My Painted Garden...oh how it grows!

I thought it would be fun today to let the boys have at my garden. Morgan was helping me weed (not a huge job since I spend part of each day out there...I just nip the wee weed buds as they appear) and I was setting up the trellis stakes.

Initially I was going to use a nylon net I bought at Wal-Mart for my trellis but once I opened it I could see that while it was a great idea, it was totally the wrong thing...so I'll take it back and figure out a trellis asap. Maybe a variety of trellis systems...some for different plants.

So...while I was doing that, I was talking to Charlie and offered up the option of painting the outsides of the beds. He jumped all over it! Soon both of his brothers were all about it...and now I have painted beds :D I love it!

I'm really loving this lasagna gardening deal. It's amazing how well the plants are doing! I'll need to add some more *stuff* soon to the beds but it's just phenomenal how quickly they are growing tall and strong. Won't be long until I have some fresh veggies from my own yard!

I've got flowers on all my pepper plants...this is a jalapeno flower. Not sure how to tell the difference btw male and female flowers (trying to help them pollinate so they don't cross-pollinate with the bells)...if you have any idea please let me know!

My poor eggplant is still struggling with flea beetles...the "tea" helped some but I'm still seeing the bugs. Not sure what I'll end up doing about that problem. It looks bad but is getting taller so maybe it's not as big a problem as it appears?

The zucchini, peas and onions are growing like mad fiends. Most of my onions won't be ready to harvest until next year but I have some that were "sets" that should fruit this year. I probably should go look at the potatoes...but then again they are 2ft tall and were nearly so before I even realized they were there! Maybe that means they're fine?

My left bed is doing great too...scroll down a few posts to see how it was not so long ago...scroll up to see it with Charlie painting it this morning. Here you can see the back side of the left bed...all the beans growing. On the left side of the left bed I have lemon cukes, roma tomatoes and beans front to back. Peppers and bushmaster cukes are on the right side of the bed (with beans across the entire backside.)

left side/left bed