PCM's garden

[PCM]

Hello everyone! Long time reader, first time poster. Here are some photos of my garden thus far.

Siletz, Valley Girl, and Charger tomatoes

This is the first time I have ever planted tomatoes in March. I took a risk this year and planted about a month earlier than normal. Apparently they don't die when night time temps are low 40's.

Siletz tomato already growing

This is the largest tomato I have so far. Last year was my worst tomato harvest ever. They were only golf ball sized and the plants seemed stunted. Not exactly sure what happened but I have hopes that this year will be better.

Jalapeno plants growing slowly

I started my jalapeno plants from seed two weeks before the tomatoes. As you can see, they have not grown as much.

Jalapeno pepper

Sorry for the slightly blurry photo. I have a jalapeno growing already! Last year was my first year trying these and I got a grand total of 5 peppers from the two plants I grew. This year I've grown 10 plants. I'd like to jar these peppers and eat them through the winter. I'll see how that goes.

Green beans

Here are my green beans getting started. This year is unique as I did not buy a single seed packet from the store. Last fall I finally realized I could save a few bucks and just save seeds from the end of the season.

And now for the new stuff that I am trying for the first time ever.

Cortland onion

I started a few onions from seed back in February. This one has 9 leaves so far. No bulb yet, though. The other two in the photo are just store bought green onions that were used for a meal and I planted the bases to see if they regrow. They do, how 'bout that?

Jack o Lantern pumpkin

I promised my toddler aged son I would try and grow him a pumpkin for Halloween. I would hate to disappoint him.

Crimson Sweet Watermelon

Not much to look at, but this is my attempt at a watermelon. I've read that these vines get big so it has a bed all to itself.

I hope to follow up with more photos as things get further along. I'm pleased with my progress so far.

[applestar]

Looking good!

I'm not familiar with the tomato varieties -- heard of Siletz but can't remember characteristics. If they are average sized heirloom-type tomato plants, you will need stronger taller supports (I hope you do and have a bountiful season!) I use those kinds of supports for the jalapeño and other medium sized pepper plants.

I LOVE that you can just plant onion bottoms, especially when what you are looking for are onion greens to harvest

And YEAH! to saving the mature bean seeds to grow next year. Good luck with the rest of your garden too-- especially the pumpkin and watermelon! Will be looking forward to seeing the progress updates.

[lakngulf]

Good luck with the garden, PCM. Looking good. All the plants, especially tomatoes and peppers, will like the night temps to be in 60s instead of the 40s.
What type lumber did you use for your boxes, and what type soil?

[PCM]

I used con heart redwood for the large beds, lined the bottoms with gopher mesh as I have MAJOR issues with gophers and moles. I trap about 5 every year. That's what I get for living next to a large vacant field. The soil is my own garden dirt mixed with some home made compost. I see lots of earthworms in there so I must be doing something right.

The watermelon bed is a Mel's mix I put together in a cheap $37 raised bed I bought off amazon.

[PCM]

My onions have started to bulb. I've never grown onions before so I can't help but feel a bit giddy.

Bulbing cortland onion

I've read a lot about long-day and short-day before deciding what to buy and my latitude seems to be in a grey area. The seed packet said 38 degrees latitude and up and I live at 37.5 so I figured close enough. So far so good. I had delusions of grandeur when I bought these seeds that I would grow large onions and then turn them into deep fried awesome blossoms. A guy can dream, right?

Also, here is the last carrot for the year.

I tried carrots for the first time last fall. Planted in October and did almost no maintenance for them. By spring time they were ready to harvest. The kids sure love them

[rainbowgardener]

Garden looks great. What a cutie with that carrot!

You know you can also plant carrots in spring. I am eating garden carrots now that were planted in late winter....

[PCM]

Good to know, rainbowgardener. I've been a casual gardener for years but just recently tried to step it up and try more than just tomatoes and zucchini and such. It's amazing how much there is to learn. It's also amazing how much money I can save on groceries. $5 for a bag of carrots vs. $3 for a packet of 100 seeds, just sayin'.

[imafan26]

Looks great! Feed the peppers, they are moderate feeders , tomatoes are heavy feeders. If you use tomato food on both they will be happy. Follow the directions for the amount and frequency on the label.

[bri80]

Nice! I grow Siletz every year. It's the only determinate I grow, and I grow it because I like the size of the fruits, how much it produces, and it produces FAST... so I use it to get tomato season started early while my longer-to-get-going indeterminates catch up.

[PCM]

Things are growing! The tomatoes are still green but there are already far more than I got last year in total and much bigger. This is my first year spreading compost and it has made a difference.

And the jalapenos and jalafuegos and growing like crazy. My wife makes awesome homemade pizza and these hot peppers are going on there next time that happens.

Bell peppers are growing (slowly). I swear, every year these plants just sulk for about 4 months before they finally do something.

And my watermelon plant is getting bigger. I'm focusing on nitrogen fertilizers for now then I'll switch to balanced ferts once flowers appear.

This is going to be a great summer, I can tell.

[PCM]

Getting lots of tomatoes and a few yellow zucchini.

And my wife made a meal

[applestar]

Oh yum! Looks great! I'm looking at a whole bunch of baby green maters on fast-growing plants, and just a couple of the earliest ping pong ball sized ripe ones -- so your pictures are making me wish for them to mature faster!

I do have some overwintered peppers that have been producing already. But it's the hot ones that are easy to overwinter so I have to be creative about how to use them.