Sophomore Gardener: Garden getting greener despite one setback

Note: With the guidance of editor Doug Oster, Mike Palm is chronicling his adventures (or perhaps misadventures) in his second year of gardening.

Kohlrabi … how will I eat it?

What a difference a few weeks in June make!

For the most part, the tomatoes have shot up, especially the three store-bought plants. The two I added from Doug’s seed swap are right behind. I only wish I had used my triangular cages on the bigger plants and the round ones on the smaller plants because I’m anticipating some problems when they outgrow the cages. Looks like I’m going to have to take Doug’s advice and build some of my own.

: Good tomatoes! (Smiley face)

: Bad tomatoes! (Frown face)

But the one setback has been the tomatoes we started from seed. I actually planted even more of the seedlings in hopes that several will catch on, and the weaker plants will be pulled later on. But that’s depending on any of them starting to grow.

Doug says: Now you know that you need some good-sized tomato cages. I think we need to talk about seed starting and getting the plants going under lights. If it was me, I’d just put in some nice-sized ‘Early Girl’ or cherry tomato plants and start again next season with seeds.

: Every bean I planted sprouted.

: A bean’s vine starting its climb up the trellis.

It looks like the biggest success is the beans so far. They’re coming in strong, and their little vines are starting to find the strings attached to the trellis. After nudging some of the vines closer over the weekend, they found their way and are climbing fast.

Maybe I should have staggered the planting of the beans a little bit, but it’s too late now.

: Cucumbers after they’ve been thinned.

: Zinnias coming in on the edge.

: One of the two Mexican sunflowers

The cucumber plants seem to be doing fine. The initial planting had five or six seeds per spot, and that’s been thinned down to the two or three strongest-looking plants. It’ll be exciting to see once they actually start climbing up and over the middle trellis.

Kohlrabi continues to grow, and they’re actually starting to look like the bulbs on the seed packet. Any kohlrabi recipe suggestions? Maybe a slaw?

It might be time to hit a nursery this weekend to fill in the gaps

Doug says: All that stuff looks great. I’d feed the cucumbers some Grow fertilizer. I love the kohlrabi raw, cut into slices with a little dip. They are also good grated in salads. You might want to hold off on getting more plants, everything else looks like it might take over. I think your second-year garden is looking wonderful!

In the garden, the zinnias are coming in, and two Mexican sunflower plants (thanks Doug!) have found a home, too.

front yard

Did you know that hostas actually have flowers? I knew it, but I never got to witness it because deer have always munched away after a few weeks’ growth. That was the case until this year, when I started spraying the flowers in our front yard with Bobbex (available here). A clematis, hostas, a bunch of lilies, a rose bush and more survived and flowered this year.

I didn’t get a chance to reapply after a recent storm, so I lost some of the lilies (which were on their last legs anyhow) and some roses (also turning brown). But I’ll keep using the Bobbex to protect what’s left.