Today in the garden

Summer plantings are up. The raised bed has been placed in the backyard (4 ft x 4 ft x 12 in). I added 6 bags of topsoil and 6 bags of good compost. Lined the bottom with newspaper and flattened paper grocery bags. I'm aware of the proximity to the A/C but the bed is on a slight incline, so the water drains towards the grass instead of towards the A/C or the apartment.


This year, I went ahead and staked and caged the tomatoes so that I could prevent any root disturbance from staking later. I also put parsley and nasturtiums between the plantings as I've read from other online sites, and suggestions from the seed packets. The spring garden vegetables keep growing, but they are slowing down with the rising temperatures. Carrots and beets are growing painfully slow. The mesclun, radishes, lettuce, spinach and chard have done exceptionally well in containers. From a broken pot last year, I painted the remains into plant name tags. These have been placed in the garden along with the plantings.




Here is what went into the raised bed:

• Tomatoes (roma cherries & better bush)
• Black beauty zucchini
• Crookneck squash
• Swiss chard (found these growing in a waste pile so I just put them into the bed, I had weeded and dumped out a bunch of pots earlier in the spring and the swiss chard survived.)
• Marjoram
• Basil
• Oregano
• Parsley
• Nasturtiums
• Marigolds

Here is the work-in-progress garden. The squash and chard are looking a little sad.

Potted wood barrel with jalapeno peppers and tomatoes. Basil seedlings are at bottom of photograph here. Nasturtiums are finally popping up.

Eggplant with marigolds below: