Its finally here! All the time researching, raising seedlings in the garage, digging and redigging (I've dug the same ditch so many times I feel like a Keynesian!) will hopefully pay off in a month or two. Everything is in the ground and starting to come up. This year I've got a mix of tomatoes, peppers, carrots and onions. There's also a unique
summer squash, two kinds of pumpkins (
Polar Bear and
Champion),
Gremlin gourds and sugar snap peas.
If you look closely at this picture, you can see a decorative black trellis towards the back of the garden. It will soon be occupied by a morning glory, a climbing flower that has the peculiar trait of attracting ladybugs. Forget about the preying mantis which is just as likely to kill another predator insect (or, yes, its mate) as it is a garden pest, one ladybug can consume up to 5,000 aphids in its lifetime!
I hope its half as much fun to eat as it has been to grow! If not, then I'll just take Papa up on his offer to move down here and sell all the produce on the side of 36....after all, it was Papa who originally glossed it the "English Garden."
This bed is a good illustration of the companion planting I am trying this year. Placing different vegetables in the same bed mixes up the scents and tends to confuse predators. In most of these beds I've got some mix of tomatoes (
Great White,
Valencia,
Brandywine and Roma), hot peppers, sweet peppers and onions. Its good to mix onions through out the garden because pests generally don't like the strong scent from any member of this family. The tomatoes are surrounded by marigolds for protection from pests. Then I add an herb or two for an additional scent and hopefully the ability to attract some predator insects.
The first produce of the year will be some delicious sugar snap peas!
Nasturtiums are great to have in the garden. Not only are they a bright and attractive flower, but they excel at attracting predator insects. They also serve as a "trap crop" for aphids...distracting them from less tasty meals such as cucumbers and tomatoes.
Mexican Tarragon has a powerful odor that just about all garden pests hate. Great to plant in the middle of a bed.
Borage is one of the best plants at attracting bees....which are beneficial because they tend to prey on the pests and will also do some pollinating while they are in the area!
A classic combination....pictured here is a French Marigold (the African variety work well too) long believed to protect tomatoes from many garden pests that would love to eat your tomatoes but hate the smell of the marigolds!
Carrot seedlings on the rise! I mixed together three different varieties of seeds to get a nice rainbow of color out of this part of the garden. The varieties are a tribute to Duke Dawg with
White Satin,
Deep Purple and
Hercules.
