So, our pea plants did not do very well. I pretty much picked 4 other pea pods just like this and then pulled up the plants. After all, we cannot make meal of 16 peas, ha!
The green zucchini plants that we planted in the planters looked like they were doing well. We kept getting shoots off of them that looked like this one, nice, healthy and green. However, looks can be deceiving. Every time we got one of these nice looking little zucchinis growing it would get just a little bigger and then the end where the flower is would wilt and get all yucky. We think the seeds we are starting with must be bad ones, so we are going to pitch them and start again.
Mangoes from the mango tree in the common area behind our house. They are super sweet and free!!
Our first harvest of butternut squash. I think I picked about 3 of them too early, so I hope they will continue to ripen off the vine. We have a whole bunch more growing still.
First one I cooked. I ended up making this one into baby food:) Hopefully Thomas will like it one of these days!!
These are little snails that like to live at the bottom of our lettuce plants. There were a whole bunch that I left in the garden and these guys were actually on the lettuce that I washed in the sink.
Big time hot pepper harvest. We added some of the Caribbean Red Hots (the rounder ones) to the Chicken Chili that I make for Mike. He thought it was awesome.
These next pictures are the current state of our garden (as of 3/18/14). Along the back we have five big tomato plants and two small ones, all which we started from seed. On the right is the last zucchini plant we were trying to give a chance.
Pepper plants
The crazy butternut squash plants. They ended up all over our yard!! We also learned that the leaves can form some kind of mold on them. It can hurt the veggies, but most of the time, it doesn't. I read that you can prevent it from spreading with a mixture of milk water or baking soda water. I haven't tried it yet, but it is on my list. I need to find some adequate spray bottles for our homemade mixtures. We also want to try some organic pesticides for the tomato plants.
The whole garden box. The biggest tomato plants have lately been getting attacked by birds, which peck holes in the tomatoes and then eat out the insides. Hopefully we can find a natural pesticide that will keep away those pesky birds. They are eating the fruit of our labor!!
We were informed by a friend and then I did a little googling about the idea of using egg shells in the garden to keep away soft bodied pests, like the snails above. So, I thought it couldn't hurt to try it. Egg shells are free and we end up with a lot of them at our house. I have not cut lettuce since that first round of snails, so I will see what I think next time.
Corn, carrots, and green onions
The crazy, falling over tomato plants
