a garden update
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rainbow chard
rainbow chard in the center – 4 pepper plants left front – cucumber plants right front and along the side edge
So remember back on August 3rd when I was complaining about not seeing peppers or cucumbers on the plants?
kale front left – peppers front right – cucumbers in the back
August 20th.
What a difference 2 1/2 weeks can make!
The kale plant sprouted after my 2nd planting last month. Looks like it’s going to make it this time! With the first planting it only grew to about 1” tall before the sun sucked the life out of it.
The rainbow chard has been outstanding. This was the only veggie to grow from our first planting back in May. It took awhile but just won’t stop now. We have 2 rainbow chard plants and I have picked them about 5 times each. The leaves are tender and the stems are colorful + crisp.
I’m going to have romaine! Finally!
We have about 6 or so romaine plants that should be ready for picking in 1-2 weeks. This was also from the second planting on July 16th. The romaine that was planted back in May never even showed its face.
Say hello to my first cucumber. Ready to be plucked! I forget which plants are pickling cucumbers and which are full size. These look like the pickling cucumbers to me.
Cannot wait to start making my super simple pickles! They’re ready to eat the very same day you make them.
6 Spice Pickles | Simply Dill Pickles | Red Hot Pickles | Lemon Basil Pickles | Sweet Garlic Pickles
Salt + Pepper Garlic Pickles | Pickles Banana Peppers
Are these not the cutest little things you’ve ever seen??
My pepper plants have come back to life as well. 3 out of the 4 plants looked like they were ready to give up a month or so ago.
But I finally spotted a few baby green peppers!
And a little ladybug.
Below is the 1st pepper plant I bought at the farmers market this year. While it’s taken awhile to grow it was the only pepper plant that didn’t look like death as of last month.
Once fully ripe these peppers will be turn purple + taste sweet!
Slightly excited…
I totally forget what type of peppers these are. The water washed off the ink from the tags. Guess I’ll be doing some experimenting soon.
And here we have a handful of butter lettuce plants, replanted in July.
The only thing I did differently from the first planting back in May?
Watered the plants more!
It may have also still been a bit on the chilly side at night when I first planted the seeds. Next year, I will start them indoors and hopefully have better results.
Nothing else was different between the 2 plantings and knock on wood, we haven’t had any bug/pest issues at all. A few munched on leaves but that’s it. I actually know nothing about organic pest control since it hasn’t been a problem for us [yet!].
You can find all of the specifics on what we filled our garden bed with in this post. We tried out a new local product called Agrichar. Since we’ve never had a garden in Colorado before we’re not sure if our results are typical or if the success from the second planting has anything to do with the Agrichar. We also haven’t used any fertilizer or compost, per the suggestion of that product.
As soon as I have a handful of cucumbers you can expect a cucumber salad recipe.
And a pickle recipe…obviously!
Stay tuned!
Ashley
