Time to Finish Transplanting This Week

I thought this week would be the perfect time to finish all my transplanting.  I completed a big chunk this week by adding the last of the tomatoes, some eggplant, peppers, and many different beneficial flowers.  Getting them into the ground was my first priority.

I had let my tomatoes grow long enough in the containers that they were held in and they seemed to not be looking good towards the end.  They were growing, but leaves were starting to curl and new leaves were not growing as fast as they should.  Once I noticed this I placed them in the garden and began transplanting them immediately.

In the photo below you can see how the roots had reached the bottom and could no longer continue to flourish.  This is when you know it is time to place them in the garden soil.

This is what they looked like after placing them in the garden.

They are already starting to look much better now that they have plenty of room to grow.

I also worked on my pepper plants too and they were not going anywhere while they stayed in their peat pots.  When they stop growing or halt their production they need more room to continue and that is exactly what I did with them.

Eggplants are usually last to be added to the garden because they take quite a while to grow in small containers, but once they start producing leaves they take off really fast.  Now that they are in the ground they will grow much faster.

Some flowers were also added including sunflowers this week.  I only added the transplants that I had and will plant some more sunflower seeds because I want to make sure that I have enough in order to attract as many bees as possible.

I added a large container full of cilantro into the ground.  I wasn't sure if it would come out easily, but in the end it actually came out like a large brick similar to what alyssum and dill do.

I love dill and planting as much as possible provides two advantages.  The flowers attract good insects and I can use the leaves for flavoring in many dishes.  There is nothing better than fresh organic dill.

The last flower I added was purple alyssum.  I was able to plant them in large green pots and still have some to plant in the garden.  I have about a couple of containers left after transplanting what I had ready for the garden.

Sowing Seeds Directly into the Garden

Sowing seeds outside is still a great way to start a garden.  I only plant certain seeds indoors that I know I can easily transplant into the soil and can bring large harvests of fruits and vegetables.  There are some seeds that I am not able to transplant or are just not worth the effort because they don't need that much time to mature.

Those seeds that I am talking about are corn, carrots, and beans.  Corn can take some time and might be possible to transplant them, but unfortunately they are not great transplants and are best for planting them into the soil directly. 

Carrots cannot be transplanted because their roots will not grow straight making for really strange looking roots.  Pole beans are simply much more easier to grow directly outside in my opinion.

This is exactly what I did today.  This is the last step in the garden that I take once I complete all my transplants.  I still have some more transplants to go including flowers, some tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.  Before time ran out I wanted to make certain that I had planted these seeds into the garden.

Two rows of pole beans.

Two rows of corn and one row of carrots on the left.

Before planting these seeds today this past weekend I also collect some spinach that was ready for eating.  Check out the size of these leaves below.

This wasn't the largest leaf that I collected either.  This was probably much more closer to the average size that was growing outside.  With 56 leaves and a weight of 4 pounds means that they were very large and heavy leaves.

Started Transplanting All My Plants This Week

With the good weather over the past month it was time to start putting them into the ground right away.  The quicker they are placed in the ground the faster they will provide a good harvest hopefully.  This is why I decided to place them in the garden.  I still have not finished with the garden, but I should be complete by next week.

I am aiming for next week because I still have have plants to add to the garden including eggplant, peppers, along with planting corn, beans, and carrots.  There is still plenty to do and I am not sure if I can get this done by the weekend.  That is the earliest that I can get this done and even with good weather I might not get it done that quickly.

So far I have got a couple of alyssum plants in the ground along with squash, cucumbers, and melons.  This includes both watermelon and cantaloupe as well as zucchini and pumpkin squash plants.  I even had time to put some pot bound tomatoes into the ground too.

Here is a cucumber plant added to the garden this week.

Here is a pumpkin and zucchini added to the garden as well.

Thriving Lettuce Now Transplanted To the Garden

I haven't been doing much in growing and instead have been watering my onions, spinach, and all my plants that I started indoors.  They have been doing great outside with the great weather I have been getting and now it is time to place them in the soil right away.  I would have liked to place them in the ground last week, but I still have time and decided on this week instead.

For now I have just worked on my lettuce plants.  I moved all my plants to the garden, but I have only placed my lettuce into the ground.  All the others will come in the next two days hopefully.  I am hoping that I can finish everything that I need by Wednesday at the latest.  I want to get them done by Tuesday, but I am not sure that I can finish it by then.

Black Seeded Simpson

Ruby Glow Hybrid

Had Some Weeding To Accomplish Today

Today was just as busy with all my spinach plants that are starting to be taken over by thick thriving weeds.  Weeds come just about everywhere in any type of form.  They can damage and easily take over the garden if you don't stay on top of them.

That is what I did this afternoon and made sure that they will not come back for at least a couple of weeks.  They can easily come back as long as a good heavy rain came.  Since we haven't received much rain in the past couple of months they will not grow back as fast as usual.  It will probably take them an extra week in order for them to be a factor.

You can see from the two pictures above that weeding your plants can help them out and makes them look professional with not weeds or grass around them.

Tilling the Garden Completed Along with Spinach Harvesting

This week has been busy with the tilling of the garden which took a few days and picking many rocks that needed to be removed from the garden.  This is something I started this year in order to remove as many rocks as possible while I was tilling.  Some of them prevented the tiller from doing its job and I had to remove it.  This way next season there should be less rocks to deal with and it won't take as long to till.

Anyway it got done and below is the result of tilling the garden.

Spinach has been growing quite well especially with all the fertilizers and water that I have been giving it.  It has been using it to grown dark green and beautiful leaves that have been quite delicious.  They have not been bitter either which can happen with too much nitrogen.

34 leaves and a half a pound is what was picked up this past weekend.  It doesn't sound like much, but trust me with leaves of this size they will last for a few weeks at least.

Harvesting of Spinach for 2015 Completed Today

Although I picked my spinach leaves today I still have plenty of more harvests to come.  I pick my spinach leaves at intervals rather than all at once.  I find that I can enjoy my spinach leaves for so much longer and I won't be overwhelmed with all the leaves that I collect. 

This is a little bit different than with lettuce because with lettuce you can choose to pick them all at once or at intervals.  It is all your preference and what type of lettuce you grew as well.

I am going to have some of my spinach for dinner tonight and throw them in a salad that I am going to make.  I took some off the plants before picking them in order to make sure that they were ready and were not bitter.  This can happen with leafy plants such as lettuce, celery, and even spinach.  They were not bitter and were not going to get any bigger so I picked them today.

So far the plants are looking good and I hope to continue picking them throughout the season as long as they don't get any insect or animal pests attacking them.