OK, can we talk about my garden? The last four weeks have been producing nothing but large question marks over my head. The garden. It keeps me humble. While I am SO GLAD I planted this year, not everything is coming up roses, er, zucchini. Let’s take a look.
This is the before, exactly one month ago:
And this is 30 days later:
So yes. There’s some growing going on. Let’s talk about the good growing first.
As you can see the broccoli there on the left is kind of out of control. Zoomed in it sort of looks like a forest.
You can see from the side here that the tomato plants at the fence are all getting pretty big too.
We’ve got some blooms where some tomatoes will come in and that is so exciting.
You can barely see it but the parsley just beside the tomatoes is huge, the lettuce is doing well and even the marigold down in there is flourishing. I’ve had a few salads from the lettuce and used fresh parsley in my meatloaf last week (WHO AM I, PEOPLE?)
My favorite part about the whole garden so far is my jalapeño peppers. They’re just so cute and I can’t wait to stuff them with cheese and wrap them in bacon.
Now let’s talk about the bad. This right bed is pretty empty, huh?
The only thing we can figure out is that either I put too much fertilizer in or didn’t mix it up well enough because all the leaves are either turning brown or it’s totally killing the plants. I killed the zucchini, cilantro, marigold, and basil plants and my green bell pepper is not far behind. Since the other bed is nearly identical aside from the fertilizer and because of the symptoms, fertilizer burn is only thing I can figure. I’m planning to remove the soil and mix in fresh since we have a few bags left over. I think the whole thing is odd because I thought I used much, much less than he recommended.
In the left bed, the squash plant is not doing well either.
I have no idea what its problem is.
So overall, I have had *something* to eat from it already and it looks like I will have plenty more but it’s a little rough looking.
It’s been amazing though how much God has shown to me through the garden, even through the bad things. Just today I finally decided to rip out the dying basil and zucchini and I just thought that’s God right there. Sometimes we have things in our life that we keep tending and tending, hoping that it will find some life but eventually we know they just need to be ripped out and we need to move on. Last week when my brain was going so crazy and I knew parts of the garden weren’t going well, he reminded just how much I don’t have it together. Even when I do things in the moment that I feel are right, I just don’t know it all and can’t predict how it’s going to go. We do the right things and it still turns out poorly. God is good, isn’t he? I love when he can make all things, even the bad things, be for our good. I might not get to eat squash casserole, but I’m drinking living water from my garden and I don’t think it’d be a stretch to say that’s priceless.
A good word again preacher! Mom
Yes, thankfully, God can turn our “bad” into good. Ya know, sometimes growth is easier in some areas of our life than in others, too. Food for thought…
Oh, I love that. There are so many more things he has shown me. I wish I’d written them all down. I’m going to have to start doing it!
Judging from the last picture I believe that there are two problems. The first is that you have caterpillars, and the second is that there is a nitrogen deficiency. I could be wrong but typically nitrogen deficiencies cause the plant to turn a very light green and the leaves will turn somewhat yellowish.
Yes, I do see these green little caterpillars on the broccoli. What do you recommend for that? We are going to get the soil checked today to see what we might need for that.
For the nitrogen deficiency I would recommend that you first buy a testing kit. Most testing kits test for other deficiencies as well. If it is a nitrogen deficiency they do sell soil rich in nitrogen. Since you have already planted your vegetables, just add the nitrogen rich soil in on top. For new plants, make sure the soil you purchase is rich in all nutrients. Caterpillars get a bit tricky. There’s this thing called Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) that is naturally found in soil that is safe for humans, birds and insects to consume. However, for whatever reason it kills only caterpillars. It’s easy enough to purchase the product and spray it on the your plants, the trick is that it only kills caterpillars if they consume it. Which is sad, but they are pesky little things.