veggie garden

This is very cool. I have a veggie garden. These are the tomatoes; 4 Roma, 4 Big Boy, 4 Mortgage Lifter, 2 Oxheart, 1 Supersteak, 8 Brandywine and 8 German Pink tomato. The Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, Oxheart and German Pink are heirlooms. We'll see if they taste better than the Big Boy or Supersteak hybrids. The heirlooms are supposed to get 12 feet tall. I'm going to let them run on the ground (in the 5' wide aisles) and D says that I will need a machete to get down the rows by the middle of July. We'll see. The garden is over on Morrish Road, not too far away, but I do have to drive in order to water and weed. The farm owner has a big tank on a wagon and lets me water from the tank. I went over last night and put Miracle Grow and water on all the plants. I have to go back this weekend with the little tiller and start the weeding process. I put in a row of big red sweet onions, a row of potatoes, a row of 2 different kinds of bush beans, a row of snap peas, and a row of radishes, carrots, and spinach. There are 2 rows of Straight 8 cucumbers, and green and red bell peppers, and some Garden Salsa pepper plants. I also planted 2 rows of tall marigolds and a row of zinnias that I started in the florida room from seed. I didn't want to, but I had to stop planting. H was giving me the evil eye. He says that we can't eat that many tomatoes, but I want to can or freeze them this year so I need a lot. I took photos tonight of the cucumbers, beans, and radishes, as well as C looking really excited about being in a garden. She told me that she would go with me, but she wasn't getting dirty and that we had to stop for Dairy Queen. I'm not sure that I am going to be able to afford the "help" but I'm going to get her to help me weed this weekend.

I pulled a few weeds tonight, but mostly I just took photos, admired my plants, and left before the skeeters arrived for the evening. I have missed having a garden, and to have an annual garden and a veggie garden too this year is an incredible luxury. I know, I should be careful what I wish for....

I am totally disgusted with myself for putting the 5 yards of compost on the beds at the house. The compost was full of weed seeds and I have at least 20-30 weed seedlings per square foot that I have to pull by hand in the annual bed, the perennial beds, the herb garden, the raspberry patch, and even in the pots of cherry tomatoes on the deck. Good grief, the compost was supposed to help mitigate weeds, not promote them. I have learned my lesson, next year it will be mulch again.