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Photos are below the words.
Have a look around as I share my garden with you. I am growing enough to feed myself and a couple others and then freeze the rest so I can eat well in the winter and save money. We are in mid-season right now, at August 1, 2012, and I planted everything from seed, no starters, on the week of May 12th. From May 12th through about July 15th, I was busy for an average of 5 hours per day, every day, either weeding, or building the trellis and fence structures. This was done in tandem with the sprouting and growing of the plants-as I got the weeds down in one section, up they came somewhere else and meanwhile as the little melon plants got so high, I had to build small supports, then over to the tomatoes, back to the cucumbers, and so on. Hence the five hours per day. I built the supporting structures all out of reclaimed wood that I scavenged from construction sites, and from a fence maker who made a big pile of unusable fence boards for me. They are totally usable for my funky trellis’ and melon fences.
The structures were/are being built right along with the plants growth-if the plant goes higher then I add more structures. But at six feet, I level off and start them going sideways, over the top of other plants not so high like the eggplants.
Lots of fun. Lots of work but worth it. I really feel like a small scale farmer. An urban farmer. It is my first garden and I did not seek out any advice anywhere, I just winged it, I am satisfied with how things have developed. Even though I did not seek any help or advice, I did listen to some gardener radio shows, and looked on the internet about ‘trellis’’. But I did not do anything that the radio show said to do, I did not plant or space things according to what the packages said, I did not ‘thin out’ anything, and I built all the trellis and fences in my own fashion, not following anyone.
In the photos, you will see melons, but not squash or beans or red tomatoes. Melons are just about half grown, tomatoes not red yet (but I guess there are more than 3,000 tomatoes on these plants ripening). I have been picking the squashes and eating them and giving them away everyday, same with the cucumbers. Yada yada.
To start with I planted more than 1000 seeds.
What’s in there now? What’s came up?
83 Sakata Melon plants
97 Bidwell Casaba Melon plants
46 Muskmelon Cantaloupe plants
35 regular Cantaloupe plants
130 Sugar Baby Watermelon plants
63 Regular old big watermelon plants
169 Tomato plants, of five different varieties and size
57 Chinese Eggplant plants
36 Zucchini Squash plants
31 Acorn Squash plants
27 Yellow Summer Squash plants
120 of two different kinds of green beans
35 Black Bean plants
29 Lima Bean plants
25 Red Onions
35 Potatoe plants
And 1 Chinese Forget Me Not flowering plant in the middle for good luck!
Almost everything came up, all started from seed.
NO COMPOST
NO FERTILIZER
I WATER AT MIDNIGHT EVERY NIGHT for varying intervals, some long, some short.
I used a 40 year old roto-tiller that I ‘found’ somewhere and rebuilt, and I wrap a stereo speaker cord around the pull start mechanism to start it. Works great!!!
The last 3 things are totally against what the experts say, I have found out, but maybe luck is in this garden. Hey, be a pioneer!
This is an ORGANIC garden, built with reclaimed wood for structures, using organic seeds from small suppliers.
Hover your cursor over the photos for a description and remarks…
