A few weeks ago I reported on the dreadful condition of the garden and how we started taming it. I can now say that even though we have been without any rain of consequence for several weeks and needed to water the plants at least twice a day, the garden is now making great progress.
Finally the rains came, a bit here and a bit there, in the last few days, but as of last night we have had a steady, soft, drenching rain and the garden looked very happy this morning!
As we stated in the begining of the Garden Journal, our garden beds are enclosed with recycled wood slats, layered inside with newspapers for weed control and then filled with mulch. We make pockets in the mulch where we fill with organic soil and then plant our herbs and veggies in the pockets.
Since the garden is organic, we are using lots of Marigolds all over to deter pests and we have been spraying a homemade organic weed control close to the beds and around the new stepping stones. See recipe below.
Laurel (bay leaf) in the rain... the laurel sits in the middle of the assorted parsley bed.
Pineapple Sage and Golden Marigolds in the back, Sweet Basil in front. I'm getting ready to trim the basil down so it can bush out and I will be making pesto with the cuttings.
Malabar Spinach, a type of vining spinach, these are almost ready to start climbing the wire frame. Mizuna greens, Rosemary and more Golden Marigolds.
Gold and Orange Marigolds, Roma Tomatoes and Lemon Basil - the little paper cups around the tomato stems are to discourage pests such as cutworms.
Overview of several beds, include Rosemaries, Orange and Golden Marigolds, Mizuna Greens, Red and Yellow Bell Pepper plants - you can also see a few of the Dwarf Banana plants in the background.
Baby Purple Japanese Eggplant growing in the lower branches and a cluster of blooms at the top of the plant. Both Purple Japanese Long Eggplants and both of the Japanese Round Green Eggplant plants are blooming.
A future project will be to fill in the paths with creeping Oregano and plant it all around the stepping stones. I have started the plugs of creeping Oregano in the beds as fillers and will be taking them from there.
Ripening Hawaiian Chile Peppers.
Recipe for the Organic Weed Spray
4 cups white vinegar
1/4 cup salt
2 teaspoons dish detergent
Mix all ingredients well and spray on weeds. Watch them go Bye Bye!....As the weeds die, I will be pulling them by the roots to make room for the creeping Oregano to take over.
.......and this is how my garden is growing at this moment
