Kevin Harbin, Gardener

The lettuce is coming in, but the celery did not. The carrots are coming in, but the spinach is not. The Sugar Snaps are doing great but neither the tomato nor the pepper plant came up. The lettuce came in really well so I thinned by transplanting a dozen or so to where I had planted the celery. I bought a few tomato and pepper plants a week ago and planted them. They are doing well and I look forward to eating them. The watermelons have sprouted.

I weeded my gardens today. It’s so much easier to do when the dirt has never been stepped on.

While weeding I found this egg. It was inside the fence and near the edge.

I have taken to a strange practice with my rain barrel. I grow catnip in it. Maybe none of the reasons I do it are any good but here they are anyway. First, because I can. Catnip grows very easily and quickly puts out roots in water. Secondly, I have found the water, if left to it’s self, will start to smell bad. With a plant growing in it that usually goes away. I suspect that the catnip feeds off bird droppings and other dead plant life such as algae that sometimes grows.. Thirdly, I found that catnip is a pretty good deterrent to ants. If I can water with a natural ant deterrent then I will. I’ll never forget the nightmare of stepping onto the walkway of my garden to find that it woke up the colony. I’ve since planted some catnip in that spot and I haven’t had trouble since, but spreading the love around is OK with me.

Maybe I’m just crazy but I feel like this helps.

The raspberries that I planted last year are mostly doing fine. They have started to grow out from the roots and there are 10 plants now. I need to weed so they aren’t competing as much. I wonder how much mulch the suckers can grow through… Ok one source on the internet says yes.

baby watermelon

I’ve been steadily watering my garden, except during out latest rainy spell. Anytime you want to feel good about gardening toss some beans in the ground. They do well almost anywhere.

I have a dozen or so tomatoes that are still green, I’m sure they’ll come along eventually. I picked a cayenne pepper, it’s doing ok despite being shaded out by two tomato plants. I have a tiny watermelon growing! I’m excited to get at it eventually. The pumpkins seem to be getting reato make a fruit here or there.

The corn didn’t turn out too well. Not very many kernals were fertilized. I don’t really have the space to do it, and I might not next year, unless I do a whole bunch in a larger area.