City Girl ~ Country Heart

Gardening Woes - Advice Welcome!

I took these pictures of my garden yesterday.  I must say, my gardening hasn't gone as well as I had hoped.  As you can see from the pictures, I have a small square-foot garden set up.

Here's what I have in...

4 Tomato Plants

3 Banana Pepper Bushes

1 Cantalope Vine

2 Cucumber Vines

2 Pumpkin Vines

1 Watermelon Vine

1 Rhubarb Plant (that is on the brink of death - I don't think rhubarb is very conducive to the Texas heat)

1 (yes just one  stalk of corn)

6 Carrots

30 or so Onions

2 Strawberry Plants

(Oh and I had planted a bunch of radishes but my heartburn has been so bad I took them out...)

Also I've harvested 8 heads of lettuce - too hot for that now but they were so good.

Anyone familiar with Square Foot Gardening?  Since we live in the city and have limited space in our backyard this is the method I decided would be the best approach.  My sweet & very supportive hubby helped me build my garden for my birthday last July.  I'm by no means an expert at gardening, (can you tell?  )

My tomatoes are overtaking my garden!  I planted them on the wrong side of the garden and they are shading a lot of my other veggies...not sure what to do other than live and learn.  Right now, of the 4 plants, (only 2 are producing - I'm half tempted to take out the other two....but I really wanted to stock up on tomatoes for homemade pasta sauce...yummm).

I have so many more square feet I could take advantage of, I'm just having a hard time figuring out what and where....any ideas?  I know I want to plant some zuchinni and some more corn (my other ones died).  We're in S. Texas so heat is definately a factor.  My concern is my tomato plants....they are so big!  I've made an attempt to prune them back a bit but they just keep growing and growing.  (Note to self - next year get a different variety!  ).

Next project on the list is to get a couple of trelis's up, (for the pumpkin, watermelon, cucumbers, cantelope).  We'll see if they hold....amazingly they are suppose to, I'm a bit leary but this is my experimental year for gardening I guess.

Here's my pretty banana peppers!  I'm going to have to pickle these as I still have heartburn  and hubby doesn't like peppers.  Any favorite recipes out there??

My cantelope in serious need of a trellis....took the bamboo stick from a compost pit the previous owners had built in the corner of our property.  Some day...I'd like to build a barrel type compost container...right now, no fertilizer...trying to keep it as natural as possible...

Yesterday's harvest....I love tomatoes!!!!

So overall I'm happy with the garden....just learning a lot of what to not do next year I guess....any advice is so welcome as I could sure use it!

gardening

07:36, Thursday, June 1, 2006 .. Posted by tioga12

The first thing I think I would do is to mix some potting soil and peat and fill up the raised beds. I live in zone 5, so I don't know much about gardening in S. Texas! You can let the canteloupe branch out on the ground once it extends out of the bed; the same with pumpkins. I guess a good bit of advice would be-don't give up-you learn new things with every year you garden, by trial and error. Good luck!
Annette

Pics. are great

02:51, Thursday, June 1, 2006 .. Posted by babysteps

I love your pictures of your peppers and tomatoes! You should sell that one. It might make a great avatar.

Hang in there!

07:50, Thursday, June 1, 2006 .. Posted by CatherineAnn

You're doing great! Try planting some heat lovers-
Okra- you can get a small variety- can't remember the name...
Eggplant
Cucumber-bush type
How about herbs? Basil loves the heat, and will taste wonderful with your tomatoes! Marigolds will help keep the bugs away and make things look nice. Thyme, Lavender, Oregano are others you can try. You can prune the tomatoes by pinching off new shoots (I can never make myself do it, though).
Have fun!

try the ALL NEW SFG

09:13, Monday, June 5, 2006 .. Posted by lvg4him

First, thanks for visiting my blog and adding me as a friend! I LOVE YOUR BLOG!! I will be visiting again and again! I am so enjoying reading past posts. Looks like your precious baby is due any day now. 18 months apart is a GREAT age apart!!

Ok, now for the gardening tip. I know that the older SFG method you had to test pH and add fertilizer and all that. I would highly suggest checking out the all new SFG book. It makes things MUCH easier. Also, if iit is getting too much sun/heat, you might try making one of the covers in the book to shade it a little. Some veggies need less sun than others. I hope that this helps. I have not been able to do my garden yet as we are planning to move and hubby doesn't want to waste the money on something we won't be able to take with us when we move.