Cabin Treasures
2016 May
5/1 Garden has been LOVING this weather! Everything is growing! Today I planted melons (watermelon and cantaloupe) as well as some sweet potatoes. I planted the melons on the sides of my bales underneath the spinach and lettuce, because they don't really have long roots and the melons can use the bottom half of the bale for its nutrients. I also sprayed some Neem Oil on the garden to cover the early invasion of the the minature insect critters. Earlier in the week I covered the garden with a spray of organic insecticide soap as well.
Cukes with companion plants of radishes/onions Nasturtiums finally up
Lettuce; we had our first salad of lettuce and radishes from here this week
Onions looking great; the yellow bag is what I do to keep rabbits and other 4 legged critters out of my garden; I take original Irish Spring soap bars and cut them up into about 1inch squares and tie them up inside some sort of net/tulle, usually with a zip tie, then I place them on about every bale, some bales get more for things the rabbits really like, like lettuce. I usually have to replace about 1-2 throughout the growing season of spring and fall.
Potatoes coming up Spinach leaves getting big enough to pick
5/5 Weather is cooperating well and I love to watch the garden grow; it's so peaceful and refreshing! My tomatoes got a little too much water with the several days of rain last week so the bottom leaves are yellow on some but hopefully they will come out of it; I also watered with liquid food throughout the garden this week as the blooms are starting to come on and I also thought the tomatoes could use some magnesium and I was out of Epsom salts which I sometimes use.
Cukes getting their next set of leaves
Bush Beans are coming right a long. I planted 3 bales with 2 sets of plants on each bale.
These are newbies for me; I happened upon them at Orschelins and thought they were cool. I have green Bell Peppers and colored Bell Peppers and regular yellow banana peppers all grown from seed, but these are colored banana peppers and they just came on this week and are growing up instead of down (which apparenlty in the way they are supposed to) soooo coool.
Potatoes - white -couple of varieties; I have 2 bales of these potatoes
Onions are doing so awesome this year, much better than last year. Doesn't seem to be much difference in growth between the sets I planted that were tiny bulbs but 4" tall and the 1/2 " bulbs with no stems that I planted.
My daughter likes the yellow tomatoes due to the fact they are less acidic so I planted both seeds of yellow pear tomatoes as well as transplanting this yellow pear tomato plant that I got and its already blooming and has some small tomatoes on it. 
I've never planted store bought sweet potato plants before but my friend got me some so I planted them here.
This the sweet potato from last year that I picked the first runners (plants) off of earlier (and now it's growing more) and put them in the jar....seen in the picture below this one....and then planted....in the picture below that. 
This is an organic sweet potato that I bought and am growing as well....see the tubers starting to get long on the bottom half
This is an organic sweet potato my daughter in law gave me and I'm growing it as well
5/11: in front are cukes w/ companion planted radishes and onions; in the back are radishes getting really big.
Hard to even see the tomato plants hidden in the companion planted lettuce, both so very green.
Spinach finally coming on more.
Beans in front, potatoes in back: Potatoes starting to get funky, not sure what's wrong but am researching. Usually I don't have any trouble with my potatoes but this year, the second batch I planted got something wrong with it and it seems to spreading to the first batch I planted.
Long shot on north side of garden with beans and tomatoes.
Yellow pear tomotoes.
Cool looking "colored" sweet banana peppers; supposed to turn red/oranges etc.
...and they grow upside down. so COOOL!
Cukes starting to put on their first "real" leaves after their 2 "starter" leaves; I like the shape of the 'real' leave so much better :)
Melons (cantaloupe) starting to emerge from the side of the bale.
5/13: The tomatoes and lettuce together make such a pretty pix.
The radishes are growingt "90 to nothin' " as my grandpa used to say :)
5/15: So weird however every year, I plant green leafed sweet potatoes, they they turn into purple leaves, then they turn back into green leaves and take off running every where. Here's some of both, in different stages of the process.
I've harvested 3 large bowls of lettuce this week, plus some spinach, onions, radishes to make salads, and you can't even tell I took any from the lettuce patch. 
5/18: I am posting a BUNCH of pix, basically one of every bale (and I have a LOT of bales LOL)and every kind of veggie, herb and pest battling/bee loving flower I'm growing, and some wide shots as well. It's been a while since I've posted an overall view so here it is. I don't have time to label each pix right now in detail so if you have any questions about any thing you see, email me (see contact page for info).
Cukes
Yellow Pear Tomatoes
Baby Dill
Dill, cukes, onions, and radish 
Facing East
Radishes are huge!
Carrots, onions, chives
Sage
Baby Oregano
baby Italian Basil
Baby Parsley 
baby marigolds
baby thyme
Cinnamon Basil and baby thyme
Peppers - Bell (some green and some "colored" and Sweet Banana
"Colored" Sweet Banana Peppers
Okra and lettuce and yellow pear tomato
Okra (however it got weird so I researched and looks like I planted it too early so I cut off all the yucky leaves; we will see if it recovers; if not I'll pull it all and replant again after it's warmer; first time I've done Okra since I was in high school. 
Leaf Lettuce
Spinach
more spinach
Onions (white - big)
more onions - same kind
sweet potatoes
more sweet potatoes
and more sweet potatoes
and more sweet potatoes 
regular potatoes
Bush beans and more regular potatoes
More bush beans and more regular potatoes then tomatoes beyond that
More bush beans and more regular potatoes
Bush beans
Bush beans close up
Winter Savory or Summer Savory, I can't remember which it is 
Italian Basil
The next 'umpteen are tomatoes, with companion plants of lettuce and onions; Yes, I have maaaannnnyyyy bales of these.
Borage
Cukes, with companion plants of radishes and onions.
Flower bales looking towards my 'cabin'- 2 outside bales are a couple of kinds of marigolds; next bale in on each side is nasturtiums, and the 2 middle bales are a variety of wild flowers designed to have something blooming all summer and showcase a variety of types of blooms to attract bees, good wasps and butterflies.
Marigolds
Nasturtiums
Wildflower variety
More wildflower variety.
More Nasturitums
and more Marigolds on the other end
View facing northEAST with flower bales in the front of pix
facing northWEST; again with the flower bales in front of pix.
Melons - cantaloupe
More melons - cantaloupe
More melons - cantaloupe
More melons - cantaloupe-can see they are growing on the sides of the bale that has spinach on top
More melons - cantaloupe-and these are growing in sides of bales with lettuce on top
More melons - cantaloupe-growing out side of a second bale with spinach on top
Facing east toward my cabin
5/19: As far as I can tell, it's a potato virus, but it doesn't fit anything exactly that I've researched; any body got any ideas....email me.
Also, I had 2 of my tiny green tomatoes from my yellow pear tomato plant (it had 10 on it I think), get pulled off the plant and knocked to the bale, and each one had a little perfect cresent moon on each side. Those looked really similar to the damage the slugs did to my tomatoes last year, however they didn't mess with the green ones, only as soon as they started to have any littl bit of orange/red on them. But....just in case, I moved one of my 'beer baits' that I use to catch slugs, over between this yellow pear tomato plant and the upside down peppers. (this tomato plant was a add-on so it's not with my other tomato plants and my other beer baits). What to you know...next am I found a dead SNAIL, shell and all, in my beer bait. (and a slug in the beer bait by the other tomatoes....looks like I'm catching them early this year....I lost too many tomatoes last year before I figured out what it was. NOT THIS YEAR LOL!. But I've never had snails before...course I'd never had slugs in my garden before last year either....each year is a new adventure I reckon. :O
5/25: Well, it looks like the diagnosis on my potatoes (and my beans and who knows what else) is "early blight". so....it seems the much cooler than normal temps for this time of the year here in OK (60's) and the excessive rain we've had lately, has contributed to this problem. Also, I probably should have used my Neem Oil from day 1 every week but I didn't do it quite that often so I'll have to aggressively work on controlling it now so it doesn't kill everything else. I picked and pulled and threw out all the potato foliage with yellow leaves and polka dots and have been cutting the occasional yellow leaf I see on other plants, but now I will be more diligent in it. maybe I can save my beans and tomatoes etc. We will see...and use this as a learning experience for next year....
The one bright spot in my garden is my Borage: I've never grown this before and just read that it would be good for my plants, had no idea it had such a beautiful bloom :)
5/26: check it out!!! In 24 hours, now the Borage has a BUNCH of blooms...so pretty...
...course on the other hand....I came home at dark and my tomato leaves looked like this from what I could tell in the dark....
...and I sprayed my Lettuce with a 3 in 1 organic miticide, fungicide, and insecticide....because I saw some of these little tiny pin point size black bugs....and they did leave my lettuce, and jumped into my beer bait...and left my lettuce all spotty and sticky....
5/27:....and then it got worse: the early blight (that's what the county extension office told me it was)....has taken over everything except the onions, radishes and carrots....I just wanna pull my hair out...I'm just SO devastated. I've worked SO hard on this garden, growing almost everything from seed..... companion planting, spraying neem oil, organic insecticidal soap, organic 3 in 1..... never in all my years have I ever had this, or at least not to this extent....so I'm posting all these heart breaking pix so others can recognize it and not go through what I've gone through... :,(
above lettuce, below tomatoes with early blight
more tomatoes above and below with early blight
tomatoes above and peppers below...with early blight 
Peppers above and more tomoatoes below with early blight
I cut off all the yellowed leaves with the black spots, but I couldn't cut off all the leaves with just black spots or there would have been no leaves left.....tomatoes above and beans & potatoes below after trims
ON the less bad side, it looks like some of the little green leaves I left on the potatoes and beans are starting to grow and don't look too much like the blight so maybe a few of them are going to survive....
...but prob not most of the tomatoes.
Beans putting on a few new leaves after their haircut
so.....stuff that is still ok.....marigolds of course
...and wildflowers above and below....
...and nasturtiums
...and parsley
...and this basil seed growing....
...however my cinnamon basil below did get hit and got bottom and yellow leaves trimmed and sprayed....
....thyme doing good...
...as is oregano.....
..the basil did get hit with it and got it's lower and yellow spotted leaves trimmed and sprayed....
as did the Italian basil below....trimmed yellow and multispotted leaves and sprayed. ...
the dill is doing great though...esp considering that we killed 2 batches of it indoors before we planted in same basket outdoors....who knew...
...carrots also doing good...as are onions....
Radishes are just off the charts....
...and soooooo tasty.....
So...my plan is now to replant the cukes since I've lost almost all on the south side and many on the north side, putting down a thick layer or mulchy garden soil, and spray frequently and well (also found a cuke beetle today as well)....and also to buy some pepper and tomato plants at the greenhouse where I buy a few things, and turn them upside down and dip them in the fungicide before I even transplant them and then them weekly. Also to spray neem oil regularly. I will probably just pull up all the few remaining spotted single leaf okra and replant in a week or two....hoping the beans and potatoes will pull out of it. Looks like sweet potatoes ok for now...melons were hit but look to survive. I've sprayed everything in the garden with 2 doses of funigicide days apart as instructed for heavy infestations, and will prob spray again on thursday which is the first non rain day in about 3 weeks....then I'll go to weekly...and hope it warms up and STOPS RAINING EVERY DAY! At the end of the season, we will burn these bales to make sure we don't get this again.....and try every day to not lose all hope for the remaining garden this year. :{
5/30: Now that the radishes have gone to seed I'm going to pull them all next week and plant peppers there. But they are SO pretty.
