Garden expansion & sowing lettuce for Fall harvest

I have shoveled, tilled, hoed, and planted a spot next to the Tomato and pepper garden. It took a little over an hour to shovel this spot by myself, about 15'x20' of garden space.
See below.

garden expansion

This garden is dedicated to various greens and vegetables. Sowing lettuce, kale, spinach now will ensure a Fall harvest in September through October, before the first Frost. Here are the other seeds I bought...

five packets of "Bloomsdale" Spinach seed

five packets of "Salad bowl" Lettuce

packets of turnip, brussels, cabbage, collards, carrots, broccoli

After shoveling the garden, then tilling the entire space for an hour, I hoed up four rows of dirt. I am glad I stopped at four rows because the five packets of Spinach seed took up 1/5 of the first row, then the five packets of Lettuce seed took up the rest of the row plus some of another row, then the large bag of Kale seed took up a the majority of the third row, then the remaining row went to Turnips, Brussels, Cabbage, Collards, and Carrot. Then I planted two bags of Dill in the fourth row. Obviously I didn't need to shovel nor till as much of the garden space as I did.

You may notice in the picture below, I have spread ash over top of the rows. The wood ash acts like a fertilize, so it jump starts the seeds once we have a rain to activate.

Row from left: spinach, Lettuce, Kale, Turnip, Brussels
Cabbage, Collards, and Carrot, Dill

I also planted Broccoli today, sowing 50 broccoli seeds per bucket of compost. See below.

sowing broccoli in six buckets of compost

Now it's a matter of watching my Fall crops progress, harvest more fruits from the gardens, and cut down my Spring gardens.

I can't believe it's already August, that means Fall, then Winter will soon be upon us. You know what that means-- I am leaving to the South for the Winter!

Garden Harvest as of July 2014

I have been harvesting pounds of tomatoes for the last two weeks. The tomatoes started ripening around the middle of July.
The Tomatoes I am currently harvesting were transplanted at the beginning of May, while the other half of the Tomato garden was planted at the beginning of June.
The later Tomatoes will start putting off at the beginning of August. It seems Tomatoes take five months of growth before they start putting off fruit.

Here are some of the photos of the Tomato harvest...

07/17/14 Harvest

07/25/14 Harvest

07/27/14 Harvest

07/29/14 tomato harvest

07/29/14 harvest

07/31/14 harvest

The Cucumbers were sown at the beginning of May, and they are finally producing during the middle of July. I probably planted over 400 Cucumber seeds, only one third put off Plants while a quarter are producing Fruit due to location of plants (shady). I have already harvested many cucumbers this week alone. I expect them to put off for another month and a half, which may equate to 80-100 Cucumber fruits.

Here are the photos of Cucumber harvests...

07/25/14 Harvest

07/25/14 Harvest

The Greens (lettuces, spinach, and kale) were sown at the beginning of April and after a month I began to harvest 2 lbs of greens every week for two months. Because the greens are growing at my Grandparent's house, I am unable to harvest everyday, and because I did not harvest regularly the greens got old and bitter after two months. I was still able to harvest up until two weeks ago, so I am satisfied. I perhaps spent $12 for greens and got back $40 worth.
After the ground dries I will be tilling to plant more greens for a Fall harvest. I will sow them at the beginning of August, and begin to harvest by September. The greens will die out around October.

Here are photos of the first Lettuce harvests...

I am saddened by the progress of the Squash. I have always had success with the Zucchini and Yellow Squash. I transplanted them at the beginning of May, and I certainly expected to harvest much more than I have, especially since there was a Gigantic Zucchini plant. Here are some photos of the Squash harvest so far...

07/10/14 Harvest

Black eyed pea harvest...

07/29/14 Harvest

I will be harvesting Cantaloupe and pumpkin fruits in the next month or so, around September or October. In my "progress" video I show you the eight cantaloupe fruits, butternut squash and pumpkins growing in my compost bins. Here are a few photos of them...

butternut

eight cantaloupe

cantaloupe 8

cantaloupe 7

cantaloupe 6

pumpkin1

pumpkin 2

pumpkins 3 and 4

Some pictures of other fruits harvested...

Collection of Floral Photography 2014

I have been taking many pictures of my gardens, and you can see much of my vegetable garden photos at my blog. But I wanted to highlight some of the floral photography I have been taking, as they get out-shined by my garden harvest photos.
Enjoy~

Bee Balm




Dahlia 





 

Purple Iris



Tulips










 Zinnia 

Hibiscus

Petunia

 
 

Hemerocallis fulva



 Albizia Julibrissin (Mimosa) 

Sunflowers 

 


Phlox 

Cosmos 

Cleome hassleriana

 

Lysimachia Clethroides

Impatiens Walleriana

Butterfly Bush

Yarrow