August Update

Raised Bed:

The Tomatoes and the Green Beans are producing like crazy.  I'm on an every-other-day picking schedule, and I get a quart sized bag of Green Beans every week, at least.  I really can't eat the tomatoes fast enough.  I should bring them to work...

The old Swiss Chard plants are kind of done. They didn't get enough sun, they didn't get any attention, and I just kind of left them there, so, whatever.  I ripped em out, to put them out of their misery.  (In the process, I saw the roots were like, a foot long or more, so I'm concerned about my Swiss Chard in containers...)  The Chives are still chive-ing, Parsley is still going, although it keeps trying to go to seed.  The Cilantro is of course long gone.  Of the little starter plants that I have, I don't even know if it's worth it.  I guess if I start some seeds now, they'll be good to plant in September, which is when cilantro can actually grow.

There is a Jalapeno plant in there, and he's alive, but no more peppers.  The one I bought recently and put in a pot is doing much better.  The mint looks like shit, I think I should put it out of it's misery.  I never used any of it, either.

The Basil plants are kind of hanging on.  I don't know what their problem is- why can't they just grow well, like mom's?  The one that rooted and then planted in some potting stuff seems to actually have some new growth, so I planted it in the bed- it was practically root bound, and it had only been a week, maybe 2.  Time to start another!

Obviously my raised bed is overcrowded.  I think this is mainly because of the beans.  The purple beans seemed to do quite well in the itty bitty containers, and that was with some pretty poor watering.  They get a lot of sun, which is cool, and I guess I could get pretty far with this if I give them a compost layer after the first round of beans, or at least some of that 231 fertilizer.  I'll use those 32" self-watering containers, and based on the Square Foot Garden charts, I could get 16 plants in each one.  I gotta do some purple beans, they're so cool, maybe one container of all purple, and the other two just the regular green beans.  If I didn't have the beans in the raised bed, I think it would be very nice and orderly, not this mess of leaves.

Everything gets morning sun, but the majority of it gets a lot of shade from the tree right around noon.  I don't know, I mean...  Should I even be growing vegetables there?  Um, I'm getting a pint of tomatoes and a quart of beans a week, I think it's ok.  And it's been a more cool, rainy summer than usual, so I would be ok, overall.

Anyway.  I'd like to get the whole thing really packed with those nice little cool season veggies as soon as the tomatoes come out.  Tomatoes usually go through September, right?  Meh.  It comes out when I decide it looks too shitty to live.

Front Bed:

Yeah, the Black Eyed Susan are great, so are the Echinacea, and the Day lilies are kind of underwhelming, in comparison.  I think they need to be divided next year, along with the Liriope.  The annuals are great- Sweet Potato Vine is awesome, so is Vinca, and that's pretty much all you need to look like you know what you're doing.  I'm going to put another Echinacea in there soon, when they go on sale or whatever.  I'd kind of like to move stuff around a lot more, but that's going to be tough because I won't remember where anything is.

Oh, shit, if I'm going to plant a ton of daffodils, I need to do that in like, November, but I could move some other plants around at the same time?  I mean, for something like a liriope or a day lily, I think whatever you do is fine.