The garden in the back
From right to left (“front to back”): Fenugreek, Onions, Root Crops (carrots, beets, more onions), Tomatoes, Pumpkin. You can see the trellisses for the cukes and beans in the back.
Thursday, August 13, 2026
Recent VEGarden Posts
Eggplants in the front
We put a black plastic sheet over the eggplant to trap in the heat and keep out the weeds.
Tomatoes in the front
Mulched and ready for the summer to bring on the heat!
Pumpkin
We planted six (close) hills of Small Sugar Pumpkin.
Potted Eggplant
We planted 11 eggplant plants in the front. There are 12 more in the back in pots. We picked up some old Christmas popcorn tins at the Salvation Army and made a mix of soil out of humus/manure, play sand, peat moss, and a bit of potting soil.
Beans
The Royal Purple beans have red stems; Tendergreen have the green stems. Both are bush varieties.
Officially Planted!
Well, mostly. Everything except about 20 eggplant seedlings, which are either going in containers or replacing the broccoli raab that we’re about to harvest. Containers would be best, because then we could position them to get enough sun… but the problem then becomes finding containers for that many eggplants, and then buying dirt, soil amendments, etc. My guess is that we’ll need to replace a couple of eggplants in the front yard though, so we’re still holding off for a few days. On Tuesday, we planted 11 tomatoes, 22 chile peppers, 2 okras, and 11 eggplants in the new front garden. The eggplants are quite small, and I’m hoping now that they’re in the ground, they will take off a... Read More
Seedlings out
Today we put most of the front garden in. From left to right: Tomatoes/Golden chard in the first bed; Chile Peppers/Beets in the second bed; Eggplant/2 Okras/Radishes/Carrots in the third bed.
Radish Sprouts
Chris and I are on the path to becomming “gardeners.” There’s not much to be done right now though: we’re just starting to see lots of little sprouts; we’re still hardening off the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers; the raised beds have nearly eliminated the weeds (I know, they’ll come back in a few weeks – but not yet!)… so we’ve been reading a lot about all of our different kinds of vegetables, hoping that some knowledge will sink in and stay put. I found a Horticulture Fact Sheet webpage (on the Ohio State University Extension Service website) that has some pretty good articles about growing tons of different vegetables in home gardens. We’re not in Ohio, and it isn’t terribly... Read More
Bean Trellis
We planted the beans today: Royalty Purple Podded Snap Bush Bean, Tendergreen Bush Bean, Blue Lake 274 Garden Bean, and Blue Lake Stringless Garden Bean (the last two are a couple of organic hybrids I had from last year). We ordered most of our seeds this year from Seeds of Change, but I’ve found that the packs are a bit skimpy.
Cucumber Trellis
I put this together out of some extra boards I had laying around in the garage. I planted buttercup squash just at the end of the trellis (on the left side, from this angle).
Hardening Off the Seedlings
This is exciting: we started ALL of our vegetable plants from seeds this year. This is the lot of the starters: tons of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, a couple okra, and a few broccoli. There are also some grapefruit trees, papaya trees, and medjool date trees mixed into the lot.
Planting Day
You can’t see them, but they’re in there. From left to right, in the very front of each three beds, we planted Golden Chard, Chioggia Beets, and Royal Chantenay Carrots.