An Update On My Garden For 2009

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Another garden update!

I’ve put almost all the plants in their best places after observing the sun and shadows during different times of the day.

Everything seems fine, no transplant shock or any signs of the plant not doing well. The tomatoes are now at the side of my house, 3 of them planted near the trellis to the left and 1 on the right side near the greenhouse.

From my estimation, they are getting around 11 hours of sun at the moment. I’ve put one in the garden box because it was the only spot that received 7 hours of sun. The rest of the time its shaded by the palm trees we have, so that isn’t suitable.

The cherry tomato plants below look smaller than they actually are, but I was told to plant them further down into the soil for getting the best results, even if it covers some of the leaves.

My strawberry plants to the left are still small. I wish I had started doing this earlier in the year, but next year I’ll make sure I start as early as possible. This year I have just 7 plants, but next year there will be more from all the runners that they are producing.

The broccoli is also doing well, but I might have a problem with over-crowding. I don’t think the roots are that deep with these plants either, so I might try moving some of the plants so they’re spaced out a bit more.

My 2nd garden box is also coming along well, too. The spinach hasn’t really been touched because we put a net over the top. It has a lot of small holes in the net so big bugs and slugs won’t fit through but there is plenty of air circulation.

We also have also placed a bear-trap and found quite a few dead slugs by the tomato trees (in the plastic cups) and by the mint plant.

The cover doesn’t go over the whole box because of the tomato plant, but it covers most of it at least, and it’s only a short-term solution anyway.

I’m looking at getting some sort of copper tape as I’ve heard that works very well to prevent snails from getting inside the box. From observation, it did look as if there was more spinach in the box and has really grown a lot within a short space of time. So that means more spinach for me and less for the slugs!

I harvested some spinach for a smoothie this morning and threw away the really damaged leaves, which there were actually very few. So now with the slug issue sorted, hopefully, my next harvest from my plants will be much better!

The carrots are doing well: I seem to have managed to get away with sowing the seeds in March. They managed to survive and the leaves above the carrots are growing taller! Within 2 weeks I might see if I can feel around in the earth for some decent size carrots to eat.

Altogether, not so bad for my first attempt at gardening. I’ve still got a lot more things to do that I haven’t gotten around to just yet, but this makes me quite excited!

I thought it would be best to stick to a small variety of plants this year because it’s my first time gardening and doing more might be too overwhelming. I think next year I’ll plant a lot of different plants to get more variety in my diet.

Reviewed and updated: February 2019.

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2 Comments

  • Matthew, your garden is quite lovely, and the spinach looks really good. I’ve found my summer planted spinach (for fall/winter harvest) isn’t bothered by the leaf miners like the spring spinach.

    Good for you on the healthy eating! I’ve never tried going on a completely raw foods diet, but I’ve certainly heard good things about it.

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