Not sure if any of you recall or not, but we had two community garden plots at the beginning of the year. Now we have one. Let me explain why. You see, planning and attending a wedding during the first part of the growing season is just not the best idea. The plots got a little neglected with our being out of town and busy so often with wedding planning. So after the wedding, we went down to the garden and our plot with herbs, greens, squash, cucumbers, beans, and sugar snap peas was loaded with weeds. So we took to working on the weeds. We got about half way through the plot and realized there was no hay left to cover the plot with. We decided to wait a little while before really weeding to see if some hay would show up.
We wrote the community garden coordinator who said he would get some more hay to the garden whenever he had the time. These wonderful folks also have full-time jobs and family and other obligations and yet take their time to do something like make sure folks have what they need at the community garden. Anyway, it ended up taking a few weeks for him to get around to retrieving and delivering the hay. In that time, we just neglected the plot more as we would not have been able to keep up with the weeds due to constant rain, and we don't have a car, it isn't as if we could go get our own ground cover. Needless to say, we went back to look at the plots and the plot with the squash and such was just overrun. The plants were being choked out by all the grass and it was really beyond repair. Our tomato, tomatillo, carrot, and okra plot was, however, salvagable. As much as we didn't want to do it, we wrote to the community garden coordinator and asked him if he would till up the plot for someone else to use or for use next year.
So last week, with hay being available and the time being right, we went down and took care of our other plot. It was a few hours of intense weeding, but we got the plot weeded, hay put down, and all the plants tied up or tied to tomato cages. We only had one bit of trouble with our second and now only plot. Brett had gone down last Friday to begin the task, as it was a big one, crab grass really gets rooted and is hard to get out. He did about a quarter of the plot, and left our tools, tomato cages, and stakes down in the plot so we could go finish the next day. We had two tomatillo plants, one near each end of the plot. Now sadly, I didn't get to see this tomatillo plant before it was too late, but one had reached a massive height of about 4 feet tall and was loaded down with blooms. It was also hanging a bit over into the neighbors plot. Not a big deal, thought Brett, since we were coming down the next day to finish taking care of it, and our plot had been seemingly unattended for weeks prior and nobody had bothered it. Well the next day when we went to finish the job, Brett found our prized tomatillo plant ripped out of the ground and laying next to our plot. Our neighbor thought it was a weed and pulled it. We were a bit pissed as tomatillos really don't look anything like weeds and why now? Why after it had been in his plot for weeks did he decide when we were actually staking up and taking care of the plot to rip it out? We sent out a respectful, but slightly angry email indicating that the proper course of action is to contact the community garden coordinator, not just start messing with other people's plots. But it was too little too late for that tomatillo. I guess on the bright side, we do still have one.
Okay, check out the selected pictures of the community garden plot. I am really lazy, I know, as these pictures were taken last Saturday.
Not the greatest picture, but it gives you an idea of what our plot now looks like.
This is our remaining tomatillo plant. It's just a regular 'ol green husk tomatillo plant.
It has a lot of fruit developing on it! It seems that the tomatillos plants are the bumble bees' favorite. They flock to this plant like I've never seen them do with other plants.
Some Moneymaker tomatoes.
Here is a picture of some nicer looking Moneymaker tomatoes.
Some lovely striped Tigerella tomatoes.
A bad picture of some okra.
The only thing I didn't get a picture of were the carrots. I'll try to remember to get a picture of them when we go down next time.
And on to the container garden.
A week or so ago, I checked last years' garden updates to try to gauge our pepper plants' progress at this point. It seemed like they were behind, and looking at our updates from last year, our hunch was substantiated. We started all but the serrano plants from seed this year and had a bit of trouble starting out. We weren't very on the ball with things - I was dealing with a bit of anxiety troubles and in February, gardening isn't always on the brain. So long story short, the seedlings that actually did take hold were started a few weeks later than they should have been. BUT, the plants are starting to flower and produce, so I can't complain too much. Gardening is a learning experience and I am just thankful that I don't rely on, for my livelihood, their doing well. We'd be in a bit of trouble if that were the case. :-0
So here are the pictures of the container garden that I took yesterday morning.
This cayenne plant, one of the few successful early starts has produced more already than our cayenne from last year did. And they are so darn good looking cayennes too. These are in various stages of ripening.
Here is another picture of the cayenne plant, you can see there are green ones, some that are starting to ripen, and some that are just about there.
I need to get off my lazy butt and get that ristra started!
Some jalapenos.
A blurry picture of a New Mexico chile.
Wow, I am stoked that I finally did a garden update. I gotta stop slacking so much. I mentioned, I believe, two weeks ago something about a cookbook teaser post I would be doing that I have still yet to do. I think I just have to accept it, I am lazy. So I will say this, I would like to get a cookbook teaser post up at some point in the near future. That is about as much detail as I am willing to give.
Happy Friday everyone!
'Til next time.
6 comments:
That makes me upset too, thinking of the person who pulled up your tomatillo plant. Even if it was hanging into his/her plot, it seems a bit petty, particularly as it doesn't effect his/her own growing, you know? It is intended to be a *community* garden, not an area with each plot fenced off and in isolation. Sigh.
Oh a happier note, hooray for the cayanne plant :-) So healthy looking. I hope it keeps giving cayanne. I saw a great idea for using stuffed hot pepper with cheese on Judy's blog at My Freezer Is Full... how do you use all the pepper you grow?
Congratulations on your community garden! I hope that you have much success as it goes along :)
Wow--those tomatoes are gonna be fabulous!
Courtney
Your patio garden is looking great. Looks like you finally have your community garden in shape. Hopefully it will produce nicely for you. Makes me really mad when people take it upon themselves to destroy someone elses personal property. And in a community garden yet. Go figure. Well maybe next year will be better in that respect. Your peppers look wonderful. Hugs, Nan
Excellent post. I've been learning a lot of useful things from this blog. I am a lover of the nature and gardens issues so this is what I needed it, but I still thinking, we don't need a community garden coordinator, we just need imagination... isn't?
Well actually i was in a group like this, but that lady wanted me to do whatever she wants... so sorry for her, but no, i actually like plants and do gardening but i will never allow to someone to tell me what to do, i prefer do thing by myself and is pretty easy because you can find good stuff on internet.
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