It’s already week 4 of the garden and she is growing along beautifully. DT has continued to water every other day and we’ve had some cooler mornings this past week which is really nice, but the cooler air has brought in some dryness that we aren’t use to here in South east Texas.
Last week I received a few questions about the garden that I would love to answer to my best ability.
Question 1: I noticed that your tomatoes are planted in pots- it that to keep the gophers from taking them away?
DT likes the plant the tomatoes and peppers in the pots with the bottom cut out for stability from wind damage. Once they have grown taller and stronger he removes the pots and puts tomato baskets around the tomatoes, usually around 4-8 weeks along. Actually we have never had any trouble with gophers, we just don’t have them here.
Question 2: Squirrels are my primary garden enemy. Do you have any interesting tips to keep them at bay? Especially organic ideas?
Yes great question squirrels are our #1 enemy also and we have tried several things. Our old garden has an entire fence from top to bottom. We have chicken wire fencing covered with mesh around the entire garden, the mesh keeps the holes covered to keep the birds out. We have also installed the use of a motion censor Owl (it moves it head and hoots) for the most part we don’t have problems with squirrels, but this year we had a very sneaky smart squirrel that was after our seed corn. On our new garden DT has installed a electric fence around the garden, and we haven’t had one critter mess in it not sure if they can sense the electricity or what but it is working great!
Question 3: Your garden looks so good…I didn’t see one weed.
Again I have to give props to DT he goes in several times a week and pulls any weeds or grass that have started growing. The best thing is to do it often to keep it from getting overwhelming.
Thanks for all the questions it was fun answering them. I do want to give a small disclaimer that this is what we do for our garden and what works best for us, though it might not be for everyone. I know different climates and different planting styles still result in excellent delicious garden veggies. Don’t get me wrong I love answering all the questions but our techniques might not work for everyone. I most certainly know that not everyone has a hubby as interested or has such a love for gardening like mine. Still not sure if that is a good or bad thing, ha ha I only kid, but he loves putting me to work also. And we most certainly will have lots of work this year! On to the pics.
New Garden week 4
Tomatoes- we have several already on the vines, so exciting!
Zucchini Squash- has a few blooms
Okra- growing along
Corn- is growing amazingly fast
Purple Hull Peas- looking great
Cucumbers
Back view of the garden
Watermelon- I am so exciting on how they will do, this is our first time with watermelon
Potatoes- have grown so much since last week
Yellow squash and Bell peppers
Front view of old garden- planted about a week after new garden
Cucumbers and more purple hull peas
Bell Peppers
Our one lonely Kandy Corn- all the others were taken by squirrels, ugh
White squash and jalapeno peppers
Please ask your gardening questions and/or please share tips. I will be keeping up with the garden and posting weekly garden posts.
Click the links for week 1, week 2, and week 3
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I wish I had gardening tips to share, but since I don’t really garden, I have no tips. But I have to say that yours is truly inspiring!!
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It is coming along so beautifully! I may just need to beg for you to mail me some fresh veggies. lol. And an electric fence?! You guys are hardcore! ha!
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I’m really jealous of your garden!! I wish I had a yard! Although Dave and I are probably too lazy and wouldn’t take care of it well enough to get anything to grow!
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You are clearly passionate about this project and it shows. I can’t wait to see all your canning jars lined up. You may have to add on a room to store them!
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Wow! To live where I can grow year around! We use to live in Death Valley Calif. As long as there is water stuff there grows huge. We had a year round garden with a water system on timers. You only water at night to prevent quick evaporation of the water. Our system was homemade drip and was successful. Heavy mulch was a must to keep the moisture in. This was acheived with horse manue and newspapers. ( what was available for free)
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What a smart idea to keep the tomato plants in pots but buried in the ground to avoid the wind!! Your veggie plants all look amazing. I have to start all over again on my garden…I’m extremely bummed.
My kids want to grow watermelon so I’ll be keeping an eye on yours to make sure I don’t screw that up!
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looks like your garden is growing great.
great photo friday
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What a wonderful garden you have there !!
Where we live, we have to garden in pots as we don’t have the land.
I miss the huge garden that I had back in New Zealand. I even miss the possums that used to raid it!
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What a beautiful garden! Looking at your photos makes me excited to get ours going-we have to wait another month (at least!) in our short growing season! It looks like you’ll have plenty of bounty to enjoy!
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So, bottom line, for a great garden, get a DT!
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Tabitha- thank you!
Kelly- Ha, I am telling you were hardcore, DT doesn’t want anything getting his veggies! We could mail you some seeds!
Jenny- Yes gardening is lots of hard work, and if its not your thing, then I don’t suggest it.
Mindee- ha, please don’t give DT anymore ideas, he can’t wait for me to start canning. And yes passionate or obssessed you choose, lol!
Tina- yes we can basically grow year round, with our mild winters, we don’t do much mulch, but we do always water at night.
Helene- sorry to hear about your plant loss, we it does help protect them until they are bigger and more stable. I am crossing my fingers for a sucessful watermelons.
Thanks Wayne- were on a good start!
Karen- wow New Zealand, now I am jealous!
Gina- good luck to you and your garden.
Shellie- Ha, how funny and oh so true. I truly believe you have to have a love for gardening, and my DT has more than enough!
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I love watching your garden grow
Here’s my photo story happy Friday!
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Beautiful! Have a glorious Easter weekend!
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great tips and ideas thanks for sharing
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So much green and we are still seeing brown! looking good!
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I got such a kick out of that owl! That’s what we need–we’ve got so many squirrels that they eat everything we try to grow.
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Ah, squirrels! We have a lot of them and I hadn’t even thought of protecting my new garden from the little buggers.
I am going to have to give that some serious thought and get with it.
Your gardens look amazing!
I am so jealous that you have tomatoes coming in already.
The difference a zone makes.
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WOW what a fantastic garden!! I’m going to attempt to grow some veggies this year with the kids. Hopefully the “Gardening Gods” will be kind and we’ll actually be able to keep them alive.
Happy growing.
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Hi Sweet Pea. I love your blog and read it regularly. I’m a city gal with very tough city squirrels to contend with. My garden is substantially smaller than yours, but I have found that sprinkling Cayenne Pepper on the plants keeps the squirrels away and doesn’t affect the plants at all. It will even stay on until a good rain washes it away and you have to re-Cayenne. I was spending a fortune on Cayenne until I found a big bottle for 99 cents at CVS pharmacy. Now I go in and buy 3 or 4 bottles at once – I’m sure the cashier must think I’m a whacko!
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Wow! your garden is really impressive! I’m jealous of all that space and sunshine!
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Your garden looks great. I don’t know what kind of corn you grow, but ours pollinates way better if we plant it in a block instead of a row because it is wind pollinated. So, if you have lots of blank spots in yours, try that next time.
Wow, what a joy it must be to have tomatoes on the bush already. Up here in Oregon, we cannot even think of planting for ages, it’s just too wet and cold and they won’t grow, or will frost here where we live.
Becky
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Hi – Sweet Pea! Thanks for visitin’ my blog today!
Wow, that is some garden you lucky thing! No way could I manage that size, well that and I don’t have that much sunshine on my property. Too many oak trees (which I love, not complainin’). I’ll bet your friends and family love y’all come summertime! Well, it looks beautiful and very healthy. My biggest problem I’ve had over the years are bugs. And slugs. And beetles. Tons of bugs. I’m hoping to resolve that with my raised beds and square foot garden this year and some chemical warfare! We’ll see.
I have to deal with wildlife too – birds, squirrels, field mice and this year, I have a raccoon too. That’ll be a challenge. The mice are the worse. I try to keep the birds and the squirrels fed in hopes that they will leave the garden beds alone. My raised beds are right by the house too, and that seems to deter them a bit. I was thinkin’ about gettin’ one of those motion detector water squirter thingys, but I’m thinking I’d actually have to keep 2 up and that means 2 hoses run along the yard somewhere too! Anyway, we’ll see how it all goes I suppose.
Well nice meetin’ ya! I’ll be checking back to see how things go to and pick up tips since y’all are a few weeks ahead of me!
Mary
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