Finally got some plants in the ground! ~ Abingdon, VA

Heather here.

This hot sunny week opened up the door for us to get all those long-overdue plants in the ground.

I had to bury the tomatoes pretty deep as they were super-leggy. I’ve planted worse-off looking specimens before but I’m not sure about them. Jody, our main garden volunteer, is always reminding me that tomatoes are weeds and they’re gonna come out of this stress like champs. We shall see.

Flea beetles had already found our eggplants while they hung around in their trays waiting to get in the ground. It is crazy to see them seek out their preferred plant of choice. We sprayed off the beetles and got the plants in the garden, covering them immediately with light-weight row cover with metal hoops. I hope they will be happy in their tent.

In-between each tomato is a basil plant, which I’m really excited about. We also just got in our order of Purple Ruffles basil seed, so I can’t wait for those plants! We still have three trays of parsley we need to plant! We will herb-out the garden.
We got in our corn, summer squash, winter squash, watermelon, muskmelon, and cantaloupe transplants into their hills. I have not worked with squash transplants before and look forward to seeing how they fair. We gave our gardeners melon transplants as well;  I’m hoping we can all figure out together this year when the heck these things are ripe.

I spent today with a new volunteer named Keena, who is starting a community garden at her library in Clintwood, VA. She basically wanted to see what ASD is all about, and how we structure this Project Grow Your Own.  She helped out with seeding today.

Keena!

Tea made from chamomile harvested in the garden.