Our church garden is coming along nicely now, producing our first harvests last week. We took squash and cukes to two different organizations. The harvests are still small, but they will grow in size as the plants get bigger. All of the produce from this garden will go to food pantries and meal programs in our area.
We are going to support these tomatoes with a stake and weave system. We are planning to drive the wooden stakes this afternoon and begin weaving the twine. We’ve already driven in metal t-posts at the ends of each row. We have about 100 tomato plants here. The first row is planted in Celebrity and Mountain Spring varieties (shorter vines) and the other two rows are a mix of Better Boy, Whopper, Early Girl, Ramapo and Jetsonic. The indeterminate varieties will have to be pruned more heavily.
The squash are looking good, a mix of yellow straightneck, crookneck, and zucchini. We have about 100 plants.
The squash plants are loaded with blooms and baby squashes.
In another plot (about 30ftx50ft) we have the cucumbers and green beans. These were planted a bit later because the ground was slower to dry out. We’ve got a nice stand of bush beans coming up.
We are hoping to plant some turnips and collard greens for a fall crop, after we pull the bean plants. Our goal is to partner with several agencies and try to tailor the crops we grow to fit their needs. There’s no point in growing a vegetable if no one is going to eat it! We’ve already had one good suggestion for a crop, and that’s okra. It’s easy enough to grow in our climate, though it does need regular harvesting. We will probably plant it next year if the garden continues.