How Does My Garden Grow?

• Who can find a virtuous woman? her price is far above rubies
• ...with her hands she planteth a vineyard

From a distance, my garden is starting to look just a bit ragged. We had a couple of nights of pretty heavy frost, and although I covered everything as best I could, where the cover touched the leaves of the squash, the leaves turned black and then brown. It looks terrible, but I left the dead leaves alone, thinking that it would protect the underneath part of the plant...

..where it appears to be still growing strong, full of blooms and...

...the beginning of baby squash! There are several, like the one on the right, that look like they're suffering from blossom end rot, so I pulled them off. According to what I read online, this could be from inconsistent watering or lack of calcium in the soil. Adding eggshells to the compost will help for next year, but for this year apparently I need to get some calcium foliate that I spray on the plants. So I'll be visiting the feed store or maybe Tractor Supply and see what I can find.

Meanwhile the chard is thriving and ready to start picking the outer leaves, I think.

I actually thinned the lettuce, I harvested enough for a couple of salads for myself and some to share with my mom and dad, as well. I think I should be able to just clip the outer leaves and let the rest of of it keep going. The carrots need thinning badly, I just love their feathery tops, though. I wonder if I can eat the tops of the ones I pull?

I have two new additions in a couple of the empty squares--my mom and I ordered a few small fruit plants, and I stuck them in the bed temporarily. When my husband is home over Thanksgiving we'll decide on more permanent locations. These are several varieties of blackberries...

...and these are some blueberry plants. It'll be a couple of years before we get anything off of these, but I'm looking forward to harvests for many years to come!

Since that last heavy frost, we stuck a couple of old tomato cages in the corner by the squash, and then partway down by the lettuce, so I'm hoping having a raised cover will protect the squash plants a little better, at least until the blooms that are already there have a chance to make.

Meanwhile, I'll be enjoying the salad!

Until next time...

This post is linked to:

Garden Party Tuesday at An Oregon Cottage

Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer