Earth Day in the garden

Yesterday after work my loving husband helped me set up 7 foot t-posts in the raised garden bed. They will serve as the support for the Florida Weave trellis I plan to build. Now that they're hammered into the ground, they're only about 5 and a half feet tall, which should be plenty of height for tomato support. I'm excited to try the Florida Weave method. The t-posts weren't cheap, but I should be able to use them for years and years.

Today I planted most of my garden!

Tomatoes: Two each of Eva Purple Ball, Hillbilly Potato Leaf, Nebraska Wedding, Rosso Sicilian, and Berkeley Tie Dye. Two cherry tomato plants (Mexico Midget and Ingleheart Yellow Cherry) are planted elsewhere (the flower bed in front of the porch). 

Although you can't see it in this picture, there's space on this end of the bed for my cucumbers. I plan to build a trellis for them with the two end t-posts and some smaller bamboo stakes. Another thing you can't see in these photos: marigolds are sprouting down the center of the bed and between the tomato plants. I planted those seeds a couple of weeks ago to get them a small head start. Year before last, when I used marigolds as a living mulch, I got the most tomato production I'd ever seen! I don't know if the scent kept bad insects away, or if the flowers attracted pollinators. Maybe both. It was a good year.

On this end you can see the baby lettuce and the radishes growing. Only about 6 or 7 carrots have sprouted, over on the right side. They're not very noticeable. (I don't have much luck with carrots, for some reason). The radishes will come up and out soon, but the lettuce needs to grow a bit more before I start picking it. Eventually, that end will be where the pepper plants go.

This last picture is of my potted up peppers (Datil hot peppers, Zapotec Jalapenos, and Sheepnose Pimentos) and the leftover tomato plants. As soon as I see if the tomatoes I planted in the bed take off, I'll be giving away the extras to gardening friends. The peppers will be ready to start planting out in a couple more weeks.

After working in the garden for a couple of hours, I got a little tiny bit of sunburn on my arms. I came inside, took a shower, ate lunch, and had the most delicious two hour nap. It rained while I was asleep--perfect for my newly planted garden!

Happy Earth Day!