While Natalie was in Memphis we taped a segment with her planting peppers. She planted three 'Big Bertha' pepper plants in the garden. One of them was grafted and she talked about the benefits of grafting and showed how to plant that one too. While she was here we also had her plant an eggplant, watermelon, and cantaloupe.

Also in the last few days we have planted summer squash and another round of bush beans. The summer garden is getting going. We have seen some flowers on the tomatoes so we should be getting the first of those in a few weeks.

The spring rains have slowed down so I need to water ever couple of days. Because it is a raised bed with loose soil (mostly compost) it has very good drainage and dries out fast. I will be installing a drip irrigation system so the garden will water itself. We are looking for maximum production so having very dry soil for even a day or two could realy reduce the harvest on some plants.

We have plants growing in almost every square now. I am having trouble finding sweet potatoes so if I can't find some I will repurpose those squares to something else.

We have the first harvest of the garden season! We pulled the radishes. We had 32 radishes that weighed 3.5 lbs. Out of all of them there was only one that was cracked. They crack because they get too much water, and this year there has been plenty of that from Mother Nature. Radishes are a great way to start the growing season because they only take about 6 weeks from seed to harvest. We pulled them because we were afraid they were going to bolt. Here is a good guide on when to pull them: When to Harvest Radishes.

Also last week we passed the average last freeze here in Memphis so it is time to plant some more plants that are less cold tolerant. This year we are participating in the University of Tennessee Home Vegetable Trials. We will be growing bush beans and cucumbers as part of the trial. The bush beans are a comparison of the Antigua and Dulcina varieties. We planted the first round of bush beans yesterday.  It was 2 squares, one of each type. In two weeks we will plant another two squares (where the radishes were), and then two weeks after that we will plant another two squares (where the spinach is growing now. That's a slight change from the master plan. We'll be posting a video about planting the beans soon.

We also planted Basil at 4 plants in a square. Two of the plants are sweet basil and the other two are purple basil. We planned for them to be next to the tomatoes because the two plants help each other out. We got the basil at Home Depot and there were several plants in each pot so we pinched off the extra. Unfortunately, there were too close to separate.

We also planted the other 2 tomatoes. One is 'Black Cherry', which is a variety Alainia Hagerty recommended. The other is 'Celebrity.' We planted the black cherry the normal way because the plant was small. The Celebrity plant we planted using the trench method, which Alainia showed us how to do. Here is the video of Alainia planting using the trench method.

The tomatoes we planted a month ago are still doing well. They have survived the few cold nights we have had.

The Swiss chard is still being difficult. The one plant that came up from the first seeding 6 weeks ago is looking sick and the second seeding from two weeks ago is doing nothing. I am going to check the store for some transplants to use instead. Joellen Dimond said she has the same problem with Swiss chard in her garden so it might just be the climate or conditions in this area.