Tomato Woes

I think my tomatoes have blight. bummer.  This happened last year.  My mom-the all around expert on all things growing-told me that it's just normal yellowing of the leaves, and that they just need some food, but I'm having doubts.  I'm paranoid from last year when my whole crop of tomatoes caught blight right as they were turning red!  Even the one in the container.  So I'm a bit worried.  Time will tell. 
Also, I found in my book that tomatoes need up to 5 gallons/week of water!  So that could be part of the problem.  Good thing it's rained so much this year.  But you also don't want to water the leaves of a lot of plants b/c they are susceptible to diseases that are brought on by wet leaves.  Most of the time I water right at the base anyways just so I know it's getting right to the roots and not sitting on the leaves and evaporating.  At my house, water is short since we are on a spring; so I've been using rain buckets to catch gallons of water out of our gutters for the hot, sunny days.  It's been working out really well!  As long as I use it right away, then we won't have mosquitoes breeding in it; that's the only thing I worry about.

Ta Ta for now! I'll take pictures when it's sunny!

August Already?!

So I've realized that I probably won't be getting any tomatoes this year.  The plants are still far to small, although they are growing healthy, they are just at the stage they should have been in June/July time.  Oh well.  I have the seeds already, so next year I can start on time! 
I also have been quite successful with the cucumbers, radish and lettuce!  So far I've gotten: 6 good radish, 6 cucumbers with more growing, 2 bundles worth of scallions, and 2 big heads of lettuce!  And it's all been from seed.  I am quite proud for a beginner!

My peppers are growing really well, however, I would be surprised if I got anything off them either.  They were very late going in.  The beans have taken off and the peas have died.  I think they were bad seeds, because I have planted about 20 more and haven't gotten any to grow.  Bummer. 

So there you have it! Pictures to follow!

Happy Gardening!
Katie

Blueberries!!!

I got a pretty good handful of blueberries today!  They are so sweet!  Check them out!

Hurray!  Cheers!

Hot Hot Hot!

It's been really hot here in VT and at my house, we are on a spring, so we run out of water easily.  So that means when the weather doesn't bless the garden with rain, it doesn't get watered.  I ended up getting some water from the river next to the house to help it get through the heat!

Here are some pictures!

Scallions mixed in with some weeds! I pulled them after the picture!

My pumpkins above are doing well!

Below are some new radishes I started! They are coming up nicely.

A new flower on the nasturtium!

Tomatoes are still very small but they are getting much bushier!

Peppers...

Cucumbers above are starting to flourish!

The lettuce in my container is doing very well.  The lettuce indoors is not doing well.

This tomato plant didn't make it.  Something dug it up!  So I'm going to grow some herbs in this container instead. 

Peas are doing well!  I think they are so pretty!

And the start of my bean stalks! 

The blueberries are starting to ripen and really pull the bush down.  

I picked ~10 blueberries that were ripened already! woot woot!

ta ta for now!

Scorcher in Vermont

It's been unbearably hot these past 4 days in Vermont; but my garden is blooming because of it.  I picked 7 snap peas yesterday night which is double what I picked a week ago!  And the tomato plants have started to take off with all the sun they are getting!  I'm feeling a lot better about them now.  And I planted some more radishes to take up space, beans and morning glories. 
My wonderful boyfriend climbed up a ladder in our garage and got down the plant cages for me (I couldn't reach them on the shelf) and now the garden looks lovely! I just have to keep up with the weeds.  Using the horse manure sort of backfired on me in that domain.  It's wonderful for the plants, but it's also fantastic for weeds!  I have lots of dandelions (the bane of my existence) and clover growing.  But now it's become manageable. 
I'll post some pictures of the progress tonight! 

Toodle Loo for now!  Stay cool!

2 months later...

Here's what you missed from the last 2 months:

I planted most of the seedlings in the garden or in a container; the ones in the container are doing really well!
The ones in the garden are not doing so hot.  Things are not as bad as my tomato blight like last year, but I'm still upset. There has been a boom in the slug population and they are devouring my plants!  Too much rain all at once. 

 Here's what the garden looks like these days:

These are the radishes...they are being eaten by slugs. 

These are some of the zucchinis, which are being eaten by deer/rabbits.  I'm really disappointed.

So I'm going to put some moth balls around the perimeter of the garden...it seemed to work last year.

But this is what the container plants look like: 

 I've got oodles of lettuce growing, one tomato plant, and a nasturtium.  

My tomato plants in the garden aren't doing too well though.  :(  Hopefully they will catch up!  I just planted them yesterday since they are still so small.

One of the nasturtiums in the garden already have a flower!  So pretty!

And the peas are looking so good, I think I'm going to plant some more!

That's the flower-I just think they are pretty!  

Here's my pumpkin!  It's also getting eaten, but not as badly...

And I took some pictures around the yard:

This is what the garden has produced so far! Very excited! The radishes only took about 3 weeks to grow (it might have been more, I'm not really sure)

I just soaked the radishes to get the soil off.

 We've also got this surprise sunflower...I think that's what it is anyway...it'll probably end up being a weed!

That's all for now!  As usual, I will be posting the rest of my pictures on my flickr site!  So check it out!

Toodles!  :)

Progress!

I took these pictures the other day of my seedlings, but I just didn't have time to post them. :)  Finals take a toll on my free time!

The poor lettuce grew sideways because I didn't rotate them! oops.

The tomatoes finally sprouted!

And the pepper plants are getting big!  

Here are most of the plants! The pumpkins are really taking off now!  I've made sure to water them regularly; my seedlings need water about every few days (depending on the sun).  I bought a "daytime bulb" (it looks like it's just tinted to look like day light instead of a yellowish hue) and put it in the lamp about 5" above the seedlings.  I think the heat is what is making them grow more than anything.  I left it on all night on Tues night (by accident) and there were tomato plants 2 cm high the next day! There was no sign of life the night before!  It might be a coincidence, I don't know.  Pretty soon, it will be warm enough to put them outside anyhow (during the day). 

Here is a picture I took while at a stop sign yesterday! The rain was coming down in sheets! It's a little hard to see in the picture, but trust me it was terrible!  

Time to finish my exam! Then I'm done for the semester! woot woot!  ;)

As usual, I have more pictures on my flickr account (see link in right hand menu) if you want to peruse them! 

Good night!

PS. I'm FUNDED this summer for my project! hurray!!!