Summer Garden Progress

This is my summer garden. We decided to try the "back to Eden" style of gardening on this plot after hearing about how great it can be for building soil and suppressing weeds. After spreading at least 6-8 inches of mulch over this entire plot, I can tell you it has done absolutely nothing to suppress our bermuda grass. Did I mention I hate bermuda grass? I HATE bermuda grass. Everything here was grown from seed, either directly seeded or transplanted from germination trays. I won't be mentioning the winter peas you can see growing between the rows, as they are just there to help suppress weeds and add nitrogen to the soil.

This is one of our African marigolds I interplanted with the tomatoes this year and other random places around the garden. Marigolds are supposed to help suppress pests in the garden, including nematodes in the soil. They can also be used medicinally to treat skin infections or internally for colds and as a diuretic. Their large abundant yellow/orange flowers attract beneficial insects and can used to make a dye.

Above is one of my tomato plants. I believe these are mostly Sun Gold cherry tomatoes. My entire tomato crop was wiped out in mid-April after a very late unforecasted frost. Fortunately I had some backup plants that were kept inside and escaped the frost. Some of these are looking pretty rough still from a light frosting in late April. Another big problem I've faced is losing many of them to cutworms. Cutworms are evil little bugs that chop your seedlings down at the base of the stalk and make you want to scream out in anger.

These are some kidney beans I planted for fun. The beans came from a 25lb bulk bag we bought from the grocery store. I direct seeded these in early May and germination has been pretty good. They are doing better than the Roma green beans which have been attacked by bugs already. We plan on direct seeding more occasionally to fill in bare spots and have a steady supply all summer. That is, until the deer or bugs find them and eat all the leaves off. Did I mention I hate bermuda grass also?

Pictured above is some of my lovely bermuda gra... I mean melon seedlings. I had planted cabbage in this spot earlier this spring but they were mostly wiped out by bugs. This is a type of canteloupe called Sarah's choice. I'm not feeling too optimistic about them as last year my zucchini wiped out by squash bugs, and I'm sure they'll love the melons too.

This is a zucchini seedling called "spineless perfection". These grew really well last year until I was overwhelmed by squash bugs. I'm hoping that planting less of them with a larger gap between will help keep the bug population down. We love to put zucchini in a lot of dishes so maybe we will be able to enjoy them for a while. The large yellow/orange flowers are nice to look at too.

It's not salsa without cilantro. We LOVE to put cilantro in many dishes and it really makes a big difference. I've been struggling to get some going in the garden this year, because the cutworms like to chop them down as well. It's ironic, because they are actually supposed to repel some harmful insects. With my luck, they will begin bolting before I'm able to enjoy the leaves. Last week we had highs near 90 every day with lows around 70. And yes, we were fighting frost last month.

This is one of my best looking napa cabbage plants that's survived the frosts and bug. I had an entire 100' row of cabbage planted and am down to around 10 plants now. Cabbage is one of the most nutritious cruciferous plants and can be used many ways in the kitchen. I love to make sauerkraut and kimchi with napa cabbage, and it can be pickled with many other veggies as well.

Thanks for reading my summer garden update. Walking through the garden this morning reminded me to start getting on top of the weeds before it turns into a weed garden. The most frustrating thing about bermuda grass is that when you pull it out, it generally just breaks off above the ground and will regrow from that point. Most weeds you can pull the whole plant out by the root. We will probably try adding a thicker layer of mulch out late this fall and hope it suppresses more of it.