(Not) Empty Garden Tour

Welp.  I was planning on doing an empty garden tour for y'all this year.

That didn't happen.

So, here's how it looks this week.

 I have eight Roma tomato plants in one of the raised beds.  I was wanting Amish paste tomatoes, but couldn't find them.  Romas are determinate tomatoes, which means they will pretty much produce all of their fruits at one time, which makes them perfect for canning.  I'm not pruning these tomatoes this year, hoping for more fruits.

 Here are some sugar snap peas.  Only about half of them came up, so I replanted, and I don't think any of the replanted peas came up.  Hmph.  We love sugar snap peas around here, so I'm kind of sad about that.  No blooms yet.

I planted some Sakata's Sweet Melon (above) and Otome Watermelon (below) near the trellis on which the peas are growing.  The peas will probably be done by the time these melons begin climbing.

 I've got four strong zucchini plants growing.  I'm planning on eating some fresh, of course, and also freezing spirals.

 I've got about 10 sweet corn plants, and I planted an asparagus bean in each of the six corn squares in my raised bed.

I think I probably have beets growing in one of the raised beds.  Having never grown beets before, I'm not sure what they're supposed to look like, and only one of three squares in which I planted beet seeds actually has anything in it.  I also planted a dozen beet seeds in an egg carton inside, partly so that I could have more beets, and partly so I would know what they looked like, and none of them have germinated.  Hmph.  Well, hopefully we'll get at least one beet to show for my efforts.

The strawberries continue, and the little green worms are back.  I've been hand-picking them and feeding the worms to the chickens, and I think I must have started earlier in the infestation this year, because now I'm only finding about 5-10 worms per day on the strawberries.  Unfortunately, most of the strawberry leaves are damaged, and I think that's why the strawberries we're getting are small.  I've eaten a few strawberries, but most of them are going to the chickens this year.

 The carrot jungle is doing really well.  I really should do some more thinning, but it's really difficult, emotionally, to pull perfectly good food plants out of the ground.

 We have two cherry tomato plants this year.  Well, maybe three.  This one is a grape tomato.  It's flowering (obviously), and there are even a few tiny fruits.  Because cherry tomatoes are indeterminate, I am pruning these plants to encourage strong fruits on the main stem.  The other cherry tomato we're growing is a yellow cherry called Sun Sugar.  This is where the maybe three plants comes in.  I was pruning the sun sugar and came across a bigger sucker, so I cut it off and stuck it in the dirt.  While it's by no means fail-proof, I've had success propagating tomatoes this way in the past.

 One of the fun things about ordering seeds from Baker Creek is that they include a free surprise seed in each order.  This year, I received a packet of purple basil seeds.  So fun!  I definitely need to thin these as well, and will be adding the thinned seedlings to a salad.

And finally, here's what the radishes are looking like.  Whoops.  They bolted, so I guess we're letting them go to seed.  In my research, I discovered that the seed pods are edible, in the same way that pea or bean seed pods are edible, so my plan is to add a few to salads, and possibly save some seeds as well.

That's it for now.  Are you growing a garden?  How's it going?