Great Garden Progress! May 30, 2015

I am very pleased with the progress of the Garden.  It's been raining buckets all month so that's saved a LOT of money on the water bill and sent the plants soaring.

The pole green beans did really great.

 I must admit that I'm disappointed with the help from the praying mantis' since I've not seen any in my garden in over two weeks.  I did see one in the front flower bed and my grandson Dylan found a couple more.  Charles found one close to the roses by the backdoor but that is really nothing considering there were probably over 400 hatched babies.  I saw one of my little lizards eat one which was very distressing and Charles says that he thinks the birds ate LOTS of them.  I need to research this a little more for next year. Maybe use lady bugs and lacewings. It's really important to me to use these alternative methods since I really want my garden to be pollinator friendly and I don't want to use poisons on it. 

These green beans have already produced enough to have them for dinner!

My idea to plant squash on one side of the tub, close enough to grow over the side worked.  I used the same idea on the other side for green beans.  in this tub I have bush beans.  I wasn't sure if that would work and originally intended to use pole beans so they could climb on the landscape timbers but this actually worked out better.  Next year, I'm planting all bush beans.

The Squash are coming along beautifully but I keep a close watch on them to make sure squash bugs don't get started.  That is one of the reasons I really wanted to invite the mantises into the garden.

I think squash looks so pretty with the big blooms.

We had to stake the Tomatoes.

 I added two more tubs, I just couldn't resist.  Next year, I think the full size tomatoes will be on the tubs on the ground. They just grow too tall.  I also need to study a little more about pruning them so they spend their energy on growing fruit and not stalks.
 

The stalks are really strong.

Baby Bell Pepper and Parsely looking very healthy.

The Roma tomatoes are starting to ripen.

Green Beans and Strawberries

This is one of the tubs I added.

 I am really happy about how well the herbs are doing.  We use a lot of basil and also with oregano and thyme.  Next year, I'm going to make sure one of the tubs is only for herbs.  They need the deep roots.  I might even transplant them to the 5th tub although my plan was to plant that with potatoes. 

Basil, Sage, Oregano and Thyme.

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Fat little Cucumber.