Green Envy, Not Green with Envy... Just Green Envy

Today is Monday, the 23rd. I have been feeling the envy for my neighbors who all seem to have these really green really big gardens. Every time I drive past one, I say to myself or my husband, "Look at their garden. It's so GREEN." It just makes me green with envy.

I am trying, trying to be a good organic gardener. I have not put any fertilizer on my crop. I haven't used any 7 dust. I haven't used any bug killer. I am being vigilant to be out there in the garden and pulling bugs by hand. (They are not too bad this year, and I have found out about some good garden bugs besides lady bugs. I have seen some of these wonderful "friends" out there helping me.) :)

But it is simply hard to bear when my neighbors have these amazing green gardens and mine is limping along.

I went out there this morning with a mission. I wanted my garden to have the best I can offer it without resorting to those dangerous chemicals that harm birds and beneficial bugs. Not to mention, they wash down into the water system, causing red bloom in the Gulf of Mexico. I like the Gulf of Mexico, and I don't want to contribute to its demise if I can help it.

Anyway, the mission was this: I am going to give my garden the best I can possibly give it and hope for the best. I lavished the garden with all the compost I have been creating and saving for 6 months now. Then I added a nice thick layer of mulch on top to keep in the water and protect the soil from the high heat and from the drought we are having. The bright sunlight on the garden seems to be a little too bright for the garden this year, since we aren't getting rain.

It looks better. I hope this will help. I guess it doesn't matter how green their gardens are, but how much fruit they produce. That's the attitude I am going to try to take anyway.

Now for the latest pictures of the garden.

This is the jalapeño. I have to keep him separate. He doesn't play well

with the sweet peppers. 

From Top to Bottom, From Left to Right:1st row (top) Rutger's Tomato, Celebrity

Tomato, 2 Homestead Tomatoes

Next row down (2nd from top): Homestead Heirloom Tomato with a bloom, Rutgers Heirloom Tomato, 

Marigolds, Homestead Tomato

3rd from Top: Celebrity Hybrid Tomato, Rutger's Tomato, Oregano, Yellow Pepper

Bottom Row: Celebrity Tomato, 3 red pepper plants

Top row (barely visible in picture): Marigolds, Supersweet 100 Tomato, Napa 

Grape Tomato, and Marigolds

2nd row from top: 24 green bean plants

3rd row from top: Yellow pepper, tiny (almost invisible) cilantro from seed, Homestead

Tomato, and Better Boy Tomato

Bottom Row: Marigolds, Better Boy Tomato, Chinese Eggplant (with one bloom), and Marigolds

Top Row: 2 sunflowers (the birds got my other 2 for their nest), then 2 Homestead Tomatoes (I used to replace my sunflowers. :(  )

2nd Row: Marigolds, then empty space for the watermelons (we have planted radishes), and marigolds in the last spot to the right

3rd Row from the top: Hybrid striped eggplant from Burpee, 2 watermelons, and a "chocolate" pepper with a bloom

Bottom Row: 2 Cherokee Purple Tomatoes, marigolds and then a Cherokee Purple Tomato.

Now you can see why the people with green green gardens make me green with envy. My stuff is all much smaller. I planted later than most other people around here. I went by the Farmer's Almanac recommendations. http://www.farmersalmanac.com/calendar/gardening/

I think it was probably good, because it has been unseasonably cold, but boy, those other gardens.... Well, they just ... they just are so GREEN.