Broccoli Squash Progress

Quick Update:
Broccoli and Squash are really doing great (see pics below). Everything else is doing fine also. The only exception is the cucumber plants. I'll be pulling all of them up this weekend and replanting some new ones. The cucumbers currently planted just haven't changed. Plus they have white-ish marks on the leaves. Not sure what the problem is, but something ain't right.

Had the wife kneel behind the broccoli plants so that it's easier to judge the size.

Broccoli, lettuce, and Brussels sprouts.

Zucchini squash.

Salad Surprise

As I mentioned in the previous post, the lettuce, both butter bib and red leaf, have did great. I really had little expectation of them doing well. So I have been more than pleased. We have actually now taken 2 salads from the plants and hopefully many more to come. See pic below:

Tonight's salad...straight from the back yard!

Frost Bitten, Twice Shy

Got most of my plants covered Wednesday night, but it wasn't enough to prevent damage. I was actually surprised. I just assumed that if you cover your plants, all is well. That's not the case. However, it appears that I only lost 2 plants...a cucumber and a zucchini squash. My basil plants took a hit, but I plucked the bad leafs off and I think it will recover. My pineapple sage took a pretty big hit, which is a bummer, it was looking so good. I didn't cover it, so that's probably why. I gambled hopping that it would be ok...I was wrong.

With that said, the broccoli, lettuce, brussel sprouts, and cabbage are doing great. See pics below:

Pinneapple Sage took a pretty good hit from the frost!

Zucchini Squash.

Broccoli doing great!

The lettuce has been my biggest surprise, it's doing wonderful.

Sunflower Germination

My Mammoth Sunflower seedlings have germinated. I've never started any plants from seeds so I was very excited to see these leaves sticking out of the dirt (see pics below). I planted them last Sunday (April 1) and thought it may be 10-14 days till germination. They are Mammoth sunflowers. I planted them for several reasons:

1. To help attract beneficial insects (aka..beneficials) to the garden. Beneficials prey on the pest that eat your plants. Wasps and ladybugs are examples of beneficials. For example, wasps will eat caterpillars and ladybugs will eat aphids.
2. As the stalk for a 3-sisters garden, which consist of sunflowers (or corn), pole beans, and squash.
3. They just plain look cool, as the Mammoth's grow 8 to 10 feet tall.

Lastly, my broccoli appears to be doing really well and with a cool spell expected for the next five days I expect the brussel sprouts and cabbage to do well also.

Notice the 3 sets of seedlings across the middle of the pic, these are the Mammoth Sunflowers...expected to reach 8-10 feet.

Broccoli, brussel sprouts, and cabbage all doing fairly well... especially the broccoli.

Mo Plants

Alright, I finished up pretty much everything I wanted to get in the ground for the next 4 weeks. Plus, I got my herb planting wrapped up. I just focused on 5 main herbs that I think I'll be able to use regularly, see list below for what I got planted over the last 2 days (pics below that).

• Vegetables
• 4 Cucumber
• 4 Zucchini
• 1 Straight Neck Squash
• 8 Green Bell Peppers
• 4 Better Boy Tomato
• 3 Black Krim Tomato
• 3 Cherokee Purple Tomato
• 4 Cayenne Pepper  
• Herbs
• 3 Sage
• 3 Dill
• 2 Basil

One of the Dill (herb) plants

One of the Sage (herb) plants

One of the Basil (herb) plants

Cayenne Pepper plant

Sunday Holes

Below is some pictures I took Sunday. I didn't plant anything over the weekend, but I have since, and I'll give an update regarding that in the next post. Actually, I lied, I planted some Giant Sunflower seeds...10 of them to be exact. I planted them in hopes of attracting beneficial insects, and possibly trying out a 3-Sisters garden.
The broccoli, cabbage, and brussel sprouts got attacked by some green inch-worm / caterpillar looking things: see link http://freshisbestcsa.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html , apparently they come from white butterflies.They did considerable damage, but despite that, most of the plants seem to have recovered.

Lettuce is doing great, probably better than anything else right now.

Broccoli - Notice holes in leaves caused from the green caterpillars.

Brussel Sprouts also got chewed on by the green caterpillars.