Liisa's Garden Journey: bell pepper

Showing posts with label bell pepper. Show all posts

Friday, February 18, 2011

A Garden Insectary

A new friend of mine Debbie Ballentine owner of Native Heart Landscapes sent me a link for Natural Pest Control. I will be telling you more about Debbie in an up coming blog post for the Haven Garden. But until then I hope you find this link useful.

In My Garden

Last weekend I took down one of the greenhouses to make room for my potted fruit trees. Removing the greenhouse also allows the small strawberry bed access to more sun.

Banana, Blueberries, Avocado and Nectarine

The Day Avocado put on a lot of new growth over the Winter. Two more years and I should have my first avocado.

The planting grids have been installed in beds 3 and 4.

I planted 4 squares of carrots in bed 3 and in bed 4 I planted 4 squares of lettuce, 3 broccoli and 2 cauliflower.

Bed 2 is looking good.

Carrots

Spring Onions

Pak Choy

In the Greenhouse the seedlings are doing very well. I will need to transplant the tomatoes into bigger pots soon.

Peppers and tomatoes

Cucumbers and tomatoes

That's it for now. If we get a break in the rain tomorrow you can find me in the garden.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

End of July Garden Review

There is something about July where I just don't feel like posting. Same thing happened last year. I know it's not the heat because we are not having any. The temps have been in the 70's for the last two weeks.

The garden this year is not doing as well as I had hoped for. The cucumbers are only putting out one or two cucumbers at a time and the plants are really small. The mini bell peppers are loaded with fruit but are taking a long time to ripen (they're red and yellow). The full size bell peppers only have two or three per plant but are still pushing out blooms. The crookneck squash just can't seem to get the timing of male and female blooms right. I get all male or all female. I'm having to pick male blooms and put them in the refrigerator until I get female blooms and then hand pollinate (Thanks Granny).

As for the tomatoes, the brandywine has no flavor but I did hear they do better in areas with high humidity which we don't have. The Cherry and the Roma's on the other hand are doing well. Loads of fruit but are taking their sweet time ripening. Early potato yields were very low and the main season potato plants died off early. I haven't dug around to see if there are any potatoes in that bin. As for the mid season potatoes they seem to be doing better than the others. I'll let them go until Sept as I'm getting a second wave of vines and flowers on them. The sweet potatoes are looking good but what do I know, it's my first year growing them.

The acorn squash has one nine inch fruit on it and a few smaller ones. I don't think I will get more than three or four out if this one plant which is OK with me. Again my first year growing them. I think I will grow them again next year. Bush bean did OK but now that I have grown pole beans I don't think I will waste the space with bush beans. I'm harvesting one to two pounds of pole beans every two to three days with about 20 plants. I'm having to freeze them since there is just the two of us we can't eat through them fast enough. I'm giving away some to my sister and mother.

Garlic was a bust for me this year but my onions are bigger this year than last year. I still have not pulled them but will most likely do so tomorrow as they are not putting on any more size. There are onion fields not far from where I work. I can always tell when it's harvest time as the air is filled with the scent of onions. That time was about two or three weeks ago... I think :-)

Since the weather has been so cool I think I will try a late season sowing of lettuce. I will only have sun on my bed for another three months so I might as well give it a try. I have some carrots planted but think I will plant some more.

The Haven Garden is doing well and looking great. VISA had a team of volunteers build us four raised beds for the expanded garden I planned out earlier this year. As soon as VISA gives me permission to use the photos I took I will update the Haven Blog. If you have not yet signed up to be a follower be sure to stop by and do so. I have a few more plans I'd like to put in place but don't know if they will happen this year.

Below are some random photos I took on July 24th. Be sure to click on them for a larger view.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Information Overload!

I know you all have been dying to know what I'm growing this year in my small space. So grab your favorite beverage, sit back, relax and enjoy.

As I was going through the photos I took for this post and making a mental list of everything I have growing in the garden right now I could not believe how much I have crammed into a 30 by 28 foot space.

Photo below: Bed 1 also known as the tomato bed. The tomatoes are starting to flower but I have not seen any fruit yet.

I have six tomato plants in this space. Two each of the following...
Back - Heirloom Brandywine
Sides - Peacevine Cherry
Front - Ropreco Paste

Photo Below: Next to bed 1 under the lemon tree is early potatoes.

Photo below: Bed 2 has a mix of spring and summer crops.

Lettuce - Sea of red cutting lettuce, Red Sails and Sweetie Baby Romaine.

6 Spiking Purple Broccoli shown in photo above.

Cucumbers - 2 Persian Baby shown in photo above.

2 English cucumber.

2 Satsuki Madori Rare. I planted seeds in the bed about two weeks ago. Two are just now sprouting.

2 Sweet Maketmore. The seedling's are not growing very much but the weather has been on the cool side for us.

Also planted in bed 2 are onions, garlic, 2 cilantro, 6 green broccoli.

Photos Below: Bed 3 is planted with...

Red and Yellow Bell Peppers

Lettuce - Arugula, Heirloom Merveille de Quatre Saisons (head lettuce)

14 Sweet Basil.

Photo below: Carrots - French Baby (babette) and Crispy French (Bolero Nantes)

Photo below: Summer Squash - 1 Crookneck Sunny Supersett and 1 Zucchino Fiorention.

Photo below: Bush Beans - 8 Blue Lake, Bountiful Stringless Snap and 4 Rolande

French Filet

Photos below: Bed 4 is planted with...

12 Mini Bell Peppers

16 Red Onions

16 Pole Beans - Kentucky Wonder and Emerite.

Baby Spinach

Lettuce

Photo below: Bed 5 is new to the garden this year. I planted Royal Acorn Squash which I will try to trellis so I have room for a few sweet potato slips. To the right of the bed I have a small strawberry bed and to the left I have two potato bins one with mid season crop and the other with main season crop.

Photo below: Bed 6 is the smallest of all the beds at just 2'x3' 6 square feet. Planted with thyme, chives, lettuce and spinach.

I also have lots of stuff growing in pots around the patio as well.

Photo below: Ginger Root

Photo below: 2 Columnar Apple trees.

Photo Below: Day Avocado.

Photos below: Banana

Photo below: A new banana pup. This photo was taken a week ago. I was walking through the garden after work today and saw a second pup. Is this a sign that the mother stock will fruit this year? I hope so!