Update to Sustaina-Mini: Vegetable Garden Edition
Was it only a month ago that I posted about our beloved backyard veggie garden? Well, what a difference a month makes! Here are two shots taken only weeks apart (June 8th to June 24th):
What a transformation!
This post may be more pictures than words but you know how the saying goes! Plus, veggies are just so photogenic, I couldn't resist! (Hover over the photos to read captions.)
Taking care of our little garden has been an absolute delight! Every single day there are new changes for us to discover. Lately, the peas have really taken off. Check 'em out!
We've enjoyed some yummy salads with our lettuce and radishes, and it looks like we'll be adding kale to the mix soon too! The kids' interest in the garden hasn't weaned a bit - in fact, Andrew scowls at me if I water the garden without him - and they especially love harvesting the veggies! The other day as we were eating dinner, Andrew (age 5) said, "You know what would go good with this? Mint. Want me to go pick some?" :)
Our chicken wire has done a good job of keeping bunnies out of the garden but some smaller visitors managed to find their way in. Meet our ex-backyard-pets (or pests, depending which family member you ask): the cabbage worms.
Luckily, we found them pretty quickly and were able to get rid of them by picking the visible ones off the plants (see if you can spot the one who's lying along the stem of the kale leaf) and then spraying Btk, a bacterium naturally found in soil that is only harmful to certain caterpillars, but harmless to other animals, insects and humans. This wormy adventure made me wonder how people ever gardened before Google!
I later learned from other gardeners that covering kale and radish plants helps prevent pests from getting at them. Perhaps I'll try this next year!
A wise reader warned me that gardening can be addictive...She was right! When the garden bed was completely full, the garden continued to expand via pots! Some potted plants were generously given to me and others were traded for some leftover seeds I had and some homemade muffins: garden bartering at its finest! In the pots, I have various sizes of tomatoes, some mystery peppers, and hot banana peppers.
Later this week, we'll be going out of town for several days and leaving our baby (garden) for the first time. Our neighbours have kindly agreed to water it for us while we're away. I'm slightly tempted to set up one of those monitoring systems with a web cam so I can watch the garden grow from afar, but I'll try not to give in to that level of crazy-plant-lady insanity!
That's all for now folks! Thanks for following along and sharing your plants, garden photos and comments with me!