Gardens Update

Yesterday I finished building and filling another (more or less) 6' x 6' x 1' raised bed garden. By the looks of things by the time I get it seeded and the seeds covered I'll be down to a mere one bag of dirt which I'll most likely use for potted plants.

I had planned on building a couple of rather larger gardens about 8 or 10' x 12' but with Summer swiftly coming on I think I'll just frame up a couple 6' x 6' pretty much in the center of where the big ones were to be. First, I don't want to move that many bags of dirt in the Mississippi Summer heat and second, I can always enlarge a raised bed easily enough should I later decide to.

Meanwhile I should be picking the first home grown maters of the season within days. Chili peppers are putting forth baby fruits as are the peas & beans. I just used a few from a sack of dried black eye peas and pinto beans as seed but actually bought a packet of green pea seed for a dime. Corn is about a foot tall and in two separate beds gourds and squash are doing fair. In pots cucumbers and squash are climbing up and flowering. In the front garden sunflowers are already budding baby heads.

I've been reading a bit about starting berries from seed and have fetched from the grocery's produce department rubbish strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries to try to germinate the seeds thereof. If any grow I get free plants. If none grow I get a bit of free compost.
For me there is always more satisfaction the farther back I go to grow anything. A tomato that I grew from a plant I started from a seed from a tomato I grew will be a source of "pioneer pride" for me a few years down the road.