Wednesday, June 22, 2022

2022 Garden

 Wow it has been a hot second since I have blogged about my gardens! I post pictures all the time on Facebook and Instagram, but never on here! 


This year's garden! I planted when we got back from Seattle over Spring Break (March 19th). The weather was milder and cooler, which I think has helped. 

Everything is planted! (March 19th)
Of course Ziggy joined the annual picture




In the right bed this year I have: 

Buttercrisp lettuce- an experiment of mine to see if it would grow. It is doing well and I recommend it, it has a nice mild flavor. 

Slicer Tomatoes- I normally get Roma's, however there were none left at the nursery. 

Tam Jalapeno- not sure what the difference is of yet with them, but they are growing nicely. 

Ghost Pepper- I saved seeds from all my peppers last year and grew the first plant from seed. Sadly it was not doing well so I replaced it with an established plant. 

2 Gypsy Peppers- I grew these from seeds. One was replaced with another seedling I grew that was doing better. 

Dill- I got to have dill for pickle making! 

Straight 8 Cucumbers- on a trellis is the only way to go! 

In the left bed I have: 

2 Habanero- last year we did not have good luck with them after the 1st plants died. This year so far so good. They were the first peppers to grow buds. 

Sweet Chelsea cherry tomatoes- I put these on a trellis and from now on I think I'll do that! Since these cherry tomatoes ALWAYS outgrow their cage, this is a better option. 

Jalapeno- I got an extra jalapeno plant from my mom, I figured why not. 

2 Scotch Bonnets- I grew these from seeds from last year's plants. I had to replace the first couple I planted with seedlings that grew better that I had. I decided to plant 3 just to make sure they'd make. 

    We like to make a mango scotch bonnet hot sauce that makes a fantastic marinade on chicken. 

1 reaper- Ms. Carolina is back this year! We made hot honey last year with a pepper. It's basically infusing honey with a reaper pepper. 

Yellow Squash- It has been a few years since I tried squash. In year's previous I have gotten vine borers that kill my squash. This year I decided to cage it- keeping the leaves off the ground and so far *knocks on wood* it has done fantastic! The leaves are bigger than my hand and the plant is very tall! Today (5/1) I picked my first squash!

March 23rd (Almost 1 Week)


April 3rd (Week 3)



April 3rd 




April 13th (Week 4)


April 19th (One month later)

The lettuce surprised me and grew very well!

Harvested lettuce! 

April 26th 
My squash had SO many blooms!
The leaves were bigger than my hand!



May 7th (Week 7)
The garden was rocking at this point! 



May 6th 

May 10th 

May 12th 
1st Cucumber picked

May 20th 

June 4th (Week 11)
By now the cucumbers were starting to show more brown leaves, but still showing growth. 

I killed the dill, I think by getting too much off of the plant at one time. I read you can only trim to a certain percentage of the plant. Who knew?! 

As I am finishing this post (6/22/22) my garden looks like: 
Squash- I have trimmed off one of my stems from the squash. I am thinking vine borers got to it. It has that yellow powdery type stuff on the remaining stalk. I did not get any more squash after that picture above. Overall I am happy with the production and getting anything from my squash plant was awesome! I saw a video of someone adding aluminum foil around the stalk base to ward off any borers, I may try that next year. 

Cucumbers- I have no idea what their issue is. The older leaves started dying a lot, new growth was happening at the very tips of the vines. The bases looked a little split, but that can be normal at times. I started with 2 vines on each side, they are both now down to one on each side. I'm not sure if they will make it with the over 100 degree temps we've been having. 
I did get about 4-5 cucumbers off of it. Nothing like my best harvest (which was a crisper drawer full), but better than the last couple of years. 
Side note: keep cucumbers at room temp, putting them in the fridge makes them spoil faster. 

Tomatoes- My slicer tomatoes are not my favorite. They make tomatoes, however every one of them splits. 
Cherry tomatoes had leaf-footed bugs BAD for a few weeks, I used DE to try to get rid of them and neem oil- that didn't work. Not sure what caused the hoard of them to come, but they are pretty much gone now! Right now the cherry tomatoes is growing new vines/stems, but not a lot of fruit. These cherry tomatoes seem to have a tougher outer layer than some cherry tomatoes. 

Habaneros- the bush closest to the fence is ROCKING!! Each good fruit I've gotten has been from this bush. The one next to it has curled leaves, looks like something is eating the tips, no visible pest though. The fruit would have bites taken out of it. Looks like a bird pecked them. 

Scotch Bonnets- I replaced the ones I first planted since they were having trouble growing. I kept the other germinated growing in the pot, so I transplanted 3 of those. Now we have 3 scotch bonnet plants. One plant (furthest to the left) has many bonnets on it. The middle plant is not as tall, but doing well. The one closest to the aisle is smallest and the leaves are not as big. 

Carolina Reaper has at least 2 fruit on her. One is starting to turn to a red color so it will be ready to pick before long. 

Gypsy Peppers- they are growing well. They need a lot of water so they do not start drooping in this HOT weather.  These peppers have to go in the fridge as soon as you pick them. They can sit on the shelf.

Jalapenos- I am actually liking the extra plant my mom gave me more than the Tam Jalapeno from the nursery. The one from my mom makes bigger jalapenos. I have picked many off of each bush. Store these in a paper sack within the fridge. This way they will last quite a while. 

Ghost Pepper- this one also got replaced from our transplant. It is a picky little plant. It wilts very easily. It has not grown very tall and the leaves are curly. It was the most happiest when I was watering 2x a day as evident by it's leaves. It has not started bearing any blossoms yet. 

Lettuce- the lettuce stalks have gotten tall! It is putting out little leaves, but is still growing. I pull off the leaves that have yellow or brown on them. Since the heat has picked up, growth has definitely  slowed down. I am just happy it is still alive! 


The new thing I have not done this year and other years I have is that I do not have soaker hoses out in the garden. That worked really well with our wet April and milder temps.  Now that the weather is getting very warm and we are starting to get into travel season, I have purchased soaker hoses. I just haven't put them out yet. 

I believe me hand watering each day definitely helped with me staying on top of growth, weeds, and pest control. 

Overall I am happy with my plants and what has grown for us so far!