Second Vegetable Garden Planted!

There are just too many vegetables that I want to grow!  I had to expand!  I started with a meager 4'X8' plot, but today June helped me add another plot 4'X7'.  I removed the grass, then added 3 bags of Vigoro Organic Garden Soil. 

In it we planted:
Burpee Organic Garden Bean - Provider seeds (55 days to maturity)
Bonnie Straight Eight Cucumber- plant (50-75 days to maturity)
Bonnie Straight Neck Yellow Squash- plant (46-52 days to maturity)
Bonnie Japanese eggplant - plant (50-60 days to maturity)
Bonnie Jalapeno Pepper- plant (72 days to maturity)
Bonnie Yellow tomatoes- plant (72 days to maturity)

New Veg Garden (fig tree behind and original veg plot to the right)

Now we just need to keep the bunnies and deer away and prevent the little kids from trampling the little plants - always a challenge!  Time for another round of Liquid Fence!

Basil Harvest

While Robin sat quietly in her stroller, I took out all the basil.  Robin is pretty grabby these days, and couldn't resist trying to stuff some basil leaves in her mouth. After letting her do a little taste testing, I made a big batch of pesto.   I froze most of it in ice cube trays to use later. 
I also took out a tomato plant, harvested a fig, and planted 10 cloves of garlic. 

Broccoli and Pea Harvest

We just got back from a week long vacation in Florida.  I left the broccoli just starting to bud, but when we got back it was already about to flower.  I missed the ideal harvest time. June and I wasted no time in harvesting all the crowns.  I filled a gallon ziploc bag with the freshly picked and cleaned bounty and stuck it in the freezer for steaming up later.

Our first peas are popping now too. Delicious!
The spinach got to be about two feet tall and stringy so I yanked it out of there.  I'm tired of spinach now anyway.  We have tons in the freezer and we can do some more in the fall.
Little tiny peppers are forming on the one pepper plant.
The tomato plants all had their tops nipped off (deer).  I doused them in Liquid Fence.
Most of our sunflower seedlings are suffering.  June can't resist stamping on them or digging them up.  We might still get a couple.
Now that the broccoli is done I think I'll try some string beans in their place.  I couldn't find any plants, so I guess I'll have to try them from seed.

Summer Vegetable Recap

I thought I'd recap what went wrong and right this summer with the veggies:
Yellow straightneck squash: planted 2 plants from Home Depot.  Yielded 2 lovely little straightneck squash.  I definitely did not have enough room for these since the tomato plants just took over EVERYTHING.

Red Bell Sweet Pepper: planted 2 plants from Home Depot. These totally got overshadowed (literally) by the tomato plants.  We got one pepper.  Unfortunately I picked it too early - I forgot they were supposed to be red peppers.  Next year, I'd like to so a separate bed with sweet and hot peppers.

Black Prince Heirloom Tomato: I guess these are heirloom for a reason.  They tasted awesome, but we had trouble with these tomatoes being deformed, split, or hole-ridden.  We didn't get many perfect ones, the rest I just incorporated into sauces.  Not going to do this one next year.

Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato: This plant went crazy.  Good yield, good taste.  Would definitely plant these again. Next year I need some better and taller supports.

Orange cherry tomatoes - GREAT SUCCESS.  June loved picking these and eating them.  Huge yield!  There are still lots of green tomatoes ripening on the vine now in mid-september.  Again, next year I need better supports - the plants grew to about 7 feet tall before slumping over and shadowing all the herbs.

Rutgers Heirloom Tomato: Tasty, but unfortunately the deer and rabbits took a lot of these.  Next year - fencing!  These grew pretty big and we didn't have too many problems with splitting or disease.  I might stay away from the heirloom varieties next year and stick to the hardier types.

Sweet Basil - total success!  No deer or rabbit trouble.  but gone now :(
Oregano - success - gone now
Parsley - success - gone now
Rosemary - success- still going strong
Mint - in pot, could use a sunnier location next year