Vegetable Gardening

This year I am planning on doing a fall garden- which will consist mostly of lettuces, onions and broccoli.  I decided to go on and do some research early to find out when to do my planting- I'm sure glad I did!  I'll have to get my seeds started as early as late July/early August to have the seedlings ready for the cooler temperatures.

I guess this means I need to go on and buy my seeds now.  It won't be long until stores stop carrying them, as prime summer planting time is rapidly approaching.

I discovered that the chickens really love broccoli leaves and rutabaga leaves.  Since it was never my plan to have rutabagas, this makes me especially happy- perhaps they will like rutabagas themselves as well. 

Meanwhile, I couldn't figure out why my sunflowers weren't sprouting.  I inspected the garden today and it was just as I feared- something dug up the seeds and ate them! *sigh*.  Guess I will have to start them inside after all.  I was trying to be lazy- I should know better by now!

The hot banana pepper plants are flourishing.  We've even picked our first pepper off one! It is growing several others, which thrills me.  The green pepper plant has a baby pepper on it as well.  It seems like this year they are fruiting very early- especially the green pepper plant, which has always been more of a late bloomer in my mind.

Our cucumber plant is doing beautifully- it is blooming, along with a few of our tomato plants, including the "volunteer".  I also saw "baby broccolis" on a few of the broccoli plants!  The onions are shooting up like weeds and several of them are reproducing as well.  I may hold back their babies to plant in the fall garden.

I think we have some volunteer shoots of corn in one of the onion beds- which blows my mind, as I didn't plant corn this year and it was on the other side of the garden last year!  We have three shoots growing together- I know I need to thin two out, but I always hate to do that.  It feels so wasteful to destroy growing vegetable plants.

The peas are shooting up like weeds- it's incredible! I'm beginning to worry they aren't going to have enough space to climb, but ya know- I only have so much room!  Perhaps next year I'll plant the "three sisters" and let them all grow together naturally.

-Kristen