One Failed Garden Down... Another Thriving Garden To Come

Well I guess I wouldn't say that my vegetable garden at Cam's is a failure. I'm just disappointed at how things are turning out. My bell peppers, which had hope for new fruit and were flowering constantly, have started to turn for the worse.

Below: A few weeks ago, this little brown knob (where my finger is) used to be green, and it looked like it would be growing into another bell pepper. Now it's about to die.




Below: And this baby bell is very dried out, and I don't think it's going to grow any bigger.

I blame it on the rain--lack of rain, that is. It did rain over the weekend (Friday and Saturday), so that helps. I don't know if my soil is turning bad or if I need to add something to it, but my plants are not liking whatever I'm doing. The tomatoes are fine, but the bell peppers don't look so hot.

The soil isn't the mix that Mel Bartholomew (founder of Square Foot Garden and author of SFG books) recommends, but his mix seemed to be too expensive to buy. So Cam and I mixed Miracle Grow Organic Gardening Soil and topped it with Organic Top Soil. We bought it at Lowe's and Home Depot.

I am seriously going to look into a soil test kit. Cam wants to send the soil off to get tested, but I don't have the patience. I'll let you know what we decide. In the meanwhile, I need to figure out how to get rid of the bugs, aphids and slugs that keep eating my lettuce. Urg.

Onto to the second topic of this post: a thriving garden. My parents' raised bed garden seems to be doing very well. I'm growing corn in one of the raised bed. My dad has been working this soil for 10 years, and it's amazing. He adds more manure and top soil every year, and it's been productive.

I decided to try corn again. It is failing at Cam's house, but at my parent's house, it's actually thriving. I planted seeds in two rows, and the leaves are green and continue to grow at a brisk pace.

Below: Two rows of healthy corn.







I'm very optimistic this time. Corn is hard to grow, but I just want one ear of corn to eat. Just one.

Purple Bell Pepper

Kittens really take up a lot of your time and energy. Luka is a ball of energy, and incredibly needy. Every time I leave the house to go outside, she cries and puts her paws to the window. It's really cute, but at the same time, so tiring! My garden has been neglected for the past weekend because of my little kitten.

But today I was able to leave Luka for a little bit and tend to my "big" baby--my vegetable garden. The purple bell pepper is now almost completely purple. It's kinda strange to think that it was once a tiny little pepper.

Below: The progression of the purple bell.




Now I'm wondering if the bell pepper is ready to be picked or if I should wait and see if it grows any larger? It's a pretty small bell pepper right now.

Bell Peppers and A Kitty

Cam and I have 4 bell pepper plants. I think these are the varieties that we have: (1) Red Bell Pepper (2) Chocolate Bell Pepper (3) Purple Bell Pepper (4)Yellow Bell.

When we were looking for another red bell pepper to plant, we couldn't find any healthy looking ones, so we settled on the other bell pepper varieties. We chose plants that were flowering, and they happened to be hybrid varieties.

We've never eaten a Chocolate Bell or Purple Bell, but I read that they are sweet and edible (the most important aspect!). I believe that both varieties are green before they turn colorful, but it'll take 70-80 days before they mature. But they are off to a great start.

Below: SFG Box #3: This bell pepper plant should be flowering soon. Its leaves look a little unhealthy, so I'm going to have to observe it and figure out what to do.



The chocolate bell pepper plant next to plant 1 (above) is already fruiting. Two more are on the way. When I look closely inside the flower bloom, I see a tiny hint of green. Its brothers and sisters will be born soon. :-)

Below: Photo # 1 & 2 were taken last weekend.
Photo # 3 was shot on Monday
Photo # 4 was snapped today






There is something neat about seeing the progression of the plants. You care and nurture for these plants with love, and to see them grow stronger each day, it's beautiful. I feel very parental in my garden.

I have lots of hope for the bell pepper plants in the square foot garden boxes in the backyard. I think I will have numerous ripe bell peppers to eat. If I decide to grow okra soon, I may make New Orleans style gumbo with these vegetables.

Now to the front yard: I planted the red bell pepper plant in the front vegetable bed. So far, it's only fruited one bell pepper. There are no additional flowers on the plant. I believe once this pepper turns red, this plant will have merely useless leaves. I'm not sure where I went wrong. Perhaps I should not have planted it in the shade.

When we planted it, we thought the front received full sun. Unfortunately, it only receives partial sun during the day. The lettuce and spinach did well, but I read that leafy vegetables do better in partial shade than other plants.

Oh well. Lesson learned.

Photo # 1: The red bell pepper in early May.
Photo # 2: The red bell pepper today.

The bell pepper has gotten larger, but not extremely large. This is possibly my impatience, but my garden is teaching me to be patient. There's something beautiful in the way God has designed the vegetation on this Earth. Each day brings something new for me to enjoy--a new flower blossom, a plant has hints of fruiting, a plant gets taller, a vine gets longer...

I'm in a contemplative mood tonight.

On a personal note, I may be getting a new kitty soon. If anyone watched Fox 17 News at 9:00 p.m. tonight, you may have seen Cam and my future (hopefully!) kitty.

Check out the news story: http://fox17.com/newsroom/top_stories/vid_1861.shtml

The poor kitten crawled into the wheel well and then into the engine compartment. Here he/she is peeking out. (P.S. Cam is not shown on camera because he shot the entire thing. You can hear him laughing in the background!)



I'm on the top of the list for people to visit the kitten after it's been tested and is given the OK to be adopted. I'm very excited. I think she's a Bombay cat, which are known to be extremely playful and even leash-trainable!

She has nothing to do with the garden, but I'm very excited, so I'd thought I'd share!