Vegetable Gardening and Me (#8)

As I mentioned in my first post on gardening, I want to make this a weekly post. I am not an expert gardener, and I have made plenty of mistakes, but my adventures may help others have more fun and success. 

Also, I now have a page dedicated to gardening, that will contain all past and future posts, as well as resources I have found useful.

This week was an improvement over last. Not as far as I want to be, but better than I could have been.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional. All my posts are for informational and entertainment purposes only. I reserve the right to change, edit, or correct any of the content found on the blog at any time without notification. Use at your own risk. 

I began last week despondent, but inspired by memories of jarred pickles from bountiful cucumber harvests, I resolved to continue on with my gardening. Since then, I planted another round of corn, summer and winter squashes, and ordered pesticides and rabbit repellent. The pesticides arrived today, so I will spray my plants tomorrow (there are bugs on my eggplants, some of my peppers, and on the corn). The fox urine, which should provide added protection along with the fence against my archenemy, is scheduled to arrive by Friday. Finally, I am determined to have two separate harvests of corn, so I separated planting by three weeks. Unfortunately, the first set was haphazardly added to the garden, so I may end up with just one set instead of two. The winter squash was planted at the other end of the row, next to a bunch of summer squashes: I am betting on the latter being collected just as the vines from the former over grow the space. 

My first round of corn plants. So pathetic.
Those 12 empty, but neatly placed, holes
are my second round of corn.

And some of my summer and winter squashes.

We shall see if any of this pays off.

And today I added a frame for one set of tomatoes. It incorporates to vertical pieces of wood, and two horizontal pieces, screwed together. Next to each tomato pant is a tent stake with a long string attached. The other end of the string hangs taught from the top part of the frame. Finally, I wrapped the established stems around the strings, slowly and carefully, after pruning some of the branches. I must have improved my skills over past years: I did not lose any tomato plants from twisting them. 

Where are my pepper plants?

Here is the frame with some string,
and pruned tomatoes. 

There they are, my pepper plants!

The other set of tomato plants require frames, too, but the stretch is three times as long, so I may just make individual frames. Probably a-frames: I have an idea that I am excited about, but many of my ideas do not pan out, so I may end up with a system like I just made today. However, I am going to try anyway. Just because I like to drive my self crazy. And gardening is about experimenting.

This coming week I have to plant the rest, especially the beans, cucumbers, and herbs. But, for the moment, I am in a good place, so I feel confident that more of the pieces will fall into place.

And the rabbits will continue to stay away.

These tomato plants will soon get
the support they need.