and release them." I guess when enlisting lady bugs to combat the pest problem, the whole neighborhood can benefit. Lady bugs like to fly during the day. To keep my lady bugs in MY garden, I needed a few helpful hints:

1. Lightly water your garden area just before dusk.

2. At dusk, release the ladybugs.

The lady bugs wil not fly at night and are more likely to find food and decide that your plants are the perfect neighborhood to move in to and have children. :)

I went and checked the next day...sure enough. The ladybugs have found a new home in my garden!!!