Garden Update 6/11/12

The garden is going strong and we even added to it today!  We are having a bit of a problem with slugs, which are really gross, but I think Joe and I have put a few things into place that should help with it a bit.  They chowed down on some of my lettuce which I don't think will be able to be saved, but I think we are going to have plenty, especially once our CSA box starts. 

I have harvested twice already, the first harvest not resulting in much.  The second harvest, however, made a nice salad with lettuce, spinach, radishes and peas.  And, Taelin ate both peas and spinach as we were harvesting which is a major accomplishment for her.  She liked the peas and wanted more but didn't want much spinach after 5 leaves.  Still though, down the right path and part of the whole reason I started on this venture.

Here are how things are looking at this point...

First harvest!  

Note the empty section in the first row of lettuce in the
back...the slugs thought it was good.
 I don't think, however, that they are going to care too much for the
crushed egg shells that are now surrounding the lettuce, spinach and carrots.
Not pictured here are the beer traps that have also been the demise of about 15 slugs so far.

The tomatoes are growing like crazy
(I think I may have overestimated how many I would need)
and the peas have already climbed up the sticks I had put in with them.
I will need to do something about that soon.  The radishes by far are the most ready.

I have exactly 6 more frozen vacuumed seals bags of green beans
from the ones I got through a Salem Harvest last year,
so hopefully we will start getting beans once those run out! 

Peppers!

This past weekend, a friend of mine delivered some extra strawberry plants she had.  I clearly don't have room in the boxes and so we decided just to plant them in off to the side of one of the boxes.  Taelin and I dug up the sandy soil and added some potting soil, cleaned them up a bit, and got them in the ground.  There were some strawberries on the plants already...but they were gobbled up pretty quickly by a certain little 3 year old.  A side lesson that same 3 year learning today was that dirt and water make mud...and she had fun with that!  (She also had fun with the 40 minute bath/playing with shaving cram afterwards.)

Here are a couple of pictures of our new additions!

I managed to get a few pictures before those red berries got snatched up!

This was just the beginning of the "water + dirt = mud" lesson!
I don't think that pink shirt will ever be the same...
Once this picture was taken, I couldn't
really pick up my camera until I was a little cleaner!