Our gardening adventures continued...

So far my little garden seems to be doing surprisingly well. I've got tomatoes and strawberries ripening up for harvest, and everything else is just growing as fast as it can. Well, almost. I had only potted a few of my plants before I ran out of the potting soil I had gotten, so a few of my things are planted in expensive organic Miracle Grow potting soil that said it was made just for veggie gardens, while the rest are all planted in less expensive Miracle Grow garden soil. The few things planted in the more expensive soil are not doing as well, which means I may not end up getting any peppers or peas, and only one of my two tomato plants is really thriving, although they both have fruit on them right now. Here you can see the two tomato plants and the two pepper plants. The front tomato was planted in the cheap soil, while the other three things were in the expensive soil.

I learned a few days after I planted these that they are determinate tomatoes, which means that they will put on all their fruit at once and then be done for the growing season. Not exactly what I wanted. I want indeterminate tomatoes, which will produce fruit a few at a time all season long. So, I think I'm going to get some more plants started, and when these ones are done producing, I'll get rid of them and put some more in their place. The growing season here is long enough that I think I'll be able to get away with it. These tomatoes are supposed to be cherry tomatoes, but check out the size of the fruit I'm getting!

Now for the part you've all been waiting for, the shoe organizer garden! I've been pleasantly surprised so far with how this is doing. I've harvested both Basil and Parsley, and I have one little strawberry almost ready to eat! My green onions have sprouted, but are still pretty tiny. My basil is looking a bit yellow, so I need to do some research and find out what they need to perk up a bit. Other than that it all seems to be doing really well. The biggest problem I have with it is that they need very large amounts of water. They dry out super fast, and on really hot days (of which we've had several already), they really need to be watered twice a day. I don't know what I'm going to do when we go out of town, because these babies aren't going to make it for more than a day without something to drink.

Here's my crook neck squash plant. It seems to be doing really well, and even looks like it might be trying to blossom. I'm pretty excited about how big it's getting, but at the same time, I thought I had a vining variety, and I don't think I do. I don't have room for this thing to spread out, so if I can't make it grow UP instead of OUT, then it's going to have to go. Maybe I can at least get one or two squash from it before it gets so big I have to do away with it.

This little guy in the center here is my cucumber plant. Before you compare him to the big squash plant you were just looking at, remember that the squash was already 6 inches tall when I planted it, and I started the cucumber from seed, so it has some catching up to do. The little tiny guys around the edge of the pot are carrots, we'll see how they do. I'm worried they don't have enough soil depth to really get a good root system going, but I'll just have to wait and see.

Here are my two little pea plants. Also started from seed, they seem to be doing okay. They were also planted in the more expensive soil, and seem a little yellow. It's hard to know though whether they are struggling because of the heat or because of the soil. They're just having a kinda rough time.

So in addition to needing to start some new tomatoes, and probably replace my squash plant, I have three medium sized pots that my neighbor gave me that I need to come up with something fill with. Any ideas?