Garden 5-15-2018 Ferterized and Straw Mulched the Plants

More colorful decorations in my garden, Bo gave me the two windmills for Mother’s Day and Lee gave me the garden rain gauge.

The garden rain gauge is a good size and I sure will get a good use out of it.

The plants are big enough now to put down the straw mulch. My straw mulch was left over from last Fall decoration so it’s aged and will work well as mulch compost.

Before putting down the straw mulch, I fertilized the plants with chicken manure compost. The manure is mixed with straw, Bo cleaned out his chicken coop and left a pile in my garden last year. I turned and worked with it for several months and it’s ready to be used. So far I’ve discovered it’s one of the best fertilizers and it’s free.

I mixed the chicken manure compost in the dirt around the plants. The cucumbers are tall and fragile, the straw mulch will help to support them.

I also fertilized and straw mulched the string beans.

They look healthy and should start climbing the trellis in a week or so.

The chayote

I need to get more straw to cover the side of the tomatoes planting bed so I wouldn’t have to weed as often.

I also fertilized and straw mulched the row of peppers

Bell peppers

Thai chili pepper

Chili peppers

The potted basils are doing well, I’ve noticed that they grow a lot slower than planting directly in the ground. I have a few Thai basils left and will plant in the ground to see the difference.

Thai basils

I have a lot of frogs in my garden since the pound is nearby, this one is a good size.

I mulched the blueberries with pine needles, I read that it works well for blueberries since they love acidic soil. I have more time to tend to the garden this year, and so far they look great.

Next is to straw mulch the okras once they get bigger.