JoeSoGarden Update -- Poppin' Off

The garden has really exploded over the last month. I need to reign in the tomatoes before they destroy the onions. The broccoli has sprouted nice, large, dense heads. The carrot row looks like a little forest, and the triangle plot got some transplants and a row of yellow and pink flowers. I've made mojitos twice with the mint. The cilantro has turned into coriander and the basil looks fantastic. Take a look!

broccoli head

broccoli plants

carrots

onions, crushed by tomato plants! 

cilantro, grown from seeds, very easy and fast

basil

cilantro from seedling that flowered into coriander (I guess?)

need to figure out how to handle those tomato plants in the middle/right...

the other little plot with some flowering plants

broccoli transplants from the other side ... need a splash of water

this will have yellow and orange flowers in the fall

mint for mojitos

JoeSoGarden Update!

I need to give an update on the garden. A month has passed since I first planted a few seedlings. Things look good overall, but it seems like a slow start. It really just warmed up this week, so I expect things to take off a little bit soon. But I've noticed that the box doesn't get full sun -- close buildings casting shadows, etc -- so we'll see...

The broccoli -- slow going at first -- has started to flourish. 

The row of carrot seeds has sprouted nicely!

My neighbor gave me a big chunk of mint -- need to make sure it doesn't take over the area -- and a chunk of oregano. They both rooted nicely in that little triangle section I have. It has pretty rocky soil, so I don't know.

She gave me some flowering plants and a flowering shrub -- orange and/or yellow or something like that. I planted those in a little pattern in the triangle part as well. So far it looks great -- healthy leaves, new growth, etc.

Back over in the planter box, the coriander/cilantro seeds I planted have sprouted. I only need a few of them to supplement the plant I put in originally. 

from the seeds planted a couple weeks ago

original plant

The row of onions looks fantastic! I keep loosening the soil around them. I think I'm doing it right.

Nicely organized!

I planted a banana pepper seedling and a red pepper seedling, and neither of them has grown at all. I mean seriously nothing -- not a single new leaf. They look fine, but they just look the same as they did the day I planted them. So I had this red pepper that I was about to roast on the grill. I collected the seeds from it and planted them next to the slow-growing seedling -- just in cast. Then I had a banana pepper that I got to make Italian sandwiches, and I did the same thing - -collected and planted the seeds. We'll see how that turns out...

red pepper seeds on the left,
banana pepper on the right

Is this growing at all?

Showing no signs of growth...

Planted 10 Onions Today

little baby onion bulb

I got a bunch of little onion plant starters but didn't put them in the ground the other day when I planted the broccoli, carrots, and cilantro. But they're probably heartier than anything so I went ahead and got them in today after work.  I just did one row beside the carrots, about  8-10 onions.  Basically, as they grow, layer after layer keeps adding up until they get big enough to eat. You can help them grow by keeping the soil around the bulb as loose as possible. I did grow these same onions once back at Beeler, so I think they'll turn out well! And I use onions in, like, everything I ever cook, so, awesome. On a related note, how come my camera gets all "blueish" when I use digital macro mode? It takes great close-up pictures in that mode, but it gets a blue tint. Hmmm

I put a row of about 10 onions in the garden today.