Updates From the Garden

The garden is coming along well. We haven't harvested a huge amount yet, but I think we're about to be over run.

We set up our little garden plot a little differently than most. We put down several layers of newspaper (just the black and white part, not the slick ads), dampened it with the water hose, and put topsoil and compost over it. The grass won't grow up through the newspaper, but the plants can put their roots down through it. I'm not sure exactly how that works, but it does. We've also been using grass clippings as mulch around the plants. That seems to be working really well to keep the weeds at bay too. We edged the garden with wood from an old swing set. It's not too pretty but it works, plus it was cheap. :)

These are either watermelon or cantaloupe that Mike planted last week. He planted both and I'm not sure which is which.


These are jalapeños. We have several different types of peppers. Something is eating the leaves, so we'll have to figure out what to do about that. We haven't been using any chemicals on the garden.


These are tomatoes. We have several tomato plants of different varieties and they are thriving.


The garden has been a lot of fun and we really haven't put much money into it. We bought a few bags of topsoil (spending $20 at most), the tomato and pepper plants (maybe $15 for that) and the seeds for the other plants (about $2). I think we'll wind up with much more in harvest value. We also now have the garden well established for next year and a great compost pile going. Maybe we can even expand.