June 30th
We had a pretty large garden that my mom tended up until I was about 14 years old, when family health complications required that she spend most of the summer away. My dad, my brother, and I were relatively incompetent and highly unmotivated to care for the tender vegetation in her absence. Watering was a despised chore, and the Tennessee summer sun was unforgiving. The garden was surrendered and, truthfully, I didn’t miss it. I never liked vegetables anyway.
However, at the ripe age of 19, my taste buds found their stride, and my palate was opened to a whole new nutritious and delicious, rainbow food group I had previously shunned. Going to the grocery store and the farmer’s market was so exciting now! The variety of recipes I wanted to try grew exponentially! If it was this much fun to buy vegetables . . . I could only imagine how much fun it would be to grow my own! Yes, Mom, I missed the garden now.
I think she thought I was joking at first, and convincing her I would take care of the garden went much like a child convincing parents they will take care of the dog that inevitably becomes inseparable from, you guessed it, one of the parents.
But that will not be the case here! Mom helped me pick out our veggie family and get them settled in the ground, but she has now departed until school starts back and their wellbeing will be up to me.
So here are my wards!
… and now for a recap of initial impressions vs how the plants are doing currently.
Squash
Zucchini Squash
Initial: Half the size of the Straightneck Squash plant with leaves looking like they had seen better days.
Week 6: Honestly Mr. Zucchini is overtaking the whole front left corner of the garden. About two weeks ago, we started getting quite a few zukes in quick succession. One interesting thing to note is that about a third of the zucchini have turned out to be this very pale green color. This Mashed article goes into the difference between white and green zucchini but I still find it odd that both varieties are growing on the same plant in this scenario. My theory is that cross pollination has occurred with the neighboring yellow squash plant, but I’m really not sure. If anyone else has experienced this, let me know!
Straightneck Heirloom Squash
Initial: Really a beautiful, strong looking plant from the get-go.
Week 6: We have gotten several hearty and tasty squash off of this one about the same time we started getting zucchinis, however, this plant as a whole is not looking as good. Many of the bottom leaves are dying, and it’s just not growing as fast.
Peppers
Green Bell Peppers
Initial: All 6 were pretty small but they looked to be in good health. The top middle fellow already had a tiny pepper growing!
Week 6: We definitely planted the front row a little too close to the squash plants because those three peppers don’t seem to be doing as well and the zucchini is overtaking one. They’re not dying per se, but not really growing either, whereas the back three are doing much better and have a few peppers coming. None are ready to harvest yet, as the tiny one that was already on the plant fell off prematurely:(
Yellow Bell Pepper
Initial: Significantly larger than the other pepper plants, very robust looking. No blooms or peppers, yet.
Week 6: The plant itself is still thriving and has 3 fairly large peppers that are looking good thus far!
Italian Sweet Pepper
Initial: We have a fondness for Italy so this guy was a must. He was small, but well nourished with a tiny pepper already growing as well.
Week 6: The tiny pepper already growing quickly tripled in size and a second pepper caught up very soon. I left them on the plant for about a week after they stopped growing in size waiting for them to ripen, but sadly they began to get soft and a bit rotten on the bottom, and I went ahead and removed them. That was about two weeks ago and since then, the plant has not been looking well with many leaves dying and no new growth:( Please let me know if anyone has any tips.
Cucumber
The One and Only (Japanese Cucumber)
Initial: This was really our project plant of the bunch. He was struggling at the nursery and lost one of his three leaves his first day in the ground.
Week 6: Such amazing growth! This guy now takes up almost all of the space we allocated for him and is throwing blooms left and right. Produce wise, he’s got a handful of tiny cukes and one larger one that should be ready to harvest any day.
(Disclaimer: We actually got 2 other cucumber plants later that stay potted on the other side of the house because Mom wasn’t sure if the One and Only was going to make it. I insisted that we could not plant the new cucumber plants next to him in the garden or Mom’s lack of confidence would surely be the death of him.)
Tomatos
Whopper Tomatoes
Initial: These bad boys were spindly and in need of some love.
Week 6: Exciting growth on these fellows as well! We staked them around week 3 and they’re already needing taller ones. All of the plants have a couple of tomatoes growing, but none have ripened just yet. We did run into an issue with two of the plants breaking, though, as we had some strong storms and the ties that were supporting them, actually ended up cutting into the stems. We readjusted the ties for the time being but plan to go back with just some cloth strips that will hopefully be more gentle.
Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes
Initial: A heartstring grab for sure. We weren’t looking for any cherry tomatoes, but he was the last of his kind, and I am not exaggerating when I say the tilt of his stem gave him the appearance of reaching all the way over the other 4 empty rows to come home with us. Physically sound, but he does struggle with balance a bit.
Week 6: He is doing wonderfully now and has grown to the top of his cage. Most of his tomatoes have been cracking right before they ripen, but we’ve harvested a handful.
Somerset Tomato
Initial: All Dad wanted from the garden was tomatoes, so we had to get him a promising candidate. This fellow was chosen for his strong central stem and the tiny tomato already growing!
Week 6: Mixed results. This guy was growing two tomatoes early on and they ripened around week 5 with minimal cracking. However, the plant itself has not grown much at all the whole time we’ve had him and there are no signs of new tomatoes starting.
The Crew Then and Now
Ideally, we would have tilled up the ground prior to planting in order to aerate and loosen the soil, but we were in somewhat of a time crunch. Instead, we just tried to make the holes for each plant a little bigger, and the following day we spread mulch over top to help keep moisture in and make things look just a bit neater.
And that’s the story of planting my first garden! I can’t wait to share more as the seasons progress, but be sure to follow me on Instagram for regular updates @wherethehoneybe. Here are a few more little progress pictures from various stages so far.
