The wet cool spring has turned into a hot muggy summer — at least for a couple of days — and I suppose those definitions vary by where you live. I didn’t fill up the water reservoirs last night and although not empty, they took considerably more water to fill this morning. I went out mid-afternoon and realized that tonight I get to drag the water hose out to fill up the reservoirs again.

The salad bucket looks rough — I gave the lettuce a good trimming last night for supper. The carrots aren’t due in for a couple more weeks. But look at that foliage. The spinach just looks tired. I planted a few more seeds last night, but it may be too hot for it now.

There are at least 4 beefsteak tomatoes on their way. There could be more up higher in the plant, but I haven’t found them yet.

The cherry tomatoes are doing nicely as well. I can’t wait for the first couple of bunches to ripen.

The Purple Cherokee has one tomato. There have been others, but they have had blossom rot. This one looks good so far.

The cucumber is coming along ok after the second sowing. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Lots of growth in the beans & peas bucket as well. The peas are also a second sowing. Perhaps instead of these folding trellises I should have gotten tomato cages. These are supposed to be bush beans and not need a cage or trellis.

Last but not least is my corn bucket. In the back there is a single bean plant to grown up the corn-stalk. At least that’s the plan. We’ll see what happens.

Now, if I can just keep the lettuce & spinach growing until the carrots & tomatoes are ready….

The lettuce has been moved a little west.  I discovered the tomatoes were casting a shadow in the morning.

The salad bucket looks good.  I’ve had small lettuce salads several times, once with spinach!  Still waiting on the carrots.

The beefsteak have blossoms, but no tomatoes yet.

The are two bunches of cherry tomatoes, but they are still green.

The Purple Cherokee also has blossoms, but no tomatoes.

The cucumbers are coming back up. This is the second time I planted them.

The Lima Beans (left) and Black Eyed Peas are coming along.

The corn looks good too.  There’s a Lima Bean also in this bucket.

Now if I can figure out what these little things are.  I thought it was cucumber the first time I saw it (last week in the cucumber bucket), but they are in all of the buckets.  I’m pulling it out as fast as I find it.

Yesterday, I harvested some of the lettuce. It needed thinning.

Here’s what the garden looks like today.

Salad – Lettuce, carrots & spinach

Red Beefsteak

Super Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes

Baby tomatoes!

Purple Cherokee

Cucumbers — I replanted Sunday

Lima Beans

Black Eyed Peas

Corn

As near as I can tell, everything is still looking good.  A couple of my original black-eyed peas finally came up and this morning there was a new sprout from last week’s planting. Since these pics were taken (about 8 AM this morning) another pea has sprouted.  It’s hard to believe it’s only been 3 weeks since I planted.

These pictures were taken yesterday, but I didn’t have a chance to post them.

It still doesn’t look like much, but I noticed this morning that some of the lettuce has 3 leaves on it now.  The spinach is also looking less like the carrots as well.

The beefsteak tomato is getting a bit heavy, so I can see why the case will be necessary.

The Cherry tomato is still there — although I’ve got to research spots/discoloration on the leaves.

The Cherokee is coming along as well.

Next up are the cucumbers.  This morning I can see the start of new leaves in the center of the center plant .

Still no blackeyed peas, but I’ve got 3 good beans — actually there were 6, 2 beans planted in each spot and I removed the smaller of the 2.  Then I planted more blackeyed peas in the back half of the container.

Check out this corn.

5 of the 6 plants have come up – but I think I’m going to have to take at least 2 out of the container.

All of the pictures will enlarge if you click on them.  I hope to have some quilting posts later this evening.

It’s Wednesday, so it must be time to check in on my garden.  From this distance, not much has changed since last week. I do have another entry for my ‘lessons learned’.

Overflow holes. – I deliberately put them to the back of the patio, but when I’m watering the buckets I can’t see if I have enough water without walking around to the back. I’m not sure if that means the lesson is to face the holes to the patio side of the garden or wear shoes.  That gravel is hard on bare feet. For now I’m wearing shoes.

The second take away is the positioning of the overflow hole on the bucket in relationship to the handle.  That bucket on the far right has the hole right under the handle and it makes it a bit hard to see when I’ve got enough water in the bucket. After the season is over I may take the handles off.

The tomatoes are growing.

Red Beefsteak

Super Sweet 100 Hybrid Cherry

Cherokee Purple Heirloom

The cherry tomato has a single blossom.

Additionally my lettuce has started to grow — click twice on the picture if you really want to see it.

Right now I’m not doing much to the garden. Making sure the reservoirs are filled with water in the morning and afternoon and cleaning the ‘helicopter’ seeds out as they blow in to garden.  The last thing I need is a tree growing in my vegetables!

This is the “Stuff” part of Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid. I promise I’ll get back to quilting just as soon as I get a few things planted. I already have a few “lessons learned” of the garden variety even though nothing is planted.  The tomato plant pictured above is one of them.

Read the plant tag not just the display box.

I thought I was buying a Red Beefsteak Heirloom and discovered this morning that I have a Cherokee Purple Heirloom. Oh, well.

Cut aeration and water holes BEFORE cutting the false bottom from the lid

I’m using larger 30 gallon tubs for some of my containers. The lid will be a false bottom sitting about 5-inches from the bottom as a water reservoir. There needs to be a couple of holes for the water wicking and lots of aeration hole drilled into the lid. I got excited and cut all three false bottoms from the container lids and now I have to figure out where to prop them while I drill the holes.

A little bit of spray paint can hide advertising

It was my plan to pick up my 5 gallon buckets from Craigslist. But my timing was off. I found these at WM for only 58-cents more than the Craigslist bucket and I was already at WM.  Turns out these buckets are nearly the same color as our newly painted shutters and we have leftover paint.  So, no advertising.

Planting a garden is no different that other do-it-yourself projects — you will have to make multiple trips to the store

Although I could fill my water reservoir via the overflow hole I’ve cut into the side of the bottom bucket, I’m going to make it easier on my back and add in a 1″ PVC pipe from the top. That means I need an 1-3/8 inch hole in the bottom of the top bucket for the pipe. Although I could probably do a rough cut, it will be faster and more importantly easier on my hands/wrists if I have a proper drill bit.  Also, the caulking I have to “glue” the wicking cup in the right place on the bottom bucket is dried up. So I’m off to the hardware store – again.

For at least this week it seems I’m limiting my quilting to after it gets dark.