Garden Progress

So my community garden plot seems to be doing well! We've eaten a lot of the kale and collard greens already. Someone did climb the fence and steal my broccoli however, which was OK, since it actually wasn't growing properly anyhow. I was warned about this happening for tomatoes and peppers, but broccoli??

The day I got my plot a couple months ago

 The first pic is the tomato view, the second is the kale, pepper, squash view.

In my backyard I harvested my strawberries; they weren't super sweet, but still tasty!

Community Garden

It only took me a year to get in but I finally got my spot in our community garden just a couple blocks from our house. I was expecting a relatively small space but instead I ended up with an 10x10 foot lot! Now I just have to clean her up and decide what to plant!

I was advised against planting melons or tomatoes because people tend to hop the fence and take their pick with those varieties. It's a good thing I have a large self-watering system for my backyard for my bounty of tomatoes (hopefully a good bounty!)-thanks Dad!

You say Tomato...

In my effort to be green and with visions of making organic baby food literally from the fruits of my own labor...I tried to get a plot in our local community garden this year. But unfortunately they were all taken by February. So I decided to create my own urban farm in my 8x13ft (ish) backyardette (since I don't think it can officially be a yard being as small as it is). I had minimal space left in the ground so I bought a bunch of containers (2-5 gallons). I was optimistic and motivated so I planted: tomatoes, summer squash, watermelon, lettuce, radishes, beets, green onions, spinach, basil, cilantro, parsley, broccoli, and strawberries. Now being August, I have learned that I should have planted my greens (and probably
broccoli) as a fall crop. My spinach lasted until the heat wave a couple weeks ago, the cilantro died almost right after I put it in, my watermelon never sprouted (nor did the lettuce). The summer squash plants are large (but who knows if they will fruit), and I am waiting to see what will happen with my beets and radishes. I have an obnoxious amount of Rosemary however!

Summer Squash

Rosemary

Broccoli

 As may be obvious, I only half (or less) know what I am doing when it comes to gardening. I have had success in the past few years with basil, tomatoes, swiss chard, and rosemary. However it's been hit or miss with tomatoes since I first tried them 3 years ago. This year it has been a bit of a miss. I wanted to attribute it to the HOT HOT weather, but everyone else I know that are growing tomatoes around here has had great success this year. We did have a few visits from our neighborhood city kitty (aka RAT) that worked his way under my protective netting and has eaten at least 3 tomatoes from one plant-- which is basically all I got on that one. As for my other bush (or twiggy stalk)... they have been small-- and so far have had minimal fruit. Regardless of size or quantity- they are still delicious!