Garden 2019

I finally got the garden in last week. I'm growing mainly from transplants because it was so late in the season and I didn't want to get left behind. I was surprised they still had such a variety at my nearest garden centre. You had to buy them individually though, instead of from those six-pack little black plastic trays. Wound up costing a lot more than usual. Cheapest way to plant by far is with seeds, but we have some kind of critter that really likes eating seedlings.

Unfortunately I can't show a picture of it because when I took a photo with my phone, then tried to email it to myself, it said the image was past the limit, even though that's how I've always uploaded images. I've got an actual camera somewhere, maybe I can try with that. Can't do it now though, it's raining.

It's been really cold and really rainy this season.

This year I'm growing a real variety.

I've got cherry tomatoes, which were the largest producers last year. I got regular tomatoes even though they didn't ripen before the end of the season last time (ate a lot of fried green tomatoes though). I've got cucumbers, which I'm going to trellis this year, didn't know you could do that last time. I'm not doing peppers this years, as they didn't produce last time. A guy I know who grows peppers said that light conditions have to be pretty much perfect for them, and I have a tree that casts some shade on my plot.

Aaaaand as far as new crops go, get ready for this: I've got watermelon, honey dew, cantelope, pumpkins, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. My roommate really wanted to try for watermelon, even though I think that one will be difficult with our shade condition, but why not, let's try it. And since we're doing one melon, let's try the other two as well.

I also planted some snow pea and sunflower seeds just to see if anything happens.

Last year I put the tomatoes in the front, which grew large and produced, but this year I've put them in the back, as well as the cucumbers since they should be tall when I trellis them, so they don't cast shade on the other crops. Then I put the sprawlers such as the melons and pumpkins near the centre so they've got room to grow, and the short plants such as the broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbages are near the front. The snow peas are around the perimeter of the chicken wire fence, so they can climb it. Sunflowers are in jiffy pots for the time being.

You may think that sounds crowded, but last year I had a really crowded garden and all the plants were at least healthy, even if they didn't produce a ton. I want to collect data on what works with the soil here and what doesn't.

So far, it looks like broccoli and cauliflower work! They have already developed what looks like miniature heads of their crop.

My next door neighbour is growing a garden, so I've got a rival to compete with. A bunch of upper unit people are growing from pots and really wanted to plant in my garden because I had some success last year, but once you start doing that, people start claiming vegetables and getting entitled to your space. I ain't running a community garden. I wound up planting under the cover of night, partly to avoid people trying to get me to let them plant in my space. The next day I was like "Well! All the space is used up!"

Last year some upper unit guy tried to plant mustard seed in my garden without my permission. My roommate caught him in the act and chased him off.

At work somebody gave all the staff spice plants. I threw them in a corner of the garden, but I don't really know what I'm doing with those.

That blue hyacinth I brought back from the dead at work also got put in the garden. It was looking pretty sickly by the time it got there, but if it came back once more, it wouldn't be the first time it's cheated death. Worth a try.