How does your garden grow?

We’ve been enjoying tomatoes and basil from the garden and are watching the peppers and cucumbers grow in eager anticipation… yum!

My garden grows Squash, Green Beans, Roma Tomatos, Jalapeno peppers, Big Ben Tomatos, and Tomatillo plants that want to establish their domain on the formerly mention plants…

Green Salsa anyone?

By the way, your garden looks great, Devona

All I have is one pot of flowers and in that pot of flowers I have one bloom. Someday we’ll have a southern exposure!

Oh Devona! I’m probably 150 miles north of you. My lettuce is edible. my tomatoes are green. I’ve been eating strawberries and raspberries for breakfast since before Memorial Day. My herbs are available for cooking. Although I grant you I got my zucchinis in too late.

The solution is a system of hot beds and/or cold frames.

A hot bed is made by burying manure (real manure from a farmer, not store bought manure) under maybe 6 or more inches of soil. As the manure rots underground, it warms the soil. You may have accomplished this by planting so close to the house, but it pays to have a heat source underground.

A cold frame is like a mini-greenhouse. I made some cheap ones by clamping 2 window-well covers together, but you can make more sturdy ones with wood and clear plastic. Put your plants or seeds in the ground a month or even more earlier than you otherwise could and put the cold frames over them (you have to remember to water, because the rain doesn’t fall on them), and start getting yield a month earlier.