A Midsummers Day Update

It's been a month since I had a good update - mainly because not much happened on a day to day that seemed worth blogging about.  Over a span of a month, you can see the differences.

 It's been a month of wait, but not one of hunger.  Sandwiches with fresh tomatoes, kale, the first beans, and lots of peppers have been through the kitchen ,or in the crisper for later, and all the herbs you could want to season and flavor.  It hasn't been overflowing, but there's been steady good food as the slower plants of spring have started delivering.

 Bib lettuce was planted and quickly germinated, although looking at it now it seems there were plenty of other seeds left behind that might have mixed in.  I didn't thin these per se, but rather took a clump of them and transplanted them into the garden.

This is the same group - taken a couple of days ago. The remaining lettuce is going to need trimming in it's own right - it's outpacing the lettuce in the garden proper.
So, the question asked is 'why not just keep it in containers?'
Size and lifespan. Especially when dealing with lettuce like saladbowl (I haven't tried iceberg yet). In the garden they will grow much larger and be less prone to bolting - which will give you bitter lettuce.

 This new variety of bean I've tried is doing very well.  It puts out an amazing amount of flower buds, and I've already pulled a first take of beans off it.
It's the Ferry-Morse Tendergreen Improved Bush bean.  There are only 2 squares planted, and the yield off them may rival the 6 squares I had earlier. HOWEVER - although still nice, they aren't quite as sweet as my earlier variety when pulled off the bush.. seems there are tradeoffs to be made everywhere.  These bean are also planted in other areas of the garden (where corn was before) so I expect to be able to stock up and freeze some beans before summer is over.

 Little wonky perspective there, but a lot of goodly sized peppers are coming out - in fact I had to pick 4 just to make room on the plant. I'll probably get 4-5 more in a weeks time.
at this rate I think I'll be dicing a few and freezing them for use later. It's not uncommon for a tray of 3 peppers of a size slightly less than mine to go for 4 to 5 bucks.  By that pricing my pepper plants, that cost me a buck fifty for seeds, and the already existing soil (amended with worm castings) - has already earned between 25 - 30 bucks. If all you grew were 'big ticket items' - a 4 x 4 garden by itself could save the average punter quite a bit.

Top-your-broc.  The sun the day this was taken had wilted them a little, actually I think they've grown more in the last 2 days since these pics were taken.  Anyways, the broccoli I picked before had me worried. A good many months of growing, and a very small amount to show - but it's sprung back quickly - putting out many smaller heads, about 1/2 the size of the original, but many many more of them. So the lesson: dont be afraid to top off your broccoli, and don't fret if the initial head on it isn't that great.
I have 3 in the garden and 3 in containers to compare - and hands down the garden wins.  These plants are 3 times the size of the containers, and they're all exactly the same age.  Be aware it likes to 'lay down' and it seems that like a tomato, it will put out more roots (at least it appears to) - so make sure it has room to grow and not shade out smaller plants.

Again, 2 day old pic and it's already outdated by about a foot on that vine.
This I find interesting.  My other squash plants were in large pots as an experiment - I had one butternut squash seedling left over and no pot to put it in.  So I put it in the blueberry circle - something I put together to house a plant I got from the farm (that I knew had on a small chance of surviving).  The soil is mainly wood chips, with some potting soil, some composted cow manure, and of course some castings.  The plant didn't make it, and the seedling I put in there sort of just sat there doing nothing, while the others grew, flowered, and got hit with a damp rot.  The last 2 weeks though this one had taken off like rocket. It has 2 very small butternut squash on it already and shows no signs of slowing down. I'm going to monitor it's progress - but the drainage on those wood chips is excellent - although I thought it might be too acidic for the squash.... I was wrong. If it does well I'll be factoring this into my summer garden expansion. But more on that in another post.

Cheers!