Weekly update

Here are the photos for week two.  All of the plants are thriving and showing new growth.  Somehow I managed to purchase too many zucchini plants (14 total!)  I thought I had yellow crookneck squash but I didn't; so we bought some yesterday and they went in the ground today.  They went in the bed closest to the house and the one with the bean pole (and all of the zucchini and cucumber plants).

Almost all of the tomato plants have either blossoms or tiny tomatoes, and the largest zucchini plants' blooms are about to open.   The rhubarb unfurled a new leaf on a brand new stalk this week!  (In 3rd picture down, upper left of picture. )

Felicity: the top picture is taken from the far back corner of the yard, looking all the way across past the pool, to the other garden bed.  

No damage!

We had a terrific thunderstorm yesterday afternoon complete with nickel sized hail!  Thankfully, there appears to be no damage.  Today is cool, breezy and sunny.

There is new growth on all of the transplants.  I'll take and post some pics later this week.  

Time to plant!

Mom and I got the plants all in the beds yesterday and today.  

In the first bed is tomatoes--cherry, goliath, better boy, grape, bush boy, and peppers--red, green and yellow bell.  

The second bed is the climbers--on the bean trellis I got from Gurney's.  I have 14 zucchini plants and 4 cucumbers.  (For some reason, I overlooked the yellow squash and ended up with a ton of zucchinis!)  

The third bed is broccoli, 18 plants, one cabbage that my son's teacher gave to him, and a large rhubarb.  

The fourth bed (closer to the house, and more easily seen) has yellow cherry and yellow large tomatoes ("Lemon Boy"), grape tomatoes, and Early girl tomatoes.  Also there is one red bell pepper and 3 cantaloupe vines.  

Next steps

Mom and I went to a Vegetable Gardening class offered by the Clemson Extension Program in February and March.  It was 4 weeks long and we learned so much.  

Following the master gardeners' advice and guidelines, we started a compost pile (later replaced by a compost bin that I found for $40 at Sam's club.)  This has gone quite well so far!

I filled the completed beds with a combination of good quality potting soil, peat moss, and compost.  The compost came from the Charleston County Landfill on Bees Ferry Road.  It's $10 a ton, or .05 cents a pound!  I ended up getting 600 pounds in two trips and paid $3.00 total.  

I purchased lots of vegetable transplants at Wal-Mart and Lowe's.  I went from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart, waiting for those first shipments of veggie plants.  Finally, I got word that a store had a truck come in, and I went right over.  We've had the plants on the front porch (somewhat sheltered, south facing.  We haven't done anything but give them water, and bring them indoors when the freezes were forecast.  

Beginning the garden

The 3 kids and I each built a raised bed for the garden.  We used 6' fence boards and nails, with 2x4s as the corner brackets.