'Green' Update

Well, a lot has changed in our garden since the last post.  Lots of things are growing and producing food already, and a few are not even close.  First, though, I wanted to tell you about our berries.  It could be a post all to itself!

The best blueberry bush

The one that started over at ground level

My mom ordered some blueberry plants online.  She got about a dozen plants total of 4 different varieties.  I took 3 plants home to plant, and she kept the others.  You have to have at least 2 plants so that they can cross-pollinate with each other, in most cases.  There are special plants that can cross-pollinate themselves, but most cannot.  Before we planted them, we prepared the soil.  I picked out the spot I wanted to put them, had my dad bring over his tiller, and we worked it up.  It was terrible soil, almost entirely clay.  That’s one joy of living in Ohio—the large amounts of clay soil.  Unfortunately blueberries need well-drained soil, and clay does not fit that category.  So we got some peat moss and tilled it in, which loosened up the soil a lot.  We did the same thing at my dad’s house.  We watered them and waited.  We watered them and waited.  We watered them and waited.  We watered them and then contacted the company.  We watered them and then received a full refund because only 2 seemed to have survived.  I have one of them.  Most of them pretty much started over, because there are small sprouts at ground level with dead stalks that should have sprouted.  Only 2 completely died, and I have one of those too.  I almost went to a local nursery and bought some bigger ones, but I figured we would have enough blueberries in a few years anyway with two bushes.

Raspberry

Blackberry

I did put in some blackberries and raspberries as well.  We prepared the soil the same way we did for the blueberries, adding lots of peat moss to loosen up the clay.  I got two of each.  They aren’t growing as well as I thought they would, but I really haven’t had any experience with them either.  So I’m not entirely sure what they should be doing.  They are still alive, and flowering a little bit.  So I’ll let you know when we get our first berry!

I transplanted some bushes to help separate the berries too, which made that side of the house look a lot better.  I still need to mulch it, which would help the berries and other plants a lot more.

Transplants and Rasp-/Blackberries

I did get some mulching done around the front of our house.  I started by mulching around my raised beds, which I think looks pretty sweet.  Then I used the rest on the front of the house.  It was the perfect amount, down to the last shovel full going right where I wanted it to go.  So that was pretty cool!

Garden, mulched around the beds

The garden is growing, mostly.  I did reap some ‘fruits’ already.  We shared our first snap pea, which tasted ….very green.  I liked it, Rachel didn’t.  She’s not too much of a pea eater anyway, which means I get them all—and I am by no means complaining.  

Snap Peas

We also got a huge bowl of lettuce and a small bowl of spinach.  I was nervous about the lettuce because I tried some when I was cutting it, and it was really bitter.  Once I got it inside and washed it and trimmed off most of the stems, it was good refreshing lettuce.  I will welcome any tips on growing lettuce.  I enjoyed a salad already, and I think we’re going to be giving most of this bowl away to some friends.  This is way too much lettuce for us to eat anyway.  We’re planning on freezing a lot of spinach to cook with at later times.  And I’ll be sure to have some fresh spinach before it’s all as cold as Santa’s toes.

Spinach on left, Lettuce on right,
2 beets in the middle, 2 peppers at top and bottom

Pole Beans

Our squash (summer squash and spaghetti squash) is by far the best growing plants in the garden.  They’re so arrogant with how quickly they grow and how much they take over.  I had replanted some green beans right next to them, and I had to trim back a bunch of leaves from the squash just so the beans can get some sun light.  Maybe they’ll grow better now.  The beans and peas haven’t really done all that well yet.  They’re growing, but they aren’t thriving.  The only thing I can think of is to give them more water, but I’m having a hard time giving them a good drink every day as it is.  We’ll see if anything changes soon.

Remember all of those seedlings of tomatoes and peppers I started and then had to restart because our house was too cold for them?  Well, they’re barely bigger than when I put them in.  The tomatoes are still alive, but not really growing.  A couple peppers became rabbit food and insect food, but a few are still hanging on.  No idea which colors they’ll be!  












The cool thing about getting topsoil from my dad is that they used to grow tomatoes there and they used to throw out some food scraps there.  So I have 5 tomato plants growing that I didn’t plant.  And they’re growing better than the ones I wanted to grow!!!!  And potatoes too!  I didn’t plant them.  They grew on their own.  So I’m excited to see what they do.

Asparagus

Asparagus is still growing, getting bigger and thicker.  I filled the trench in the rest of the way with good dirt and some peat moss.  I never did re-read the instructions with them, but they’re still alive and growing.

I had planted an avocado seed last year just to see what would happen.  I also researched to find out if they would even grow around here.  Avocado trees don’t like frost at all.  It will kill them.  And I live in Ohio.  So.  I would have to keep it inside in the winter like I already have done, but it wouldn’t produce very much fruit, if ever.  So I put it outside to toughen it up and see what happened.  I think it got too much rain….and sun….and wind….and became a snack for some insects too.  But I’m not concerned since Ainsley will have one less plant to attack and less dirt to eat come next fall and winter.

Almost all dug up!

Lastly, this is where we are currently with the patio.  It's taking so much longer than we anticipated, but it's still getting done.  We feel like we know what we're doing with it and how to do it.  And I'm learning that I'll probably never do it again without either a lot of help from friends in a matter of a weekend, or heavy machinery.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.  They were taken on our brand new Nikon D5100!  It’s a perfect camera for us to share.  It can do with it what I want from a photography standpoint (which I really haven’t done much with taking photos in a while anyway), and it takes good pictures quickly and easily enough for Rachel’s desires.  So it’s great.  Thank you, Nikon.  Thank you, Amazon.com.

And thank you for reading, whoever you are.  (I apologize for the crazy formatting.)