Been a little while......

Since last post, so I'll catch you all up. Lets see, my cuccumbers made great! I was really impressed with the amount that I picked. The only negative was they were a little small, only got about 8" at the longest. It could have been the variety, but i'm not sure what they were. I had tomatoes that were loaded down. I had 2 plants that were about 6' tall. I ws getting ready for some nice crops when, I got busy a couple days and was unable to check on them. Well, when I got back everything was wiped out :( I had been attacked by hornworms. I only found one, but everything had been eaten on, all the tomatoes, bell peppers, banana peppers. The only thing untouched was the hot peppers. So I was a little discouraged, but I got some lettuce coming up so now looking forward again. :))

Too many cuccumbers........

LOL, I have started giving them away. I know Icould pickle them and such, but I don't really have the time. I do slice up a couple each week and put in a jar of cold pickles, as I eat them down I just keep adding more. But mainly use about half a dozen each week for salads and such. I have gotten a couple cherry tomatoes the birds have gotten a few:>( I do have a couple big green tomatoes. Tempting to go ahead and pick them to fry up, but think I'll wait til the end of the season..........

Everything doing great........

I'm getting about 3 cuccumbers every 2 days now. Didn't have to buy cuc's at the grocery this week :)) Just planted some butterhead lettuce seeds this week. I think i'll plant some more at 2 week intervals. I also have some romaine to plant still.......

First Cuccumber

Got my first cuccumber today! It was hiding under a leaf real low. I didn't even know it was there, so it was a great suprise find this morning. About ready to plant some more things, might still be a little early for lettuce, since the heat index was around 124*F yesterday.

New Pics.....

wow !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Been busy lately and havn't time to write. The garden is outgrowing it's bounderies,lol. I have since put up a 4' tall trellis for the cuccumbers and the vines are starting to reach the top. I looked under the leaves to find prob a hundred blooms. At that rate I'm going to have more cuccumbers than I know what to do with,lol. Two tomatoes are past the top of their cages, two are close, and two are still small about 18". I planted the biggest 4 at the same time, however they were very differant in sizes when I planted. I have picked one banana pepper and one hot pepper. I have a couple tiny tomatoes, several tiny bell peppers and a few hot peppers. The hot peppers are pretty big but I'm waitin to see if they will turn red........

Two new tomatoe plants........

I got 2 early girl's planted yesterday. It says maturity in 50 days :) I have all the tomatoe plants caged now, and I need to get a trellis for the cuccumbers. Other than that, I'm just waitin a little longer before I start the lettuce and greens.

Doing Great.......

Everything seems to be happy in my little garden. The cuccumbers are literaly taking off. They have prob doubled in size in just 2 weeks. The tomatoes are slower, but that is expected, they do look healthy though. All the pepper plants are great, I've got 1 banana pepper about 2 1/2in long and several other blooms that are starting to fruit. The hot pepper has 1/2 dozen little peppers. All looks well......

Sprinkler System....

I searched the outdoor watering section at Lowe's the other day for a sprinkler system. Since I'm on a budget, I didn't want to spend a whole lot, but wanted something that worked. Well, this is what I came up with....

1 section garden hose 15' $5

1 hose spliter with cutoffs $2

4 hose ends $2 each

2 sprinkler heads $2 each

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$ 19

First Plants..........

I got the first set of plants in my garden yesterday, just before a good rain. I have 1 cherry tomatoe, 2 creole tomatoe, 2 heat tolerant variety tomatoe, 2 green bell pepper, 1 banana pepper, 1 hot pepper, 8 cuccumber plants.

Got my boxes together.....

I've got my boxes together now, and am putting together a soil mix. I've had trouble finding hort grade vermiculite for Mel's mix, so I'm improvising my own mix and will try it out. I got some moisture control potting soil as a base. It is supposed to retain moisture which is what the vermiculite is supposed to do. I mixed in some cow manure, and peat humus. I have a couple inches left to the top of my box, so i think I'll look for another variety of compost material. Anyway I'll get some picture up by next post.

First Post......

Hello all,
This is my first post. I've been reading for several months now, and started gathering eveything to start my own sfg. I've helped my Grandfather with some large 1/2 acre size gardens when i was a kid, and my father did some sfg years ago when Mel first introduced the concept, so I'm somewhat familiar with growing fruits and vegs. But this will be my first attempt myself.
Its a little late for a summer garden here, so I'm preping for some fall vegs. I'll load some pics once I get them on my computer.