Kansas Hillbilly Backyard Garden 2013

It's been quite a while since the last update. Much rain, and cool temps are hindering some things (like tomatoes, some peppers), but helping others (corn and peas are taking off!)




Lettuce is all gone, finally! Corn is taking its' place with beans and broccoli.

Tomato / Pepper / Carrot / Onion / Pea / Bean planters are really filling out.










Potatoes are taking over the tubs! One more fill of leaves to do, and they'll be good to go until harvest time.

First tomato of the season.



Peppers galore!

WOW! Garden is going crazy! I can't wait for home grown tomatoes!!!

Those are some beautimous peppers!

GG

REALLY GREAT LOOKING GARDEN Your progress is astounding.

Thanks for the kind words!

Garden survived sustained wind gusts yesterday afternoon of over 45mph, even had a 53 mph gust, and then over two inches of rain. Whew! Dodged a bullet there!

Been harvesting things in small amounts as they come in. This has been a really good experiment. Already postulating what we will do next year based upon this year's results. May nix the corn all together -- takes too much water and too much space, when you can buy them so cheap at the farmer's market -- doesn't make sense to spend the time / money / resources on it yourself!

Got a good bunch (my first!) of green beans tonight.



Also harvested one of the potato plants just to see what it was doing, along with the (probably) last of the peas; and a jalapeno pepper that I thought was ready. (spare carrot that I accidentally pulled)

I hear what you are saying about the cost of corn vs. the effort to grow. I got hooked on the taste of 5 minutes-from-the-garden corn. The taste is so incredible compared with even the farmer's market, forget the grocery store I'm more likely to visit. It is a delicacy for me each year, which is why I was so outraged by the squirrel bandits last year and put a cage around my corn this year.

I will not be denied the sweet, fragrant, melting taste of corn that is in the pot before it knows it's been picked.

Maria

Slimbolen, Your produce looks tasty. Well done.

I don't have any space in my micro back yard for corn. However, if I did, I would want a box or ten of fresh corn! Plain ole yellow corn. What I learned this year is that there is usually only one ear per plant!

Man, it's been awhile since I posted an update. Here is the garden a few weeks ago. I need to go out and get another photo.

Have already plucked all the potatoes, bush beans are done producing. Never got anything out of my broccoli except some really good looking plants. The okra hasn't taken off; probably shaded by the corn (which is over 12' tall NOW and putting on lots of ears). The two planters on the northeast side have already been pulled and replanted...more on that in the next post.

So, ran into a MAJOR problem with our tomatoes. When I originally planted then indoors, I had them all labeled nicely, and when we took them out to transplant them, I thought they were all in order; well, I was WRONG. Apparently, my two year old moved some Romas and Chocolate Cherrys, and they were planted next to each other in two planters. My cherry's were great; my romas crossed with the cherrys and it turns out didn't develop the bottom half (rotted off). At first I thought it was blossom end rot; but it was only the romas that were in the planter with the cherrys. Lesson learned: label every single 4x4" planter when you originally plant!!

Have also pulled all the onions and garlic; the onions did okay, but the garlic was junk. I am sure I probably planted them wrong; and probably at the wrong time. Tracking down some more to plant this fall.

Wow! So much space  Looks lovely

Your garden is amazing!  I never knew that could happen when different types of tomatoes are planted next to each other!  I wonder what will happen to mine!

Have been working feverishly the last month or so with big plans for next year's garden. Started with redoing the layout a little little bit; adding 3' border around the entire backyard to do some square foot flower and herb gardening.  Also will be adding an additional five 4'x8' boxes for vegetables.




Moving the four raised beds to the "right", which will help accommodate the 3' border flower bed on the "left".  This will mean that I will have two 4x8 beds next to each other, basically 4x16 beds.  I have found that I personally don't need that walkway in the middle.



To the left of this bed will be my water storage barrels (twelve 60 gallon tanks all interconnected and raised up for water pressure.



Here you can see our leaf pile we've been working on mulching down and laying into the new beds, to be covered in black plastic for the winter to break down.

Wow!  Ambitious plan!

Finally got some black plastic on some of the new beds.  Have added 88 linear feet of new beds; still have about that much to do after this cold spell that's coming up.

West side planter -- mostly annual flowers



Strawberry beds



Another strawberry bed (right side), perennial flower beds to the left and back



East side of the yard; will be mostly coneflowers and milkweed



And, can't leave out a cell phone pic of the great sunset I was working under.

Gorgeous sunset.  Thank you for sharing.

Most of next year's seeds came in the mail...

That's an impressive early seed order!

Expanding the garden from 600 square feet to 1400 square feet.  Lots of work to do, starting with realigning the existing beds and adding new ones along the fence line.

BEFORE



AFTER

Lookin' good Slim! Can't wait to see it 'green'!

GG

If I remember correctly, you are also going to plant flowers.  Should be gorgeous looking this summer.

Well, the compost I was going to buy for the garden just went up in flames...literally.  BIG fire at the compost facility.

Via twitter:

City of Shawnee KS ‏@CityofShawneeKS:
The fire @ Deffenbaugh is under control, compost pile is now burning & they r working to contain embers to the area