I'm thinking of making a small garden this year.  I've only had pots on the patio the last couple of years.  I need to get started, it has been so warm lately.  I'm going to Lowe's to get flowers today, going to see if they have plants out yet!

Garden update, July 2009

We were late planting this year. I used up some seeds from last summer, maybe even the summer before, and many didn't come up.

We planted tomatoes, tomatillos, zucchini, jalapenos, basil, mint, swiss chard and radishes. Some are in pots this year.

I'm planning to add some more chard, then plant some other greens in the fall, to keep it going as long as possible this year. We ate our first zucchini this week, and several more should be ready soon :) So far no tomatoes, I've had bad luck with them the last two years. My plants look okay and are blooming, so maybe I'll still get a small crop. We also planted a 'topsy turvey' tomato, it's not doing much either, I think it may need more sun.
(you can click on the pictures to see them larger)

Weeds!

The weeds invaded my garden over the last month or so of the season. I'm not sure of the best way to get rid of them. Dh mentioned getting a tiller but I'm not sure how that would work inside my frames.



*My tomatoes were great until the vines started dying. Blight? I've only had one big tomato garden before and it was carefree and produced till frost. I was disappointed that my vines died out so early this year, I was hoping for months more...



*Should I worry about planting in the same soil? The tomato garden that did well was a mix of early girl, better boy, and beefsteak. I tried several heirloom varieties this year, I wonder if I should stick to disease resistant varieties?

*The bugs took over my squash and I had to pull them up. I'm not sure if I'm going to try again. You always hear stories of people having way too many zucchinis, what's the secret?



I would like to plant an early spring garden with greens so I need to get busy. I heard chard was easier than spinach, so I'm considering, chard, cabbage, not sure what else.
Any advice appreciated!

Update for June 30

This is my update for last week. I took these pictures on the 30th of June. We have two bug pictures this week. The first looks like ladybug larve, we were researching ladybugs earlier that day and the kids spotted this one, really cool :) The other is a tiny squash bug, ick. I'm not sure if I'll do squash again, it's having a lot of trouble.

Update June 22

I took these pics on the 21st. We found a huge tomato worm earlier this week. Scary looking. The kids wanted to keep him as a pet :) I've been searching for more all week but so far so good. We picked a bell pepper yesterday and added it to dinner. I think I'll make fried green tomatoes this weekend. I've been reluctant to pick any, I'm not sure why... I'm getting more large tomatoes so I feel more secure :) My plant with the roma style tomatoes is doing nicely. It has several large clusters, I took a pic of one for this post.

Squash!

After doing a search and learning all about squash and male and female blossoms, I guess my squash is doing fine :) I did a irl search and found several small yellow squash on my plants now. I'll try to get a picture soon.

Updated garden pics for June 14

I'm worried about my squash... they are blooming like crazy but I'm not seeing any little squash? Some blooms seem to just fall off and leave the stem looking like it was cut. Anyone have any ideas?

Tomatoes are still doing well. I transplanted my 'mild' jalapeno plant, it seems to have survived it and has a tiny pepper and more blooms. I added the rest of the bag of chicken manure around some of the plants. I'm adding a picture of my tiny eggplant :)