Garden Update #2

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It's been a little over a month since our last garden post, so I thought I'd share a quick update. And since we shared a vlog about helping out at our church's community garden, it kinda' makes sense to give an update.

​Things so far have been going good. We did loose a number of our starter plants. I think the fact that the seeds were old contributed partly to our loss. I also think that weather had an impact. We started the seeds in our garage, and though it was April, we experienced a number of colder night. Looking back, I should have set up some heat lamps or something. Regardless, things are looking pretty good in the garden.

It also took a little more time to actually get things into the ground. Weather continued to be a little squirrely with frost and cooler temps. And, since this is a new garden, deciding where we were going to plant and prepping the soil took some time. But if you remember our post about a month ago, you know that we did get things into the ground.

You can go back and read our first garden update here, Summer Garden 2020 Update.

Let's start with our pickles and cucumbers. We planted 9 pickle plants and 9 cucumber plants. 
The problem was finding a place to plant them. I like to vine up the plants so they grow up. This gives the plants support to grow and keeps the fruit off the ground. It also keeps the cucumber and pickle vines from taking up a lot of ground coverage, leaving more space for other plants.

I built the trellis with some furring strips. Super inexpensive and easy to do.
I'll probably have to add some support as the vines grow, but for now it's working great.
​And as you can see, it won't be long before we're pickling.

Along with the tomato seeds we started, we picked up extra tomatoes from a local greenhouse. Our started seed looked like they were struggling a bit, and we didn't't want to miss out on the growing time. These are our Lemon Boy Tomatoes. When ripe they should be a nice yellow color. You can see just how well these plants are doing. We have 6 plants, and each one has a number of large tomatoes growing.

Our peppers are also doing really well. We planted 6 banana peppers, 6 red bell peppers,
6 yellow bell peppers, and 6 green bell peppers. The bell peppers are coming along slowly. Lots of buds and shoots, so I'm expecting plenty of fruit. But look at the banana peppers, they are actually exploding! Look at all the peppers coming in!
We've already picked a number of the peppers.

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So good. So many peppers!
Now we just have to find some good recipes for the peppers!

Not pictured is our small strip of carrots, a couple corn stalks, our peas, herbs, squash, and cantaloupe. 
​I'll try to get an update on them next time.

There you have it, garden update #2.
Things are really looking good. The nice thing is, with the pandemic, we're not traveling to two many places this summer. And since we've already been on vacation, we're home for the rest of the summer. That means, we'll be able to care for the garden and see the harvest from all of our work. I say that because in summers past, we have planted our garden, worked it, then left at the end of the summer for vacation or a ministry trip. But this summer, we can't wait to see what the garden produces.

We'll be back in a couple of weeks with another update, so stay tuned!

​- the higham family -

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