Mr Yan 2016

[Mr_Yan]

Well I'm really late in starting this thread.

Again this year I am growing both in some raised beds in my backyard and at a community garden hosted by my church.

In the back yard I have created two new raised beds. Each new bed is about 3'x6' and ~10" deep and these were filled with what ever I could get my hands on cheap. My main bed is 4'x7'. I also have some largeish planter boxes. Back here I have planted:

• pea pods
• beets
• spinach
• lettuce
• kale
• dill
• cucumbers
• grape tomatoes
• steakhouse hybrid tomato
• black krim tomato
• sugar baby watermelon
• eggplant
• peppers

Also at home I have a peach tree, blue berry bush, grape vine and have just planted a North Star Cherry tree.

At church I have a 12'x4' raised bed. In this I have planted:

• lettuce (4x4)
• carrots (4x4)
• beets (4x4)

I also have an inground plot measuring 47'x30'. Maybe I have bit off more than I can chew with this.
So far planted in the inground bed are:

• kale
• beets
• mustard
• chard
• potatoes (60 ft of row)
• tomatoes
• butternut squash
• pumpkin (musquee de provence)
• green beans (pole)
• sunflower
• zucchini
• black beans (experiment 100 feet and planted way too close to the pumpkins)
• watermelon (not yet in the ground)

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I am also tracking my spending on the garden and the harvest weight.
I have spent $46.50
I have harvested 1.95 kg - only lettuce and spinach so far
That works out to $13.28 a pound

 

[Mr_Yan]

Yesterday I spent over 5 hours weeding my community garden- I got there at 6 am and left after 11 am. After the weeds are out it looks a little desolate.

Pumpkins and butternut squash along the left edge and two rows of black beans parallel to them. Greens up close. Potatoes in the mid ground. Tomatoes and watermelon in the far dirt patch but hard to see.

Looking from the other side. Pole beans along the left edge (north edge of the garden)

better shot of the potatoes

squash and beans with some of the other plots showing up

This weeding was hard work with a simple scuffle hoe. The areas that I had hoed earlier were much easier to clear again even though they looked the same.

After clearing the area I seeded 3 more rows of green beans and 2 rows of kale and transplanted two rows of collards

 

[Mr_Yan]

There is a random winter squash growing in my cucumber and dill box which I left going to see what happened. Today I noticed that the squash vine borers have gotten to it. The vine still looks good and strong and is actively flowering but there are several holes into it and I cut out a tiny caterpillar that was in one of th leafs.

This is the main reason I have switched almost entirely to Cucurbita moschata. C. moschata has solid vines and is not really bothered by this nemesis as C. pepo is. C. moschata includes butternut squash and many of the cheese wheel type pumpkins.