First critters and first harvest.

Noticed some damage to my broccoli and a Big Boy Tomato has some stink bug eggs and damage on it...not too thrilled, but hopefully I have it under control! Now if the rain would stop it would be a great help too.

Picked the first 7 radishes tonight. These guys are bigger than last year. 1.6 oz in weight. (Last yrs total was 4.6 oz)

Been a busy couple if months.

Between extremely wet weather and a freak hailstorm, everything is coming along decently. Lost a few broccoli to the hail and some seeds due to 4"+ of rain we had in less than 1 week on top of highs in the mid 80's. Here are some progress pics.

This years plantings

Decided to try a lot of new things this year and expand what we have to eat.  I figure with crop rotations/2nd plantings we should have plenty of fresh veggies all summer long!  Here is the list so far, may add some different items for fall crops.

Mesclun Sweet Salad Mix
Spinach Salad Select
Iceburg A Lettuce
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
Simpson Elite Lettuce
Di Ciccio Broccoli
Early Pride Cucumber Hybrid
Pickle Barrel Cucumber Hybrid
Sure Thing Summer Squash Hybrid
Carnival Blend Sweet Pepper
Pepperoncini Hot Pepper
Danvers 126 Half Long Carrots
Golden Grande Onion
Walla Walla Onion
Burpees Big Boy Hybrid Tomato
Snack Attack Hybrid Tomato
Better Boy Hybrid Tomato
Cherry Belle Radish
Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean
Tender Bounty Bush Bean
Goldrush Garden Bush Bean
Juniper Beets

Might do some Beets in the fall along with celery, but we will see!  I already have everything planted, now just playing the waiting game.  Got a later start than I wanted to this year, but between the cool weather, rain and family obligations there is never enough time.  I will post some pics of what is already coming up shortly.  

New Year, New Plans for 2015!

Decided to redo the blog for this year. I do apologize ahead of time for the length of this first post, but there are lots to catch up on.  I decided to expand the garden this year and to use a semi square foot method.  I really wanted a layout that would maximize the space I had, but more importantly allow my 3 boys easy access to help out.

Here is the new layout, you can see last years garden inside the new layout.

I created 3 different beds to house my square foot beds.  I used 2x4's to frame everything in.  It is not a full raised bed, but kind of a hybrid.  Last fall I mixed in some leaves and grass clippings to add some bio mass to the clay that was there before.  None of my boxes are permanently fixed to the frame.  My thoughts are that at the end of this season, I will pull them out and spread the topsoil evenly over the whole area, add some more compost and till it all under for next year.  Should lead to some pretty decent soil in a few years in this location.

The front boxes will be for my tomatoes and on the left side will be my cucumbers and zucchini this year.  Decided to plant some Pole Beans for the first time.  Here is a picture of the pole I made from PVC Pipe.

Here are a couple of pics of the stings installed almost ready for planting!

My trellises from last year were pretty shot, so I decided to build my own this year. Came out pretty good I think, now lets see how well they work! Built 3 of them, here is the first one, it stands right at 5' tall.

That is all for today, Next up will be a list of everything that we are planning to grow on our urban farm.  For now, here are some pics of the kids helping dad get it set up!