Garden July 2011

I started in February out of hunger.  :-)  I was harvesting lettuce by April.  Put most everything else in in April.  I am in East TN.  I think I am going to have a watermelon in a couple weeks.  I looked up how to pick one yesterday.  It’s almost ready.  We will also start having eggs by next week.  Yeah!  I am excited about that. 
I have to say I have had gardens before, but this is a first year garden since we moved here a year ago.  When my plants don't seem to be growing I have been side dressing them with the 10-10-10.  It seems about every 2 weeks.  I am having a hard time with my cucumbers being bitter.  I am guessing its fertilizer, because after I fertilized they seemed to get better.  I have been meaning to look it up. 

I was just up at my little hardware store.  I am trying to support the little guy when I can.  They had a note on the door that they will be getting fall plants July 25th for Aug 1st planting.  Cole crops broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts....  I was able to clean up the area where my lettuce and broccoli was and put in sweet potatoes.  My white potatoes look like they are ready.  I have to look up when to harvest those.  I was cleaning up where the peas were and onions.  I hope I will have enough space for the cole crops by the end of the month.  I am debating about using the 1/2 decomposed straw chicken manure.  It has some of their corn feed mixed in.  My chickens are not feed commercial food.  Its a mix I get special from a natural farm.  If I didn't have the opportunity to get that feed I'd drive a little farther for the organic.  I figure for the most part that if I let it decompose really well (maybe over winter) the corn will become dirt again and not give me a problem.  I just don't know.