The Garden Week 3.

With all the rain we had last week our garden has began to flourish. I dont know what makes rain water so much better than hose water but now instead of being mad that it's raining I am thankful.

Unfortunately, we have had some deaths. 3 of our 8 marigolds died as well as one of our 4 zucchini plants and I think another is on its way. The stem is cracked all the way through but the plant is still green and flowering. I have no idea what to do with it. Do I cover up the cracked stem with soil and hope it roots or pluck it out of the garden and start over? Im at a loss on that one.

As far as the dismay of other plants I dont think death is the right word. They simply just did not sprout. I call them no growers, LOL. Among the no growers were 6 strawberry plants and 4 squares of lavender.

Because of the deaths and no-growers we had to make a trip to Lowe's and buy some "pre-made" plants. I feel like a cheater but it is too late in the game to plant seeds. We bought 5 strawberry plants, 1 zucchini plant to replace the one that died, 9 sweet potato plants to go in 2 of the 4 lavender squares(we are replanting lavender seeds in the other 2 squares), and some marigolds to add to the established squares and to replace the ones that died. We also bought a blueberry bush and a cantaloupe plant to go in our containers on the patio.

While some area of the garden are doing poorly other areas are doing great. Our tomatoes are doing nicely as well as some of our mixed salad greens.

With all the new plants we had to rearrange our grid.

Starting from top left going across
Row 1
Marigolds, butternut squash, basil, basil, thyme, thyme, marigolds
Row 2
pumpkin, eggplant, empty square, bell peppers, bell peppers, red onion, carrots, sweet potatoes
Row 3
tomato, zucchini, mixed salad greens, mixed salad greens, spinach, green beans, green beans, sweet potatoes.
Row 4
Marigolds, zucchini, empty to accommodate growth of zucchini, tomato, tomato, tomato, tomato, marigolds.

Row 1
marigolds, strawberries, strawberries, basil, basil, thyme, thyme, marigolds
Row2
Pumpkin, eggplant, strawberries, bell peppers, bell peppers, red onion, carrots, lavender.
Row 3
tomato, zucchini, mixed salad greens, mixed salad greens, spinach, green beans, green beans, lavender.
Row 4
marigolds, zucchini, empty space to accommodate zucchini, tomato, tomato, tomato, tomato, marigolds.

Since the topic of death came up in this post I thought I wanted to talk about Kate over at Gardening Without Skills. Kate has a black thumb when it comes to gardening and has the added challenge of living in Florida and having(naturally) terrible soil. She hosts Garden Blogger's Death Day on the last day of every month. Hopefully I wont have to submit to her often. If you are into gardening you should visit her blog. Her writing is beautiful and she is a great photographer.