My 2010 Garden

[kimbledawn]

Here are pics of my garden this year. New beds have been added and I am planting the veggies closer to gether to see if it can work.

Here is my main tomato bed. It is front and center of my garden. 4'x6' I planted 17 determinent and ind. plants in this bed thinking that when the det. were done I could cut them and continue to harvest from the others.

[img]https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kimbledawn/tomatobedsm.jpg[/img]

I planted: black prince, stupice, early girl, manitoba, tangella, chocolate cherry, hung yen, and a couple more I can't remember now.


Here is one of my pepper beds. It contains habs, jalapenos, and chilli peppers. 3x4 with twelve pepper plants. It has been eaten by sluggs so my plants are still small.

[img]https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kimbledawn/P1000754.jpg[/img]

There is also some stray lettuce and nasturtiums growing.

In the pot in front is one of my blueberry bushes.


Other pepper bed, wonderbell, banana pepper, three eggplant, and okra.
[img]https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kimbledawn/pepperbedandbluesm.jpg[/img]

Other blueberry bush in front.

Will post trees, backbeds and strawberries next.

[garden5]

Nice garden!

Best of luck with your blueberry bush, it seems every critter there is likes to nibble on mine .

[rainbowgardener]

Your garden looks lovely, well organized and well cared for. I'd love to have a garden like that with so much space AND a fence around it!

[tedln]

Very nice garden Kimbledawn. Remember that when you plant close, you will probably need to water and feed more often.

Ted

[Dixana]

Ted what do you feed your plants? Mine are going to be planted a smidge closer than they should this year too, is tomatoe tone for the maters and compost/worm tea once a week or so enough? Oh and the eggshells and coffee grounds dumped throughout the garden as well.....

Kimble your beds are wonderful! I wish I could have such thorough and nice organization in my garden.

[tedln]

I used to always simply use 13-13-13 commercial fertilizer. For the last couple of years, I've used some purchased compost. I wasn't making my own compost. Now I am making my own compost and will feed it in the future. I've never used any products made specifically for a particular vegetable. I suppose they work, but one of my measuring tools for a garden is cost. Most of the special products simply cost more than the value they deliver for me. While I am a gardener who wants to maintain a healthy garden from the soil up, I'm not a purist. I'm not above recognizing a certain plant needs more help than slow release compost can provide. You can usually tell a plants needs by its color and size compared to the plants around it. I will still add a side dressing of 13-13-13 for a few plants. Normally those plants will then develop roots which will grow into a zone where they can obtain what they need.

It seems as we prepare our beds in the winter, we attempt to insure all the soil in a bed is equal in minerals and nutrients. It seldom works out that way and we wind up with great spots and not so great spots. I try to treat the not so great spots as they appear with whatever they need.

Ted

[kimbledawn]

Thanks for the complimentsS DH gave me the garden last season for mother's day. My first season ever gardening!

Very nice garden Kimbledawn. Remember that when you plant close, you will probably need to water and feed more often.

Ted

Thanks! DH installed drip irrigation this year as part of my mother's day gift, and we mulched heavily this year also.

As far as feeding. I prepped my beds this year with manure, compost, epsom salt, biochar, blood and bone meal, alfalfa, greensand and rock phosphate. I feed them compost tea every two to three weeks and folier feed once a week. I also walk by once a month and throw tomato tone, brown sugar, mumseys mix(something I got from another forum(dry milk, epsom salt and corn meal) and other amendmends in the bed and let the plants take what they want.

There are a lot of flowers and small fruit on the plants now so I am supplimenting the drip irrigation in that bed with water from our rain barrels so that the other beds won't be overwatered.

Right now they are ok, but I will have to prune more as they get bigger to increase airflow. Any other suggestions are welcome

[kgall]

You're beds are beautiful!

Can you tell us more about the mumsey's mix? What is it's primary purpose? Please share!!!

I got my garden last year for Mothers day as well! I got blueberry bushes this year...The gifts that keep on giving you could say!

[kimbledawn]

Thank You!

About Mumsey's mix, as far as I know, one of the posters on the forum named Mumsey has a recipe that she uses on her tomatoes and she maintains heathy plants with great yeilds. She puts the mixture in each hole when planting and side dresses with it. I think that the milk and corn meal are used for their anti fungal properties and the epsom salt for magnesium. I am just open to try anything affordable and organic so I throw everything in the soil.

[kimbledawn]

Here are my other pics.

[img]https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kimbledawn/grapesm.jpg[/img]

These are our grapevines and the trellis DH made for them.


Here is something I am very excied about. I want to start a medicinal garden and these are my first three plants. Yarrow, St John's Wort and Helichrysum Italicum!!

[img]https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kimbledawn/medsm.jpg[/img]

Here is a pan of most of the garden!


[img]https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kimbledawn/garleftsm.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kimbledawn/gardensm.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kimbledawn/viewsm.jpg[/img]



and here is some of my tomatoes

[img]https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kimbledawn/tosm.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kimbledawn/tommysm.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kimbledawn/tom3sm.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kimbledawn/tom2sm.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/kimbledawn/tom1sm.jpg[/img].

[farmerlon]

Here is my main tomato bed. It is front and center of my garden. 4'x6' I planted 17 determinent and ind. plants in this bed...

You certainly may prove me wrong (it's happened many times before ), but I think that is too many tomato plants for a bed that size. I understand that you plan on "thinning" the plants, as the Indeterminates wind down... still seems like a lot of plants for that space (to me).

I really like the woodwork that you've done for the garden ... looks great!

[garden5]

Well, sometimes with the tomatoes the extra yield to to the extra plants outweighs the loss of yield per plant due to crowding.

[kimbledawn]

You certainly may prove me wrong (it's happened many times before ), but I think that is too many tomato plants for a bed that size. I understand that you plan on "thinning" the plants, as the Indeterminates wind down... still seems like a lot of plants for that space (to me).

It is. I knew it was a lot of plants before I did it but I just couldn't help myself I don't think I really expected them to survive and thrive like they have, so now I just have to be vigilant with their feeding and watering.

I was counting the blooms on one of the det. plants and there are over fifty blooms open on one plant That is more than the total I got from eight plants last season!

I am excited about the challenge and I will see if they produce less than the tomatoes that I have spread out in my other beds and in bucket.

Dawn

[lakngulf]

To me that is the hardest part....leaving enough room between plants. I want to get so much in the garden that I get things too close, and it is SO HARD to thin the plants.

As you can see from these two pictures, I probably have more in a small space than I should, AND I try to leave room for the big hydrangea bush on the bank.

[img]https://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/lakngulf/2010_May_M01004.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i854.photobucket.com/albums/ab104/lakngulf/2010_May_M01005.jpg[/img]

[Halfway]

Great photos!!

Can someone tell me what "DH" stands for? I see it in a lot of posts and can't for the life of me figure it out.

Thanks.

[Dixana]

DH=dear husband DD= dear daughter DS=dear son etc

[kimbledawn]

Dear husband

[tedln]

Dear husband!

Ted

[donworden]

Funny, the way my wife uses it you sure it don't mean da**n Husband?

[applestar]

Kimbledawn, your garden is looking fantastic!
Oh, it's going to be a great year!!

[Susan W]

Dawn, Great looking garden, and shows much effort on your (and DH's) part.
BTW, what part of town are you in? I will be more than happy to bring you bunches of fresh herbs for a few real tomatoes. (I'm mid-town)

[kimbledawn]

Hey Susan I work near the university. Maybe when things are ripe you can get some tomatoes.

Dawn

[Joyfirst]

Funny, the way my wife uses it you sure it don't mean da**n Husband?

I guess that depends on the day.

[Joyfirst]

Very very nice garden. Wow! you used so many amendments. I am using rock dust, biochar, manure, worm castings and of course compost, and I thought I was overdoing it. But now I think I need to add something else.