A finished product

Several weeks ago, I wrote an entry called A Work In Progress, which showed the early stages of our new raised bed garden. It was finished last weekend, and yesterday, we filled it in with organic compost dirt and some seedlings. Here's what we planted:

• 5 types of tomatoes (Red Cherry, Grape, Cherokee Purple, Roma and Early Girl)
• Sugar snap peas
• Kentucky wonder pole beans
• Leeks
• Arugula
• Curly Endive
• Italian Parsley
• Provence Lavender
• Cilantro ("Santo")
• Sweet Basil
• Italian Oregano
• Barbeque Rosemary

I also planted some Salad Mix and Spinach seeds in some of the spaces in between, and put Marigolds around the perimeter. Marigolds are supposed to be great in organic gardens, as they keep away certain pests (this seemed to work last year, so this year I bought a whole flat of them.)

As to the original raised bed, I'm a little disappointed so far with the results. According to the seed packet, the Swiss chard is supposed to mature in 35 days, which would be 15 May. But it's 9 May now and the chard is barely two inches tall! The Bok Choy was really growing fast and looking good, but one day last week I noticed some holes in the leaves. The same mysterious holes are showing up in some of the Spinach leaves. (I bought some Hot Pepper Spray at the nursery yesterday, and hopefully that will stop whatever pest is doing this.)

At least the Salad Greens are looking great, and we might be able to start harvesting them in another week or so. The beets are very pretty and healthy-looking (if uneven) - I actually like the beet greens more than the roots, so I don't expect these to hang around long!

Stay tuned for some more entries about the non-food things we're growing. There's a lot of work to be done. It's always something!