Hello Hive community and Hive Garden group. @parsons86 and myself have been very busy with the garden and our day jobs. For about a month straight if not a little longer we were getting anywhere from one to three inches of rain every few days along with almost 100% humidity. To say the least we were a little worried, but we put in some last-minute drainage and definitely did not need to worry about watering. Thankfully we had set up a pretty extensive irrigation system, at least we know it's there if we need it. The weather has subsided now and it is truly beautiful high 70s and low humidity. The plants really did like the heat and the humidity but the moisture was becoming too much. We are very relieved that the weather has taken a turn. We have begun to harvest green beans, zucchini, radish, lettuce and cucumbers. Some of our tomatoes are starting to come in also the 10 different variety of hot peppers we have. I was lucky enough to get some hot pepper plants from my mother that she received from a friend. That friend had received seeds from an Indian man that had brought them over from his home country. I think the name is Jwalla. We are going to save some seed from those peppers also I had a few peas dry out on the vine and I'm going to attempt to plant those, we also let a few radishes flower out and have several seed pods that I am excited to harvest. Now let me show you some of the work we've been doing and are bountiful garden areas.
Here we have @parsons86 tilling a fresh spot below our garden beds he is using a 1960s era simplicity tractor that he got from his uncle. We have had to put some work into it but it has been a godsend and we are truly grateful for this machine. The rest of the land we amended by hand using pitchforks, pickaxe and various other hand tools.
This photo here is one of our cool weather beds that we made we put it in a shady area for cool weather crops such as lettuce, carrots, radish and peas. I have been harvesting from it for almost 2 months now even with the heat we were able to get decent harvest from it I am still picking the lettuce, it has bolted a little bit but I don't mind the taste. We were also able to get about 20 radish, handfuls of peas my favorite, Swiss chard and also I'm about to harvest the carrots. There is another empty bed beside that one that is also for cool weather crops any week now I will start more of the vegetables that I have in the current box and will also plant more seed once I have harvested everything out of this box.
These three images are three more boxes that we built this year out of pine logs that were cut down the previous year. We put wood chips in the bottom along with a custom soil blend and compost. The worms have been plentiful and are loving our organic inputs and helping our plants with their generous castings. In these beds we have several different varieties of tomatoes, one called hillbilly another one called lovers and a few different varieties of cherry tomatoes oh and also a grape tomato. We also have about 20 eggplant plants which I have never grown before but I'm very excited to see how they turn out, I had a black beetle on them for a while but I was able to get rid of them by simply killing them on the leaves with my fingers and a simple soap spray. We also have a few brussel sprouts and a few broccoli along with nasturtiums and a few more pepper plants.
These pictures are of our larger field that we freshly tilled this year. It took a lot of handwork to prep the soil, on the far end was where the pine trees were cut and there were still many roots in the ground. We were able to get it tilled pretty well for the most part but in the rows that I planted I forked by hand and cut out roots and pick stones for about a week. Then I amended with compost, blood meal, kelp and humic acid. We have a row of three different varieties of corn including baby corn which we are very excited to see how they turn out. Next to the corn we planted some pole beans from seeds that were my grandfather's also squash, as I wanted to try the three sisters method from the native Americans. Next to that row we have some red cabbage which the caterpillars have been fond of until I come along hahaha, we also have some more hot peppers a few tomatoes and sunflowers. Next to that row or the bulk of our tomatoes with several different varieties also some pole beans and then on the other edge we have a whole bunch of pumpkins which will hopefully turn out well for all the children in our life, some watermelon and some spaghetti squash. We had the most issue with water in that field as it was freshly tilled and still needs more organic matter to break up the clay soil. We were able to put in a drainage ditch and I was busy cultivating the soil to try and dry it out. We had one or two plants rot but other than that everything seems to be fine now, fingers crossed.
These three pictures are of our bed that we built close to the house for easy picking LOL. We have a whole bunch of green beans, almost too many which I didn't think could happen, a pepper plant that we weathered over the winter and has probably about 30 peppers on it right now I guess we did something right. We also have white onions, nasturtiums the Indian empress variety, basil, red peppers which the wife absolutely loves, as long as they ate roasted and also zinnias and bachelor buttons. Also I don't know what I was thinking and I put spearmint plants in the bed to help with pests as companion plants and of course they started to spread but I have been pulling the roots and putting them in pots so now I have a whole bunch of spearmint plants for everybody which is wonderful. Last week I also dried some in the dehydrator and hope to make tea with it soon. Next to the bed we have two rows of potatoes they are very vigorous and we have been hilling nonstop.
These two pictures are some microgreens that I've been growing inside they are purple kohlrabi. Very tasty and a little spicy I like them better than the Rambo radishes that I was growing.
Here are three pests that we have come across there is the cucumber beetle which I had actually read about the day before then I go out to check on my plants and there she is, at least I knew what it was. There is also two Japanese beetles procreating which I don't approve of but that's just life. And also a close up picture of a Dobson fly which to say the least is really cool and creepy at the same time hahaha.
Next time i will showcase our garden stand we are going to set up next week so you guys can see some of the produce and maybe we'll meet some new people that enjoy fresh, healthy organic food!
For now I will say goodbye and I hope everyone in the hive community is having a great day and enjoying this year's gardens! See ypu next time ! 😁🌻🌄🐛🐝🦋🐞🌦️🪷🌾🌈🌝🍅🌶️🥕🧅🌽🥦🥒🥬🫛🫑🍆
I almost forgot I took a picture of the moon the other morning it was beautiful and also here is a picture of @parsons86 Rose of Sharon that just seemed to start blooming overnight they are dotted all over the yard and will hopefully be transplanting some in the fall.
This is a happy looking garden.
I love how you raised this bed, I think I am going to try this technique of raising beds.
Thank you! Yes they are turning out well, we used old pine logs we had to cut down, then tilled the ground, put about a 4 inch layer of wood chips, leaves, topsoil, compost and amendments. It's a simple form of hugelculture. It will break down over the years in good organic matter. Everything we have put in them is doing very well so far without any added fertilizer and the worms love it! It also helps with wet and dry seasons.
Thank you for elaborating further. I would definitely be going to try it out. Have a nice day ahead.
Your hardwork has paid off! Look at all those variety of plants and veggies. Not sure how you manage to keep track and take care of all of them. But yeah, hopefully, it brings you abundant harvest soon and profit ofcourse!
By the way, it would be lovely if we could take a breath while reading your blog. What i mean specifically is its best to space out your paragraph into 4-5 sentences. It just helps for us to digest well your thoughts and words. 🙂
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