We NEED To figure this out! First Garden Tour 2024

hey everybody Welcome Back To Living Traditions Homestead well this is going to be the very first garden and Greenhouse tour of 2024 it's actually kind of a mixed bag we are excited to show you what's going on uh there are some really great things going on right but there are some bad things I don't want to say bad things there are some things that are not going as great but that have Solutions but we're excited to show you guys because you know we want to be real around here we don't want everything to be uh staged and fake we want everything to be real and we've uh dedicated ourselves to bring you kind of the good and the bad throughout this homesteading adventure we're on right so today we're going to go kind of you know planter by planter through the garden and through the greenhouse we're going to show you the good the bad the ungerminated in some cases and we're going to talk to you about some of the solutions that we think we have for what's going on now again there's a lot of good going on so we don't want this to be a negative video uh the nice thing is also that here in Missouri we have a super long growing season so there's some things that even if we still had to start over right now it's the end of May we'd have plenty of time to start over and still have a great season here in the Gard so without further Ado let's go in the garden and get started on the first tour of 2024 now before we get started just going bed by bed we want to just explain really quickly that we feel that we have two overarching issues here in this area and we want to talk about that before we get going so we don't have to just kind of like repeat ourselves all of the time right because a lot of this is happening in every bed or kind of most every bed so instead of having to bring the same thing up over and over we're just going to talk to you about it now so overall there are two things kind of happening with the plants here uh number one we don't think that they're as green overall as they should be right and number two we don't think that they're growing as quickly as they should be correct now we've we we have some suspicions as to what's causing that uh I don't think for a second it has anything to do with the raised beds these vaja raised beds that we are growing in honestly are are amazing we absolutely love them uh and the watering system that we in stalled is doing a great job so we don't think it's a water issue and we know for sure it's not a raised bed issue because really how could the raised beds cause that issue so what our suspicion is is that uh we haven't done a whole lot of fertilizing yet because we were assuming that this organic compost that we bought was going to be super high in nutrients and that we wouldn't need to do a lot of fertilizing so that's one possible cause the other issue we think could be happening is a pH issue correct so we think that if we can figure out whether one or both of those things are an issue we'll be able to know how we'll be able to figure out how to fix that and then everything the rest of the growing season is going to go really well so we actually have a soil test kit that is supposed to be delivered today we were hoping that it might be here before we did this video but it didn't get here yet but as soon as that gets here we'll be able to test the NPK of the soil well also be able to test the pH of the soil and that should help us figure out what's going on and how to rectify it so as we go throughout the garden that those are kind of the things that we think are happening and so we don't need to tell you on every bed that we think that's happening all right let's start the tour and let's move into the garden okay let's start off with the onions we have two beds of onions here they are the variety candy onions and we got them as just like little onion starts and all the onions are alive uh they have not died or anything uh you can see the second bed over here it's doing pretty well um overall we think that uh they aren't quite as green as they we would want them to be and they aren't growing as quickly like we said when we started the tour but I think that rectifying those issues will really boost them up I do want to mention that I had kind of a be area over here where we kind of ran out of um onion starts so I planted uh three colula plants uh this year I noticed that at Stark Brothers they were offering some herbs and some flowers so I did order some of those so throughout the garden you'll see some of them and Cula was one of them I love Cula because they're a bright uh fun cheery flow but they're also uh medicinal and they're very good for the skin so I planted these three here and they're doing actually really well now down here in these two raised beds remember we said that we were going to be starting peanuts for the very first time we've never grown peanuts it's just an experiment and it looks like every single peanut that I planted with the exception of two I don't think this one germinated and I don't think this one germinated but you guys they're doing really well uh and that is really exciting I also came back and planted some Mira gold seeds um and some of them have just started to germinate and I'm just waiting for them to take off so this should be very beautiful uh once everything is big and all the flowers are blooming so we're really excited for the peanuts back here I had planted or we had planted some dill seeds now almost every one of them germinated but they really didn't do much uh there are a couple here still that are super super teeny tiny these guys should be a lot bigger right now uh than than they are uh we are going to keep it going we might replant some to see if we can get a better crop but we're really hoping that the soil test will tell us what's going on and we can Rectify it and get some dill growing here for our dill pickles and then back here are two separate beds of okra and I also planted some uh basil in here so they have all germinated but they're not doing a whole lot we're hoping they're going to get bigger once we figure out what's going on and we're hoping really that once the heat of the summer comes these okra plants will just explode that's actually the experience we've had in the past okra like hot weather and they get really big once the heat sets in all right the next row here in the garden is our row of squash they are doing pretty good overall uh again they're not growing quite as quickly as we'd hoped and on the squash and a along with some of the other plants there's something that's a little bewildering to me that I want to show you guys and that is that in the same bed from the same package of seeds some are doing really well like look at this one look how fast this is grown this is the like flat the Patty pan squash um this grow one is growing really nice it's you actually pretty darn green and then right next to it from the same seed package is another one that is growing really really slow is kind of yellow and then another one that's just kind of somewhere in between so I don't really know what's going on with that I do hope that our soil test will give us a real idea of what's going on but these are the Patty pan squash you can see they all germinated again because we have such a long growing season I'm not too worried about them at this point we have plenty of time to fix whatever is going on and then you can see also that Sarah has some flowers planted in here some merold some Snap Dragons uh and those are just going to be Ben beneficial they're going to help some of the beneficial insects come and they're just going to give some color here to the Garden the next bed here is our lemon squash uh they have germinated but again they are also pretty slowo at this point not really sure what else to say about that they're up they're growing but they're just growing slowly and then you can see more flowers in here she's got some nerum down there on the end and then I think these are more Snap Dragons here and then our final bed here is zucchini again growing slowly a little bit on the yellow side we're going to get that all figured out but at least they are up and they are growing okay this row is uh primarily pole beans uh we've got some uh some cinnamon basil that I planted some Snap Dragons and alysum that I planted just to bring some color also some maragold out of all of the plants in the garden I think what is struggling the most are the bean plants um and and and some things are just kind of bewildering like Kevin had said uh these beans here are they're growing pretty nicely they're mostly dark green um you can see on some of these leaves that we had some hail damage with one of the storms so all of these leaves that have U this damage from hail but in this same bed we also have bean plants that are just really struggling these are barely growing they're really yellow uh and and so it's really just kind of a mystery so we really are excited to get going on the soil test and see what's going on um some of the basil the cinnamon basil I mean they're doing okay but they're not doing great and really that is consistent with all three of these beds uh the beans are just they're just yellow and they're just struggling they're kind of stunted and not really growing very quickly um I do have a rosemary plant here from Stark Brothers that I planted this also should be really dark green um almost purpley green and it's just kind of yellow now in some instances when you have plants that are yellowing like this uh it could be from overwatering or too much water you guys there's absolutely no way that these beds are being uh overwatered first of all they have amazing drainage underneath here is completely open with the exception of this woven weed fabric and you guys this weed fabric lets water through really great and raised beds in general have Fant fantastic drainage uh so there's there's no possibility that they're being overwatered and we are only watering these every other day um and when it rains we don't water them so it cannot be an issue of overwatering but the beans like I said are struggling the most out of everything in these raised beds the next row which is the other side of our trellis here our Arch is mostly tomatoes and cucumbers uh these are the spoon Tomatoes right here you can see that they are they're they're doing okay but again they're not growing nearly as quickly as I would think that they should be but they are doing okay and they are starting to get a few blossoms and then on the two ends of the rais bed here we have what are called geranium kiss which are like a bush tomato um they're doing okay the color isn't too bad on those this one's doing much better than this one here again that's kind of a mystery as to why plants within the same bed are doing so differently but uh we're get that figured out next up here is our um cucumbers and they are only doing okay we actually had only two of the plants uh germinate here of the bait Alpha cucumbers our Market Moors they all germinated so we are going to replant some of these after we do our soil test again because we have a long growing season not a big deal here uh and then we have some fennel on the sides and Sarah planted some more flowers the last bed here is our Juliet cherry tomatoes they again are doing okay but not great uh the color isn't too bad on them but they really aren't growing a whole lot either so uh they will I'm sure you know pick up here over time especially as we start to get some more warm days and hopefully some of our severe weather is over as well and then we've got some different types of basil planted in here as well again it's doing okay it's not as V green as we would like it to be but it is hanging in there and then we have two more of the geranium kiss plants here on the sides now these next two rows here are primarily asparagus and strawberries we do have mustard plants um at the end there now these guys they're doing okay also we don't have a whole lot of experience growing asparagus or strawberries I feel like uh the strawberry should be bigger uh by now more full their color is okay and they're all alive kind of same with the asparagus the asparagus isn't a bad color we just don't have a whole lot of growth happening um but I don't know if I should have more on the very first actually month or so of putting the roots in the ground on the end back here Kevin's going to walk backwards um are the mustard plants now we're growing these mustard plants primarily for their seed because Kevin's really excited to experiment with making home homemade mustard overall you guys they're doing pretty well except that same mystery that we've been having the mustard plants on this side are like really big overall their color is good but the mustard plants over here are like super tiny now we do have something that's been munching on them um maybe some kind of caterpillar or something but I really don't think that that is what is attributing to these being so much smaller than this um so that's just something that we're a mystery we're going to have to work on solving as well one thing I haven't talked about this growing season yet is my buckets back here these are all my herb buckets that used to be on the side of the greenhouse we put them here to protect them uh from the chickens and just to keep them kind of in the front of my mind because I have never really had a place to just plant my um my herbs like for a permanent place but Kevin and I have recently ordered more vaja raised beds they're the L-shaped corner beds and so we're going to have three big corner beds um one on each of these back corners and then one on the front corner so I'll be able to transplant these mature um herbs that I've been these perennials that I've been growing in here some of these have been growing in these buckets for like three or four years until I could figure out a permanent home for them and so I'm very excited that this year this summer they are going to have a permanent home they're going to have permanent raised beds and they're going to be just beautiful I can Harvest them and preserve them and I'm really excited about that so that is something that is coming soon uh but and honestly they're doing well over the winter the chickens scratched up some of them and some of them um didn't survive but it's okay I've got backups uh but most of them are doing really well so you guys that is it for the Garden area again some good some bad but I'm confident that we're going to be able to fix the problems that we are having all right let's walk over to the greenhouse got exciting things to show you in there as well okay into the greenhouse you guys overall everything in the greenhouse is doing really well we're having great growth overall the color of all of these plants is really good uh we are struggling though with aphids the primarily with the tomatoes right we've had quite a few aphids um I've I've treated for aphids with like a natural insecticidal soap spray that I've made here I've done that a couple of times we've also ordered ladybugs to be delivered but you guys the fastest we could get them is like two weeks which when you're having an aphid issue two weeks is a long long time which is why Sarah has used the insecticidal soap as well the ladybugs are supposed to be here any day now so hopefully once we get those in here uh those will help tremendously with the aphid problem one thing we were able to get quickly through Amazon our ladybug lures which is just a little device that has like a pherone or something in it uh that you put on your tomato plants and hopefully it draws in more ladybugs since we've done that we have seen more ladybugs but just not quite enough so all in all though the tomatoes are looking good we're going to show you the tomatoes here in a little bit it's just that we are having some apid issues on them all right let's move on to everything else in the greenhouse let's look through the entire Greenhouse you guys because once again this greenhouse is doing fantastic uh we contribute a lot of that I think to the shade cloth above the greenhouse it really keeps off that really hot sun and you guys everything is just exploding let's go row by row all right let's start over on this side of the greenhouse with the tomato plants uh we do have a couple basil plants here at the front they're doing really well we've actually already cut basil off of those a couple times do using cooking and so they're doing really well the tomato plants over here you can see they are growing really well um again the only issue we're having is with the aphids and I'm sure we'll get that under control now the one thing is as many of you know we use the single stem method when we when we grow our Tomatoes which means we run a string from the base of the tomato plant up to the top of the greenhouse because I've been gone for my dad's open heart surgery I haven't been here and Sarah has had to kind of take this all on herself well stringing Tomatoes like that is not a oneperson job it's a two-person job so what she did to kind of get us through is she used these white fiberglass poles that are actually like electric fence poles when she use these to just string the tomatoes up temporarily and now that I'm back home we're going to get busy actually stringing these up to the top of the greenhouse you'll probably see that in an upcoming video but look at you guys these tomatoes are doing really well color is beautiful we' got lots of blossoms lots of little tomatoes on already uh I'm not worried at all about the type of tomato season we're going to have I think it's going to be fantastic if you see here this is one of these little red discs that's what Sarah was talking about with the ladybug lures that's what they look like and they do seem like they've helped at least a little bit really what I'm hoping is that once our ladybugs arrive that we ordered these lures will help keep them here in instead of you know you spend $40 on ladybugs and they all fly away I'm hoping these ladies will or these lures will attract them and help them stay here in the greenhouse so you guys that's the tomatoes I'm not going to go variety by variety right now but all in all they are doing really well and it's time to start stringing them up to the top of the greenhouse well this side of the greenhouse uh has a lot of peppers and I love to grow peppers overall the peppers are doing really really well we have lots of different varieties uh they're growing nice and tall and they are at the point where we need to start supporting them so that they don't tip over in the wind or something like that and the way that we do that is with tomato cages so the day that we come out here and work and uh string up the tomatoes we'll also put the tomato cages in between each of these uh plants and kind of attach them just to give them added support now overall their color looks great their size looks great they're all growing in the way each pepper variety is supposed to grow and what's very exciting is that we do already have some peppers on uh this is an emerald giant H bell pepper variety and we've got a nice size pepper there down here at the hot wax the Hungarian hot wax peppers we actually have quite a few peppers and that's really exciting a nice sized one here and a couple small ones here and then over here we've got quite a few and that's really really exciting to have a really great start in a homegrown Peppers so they're actually doing really well we've got more at the end that we got at the Amish uh nursery and we're just so excited that all the peppers are doing really well all right next up are green beans in here we're growing Bush variety of green beans unlike out in the garden where we're growing pole beans that will climb up a trellis we're growing two two varieties in here uh these buckets right here in front of me we have six buckets there's five plants in each bucket uh these are Contender green beans and you guys they are doing fantastic we grow this variety every year because they just always do really well you can see how many blossoms are on these we actually have quite a few little beans on here already um I've been waiting and waiting to find the first one that's big enough to pick but it hasn't quite gotten there yet but you guys we definitely have some beans that we'll be ready to pick in the next week or so won't be a meal's worth but it'll be a nice snack while we're working out here so these are the contender green beans and then way down here at the other end on the other side of the tomatoes we have more green beans these are more bush beans this is a variety that you guys uh suggested for us as well this is called I believe they're Jade is what they're called they're doing well also no beans on yet that I've seen But there are starting to get some some Blossom so that's exciting and all in all the beans here in the greenhouse are doing phenomenal they're growing super fast and they're just looking really really good in front of me here are six buckets of cucumber plants we planted the Wisconsin pickling I think that's what they're called now this is another one of those things that I have needed Kevin here to help me because we trellis these kind of on a a mesh trellis and they are really wanting to climb you can see that they're sending out their Runners oh there's a ladybug they're sending out their Runners so we need to get out here during our Greenhouse Working Day and uh put up that mesh trellis and help them start climbing straight up now when Kevin was looking out here earlier he found a baby cucumber so we are so close to cucumber season oh I see it right here a tiny little cucumber right right there so that is fantastic what that says though also is that the pollinators are finding their way in here lots of bees of all varieties and shapes and sizes we've seen in here uh pollinating everything that needs to be pollinated so the cucumbers are looking great soon enough we're going to have lots of pickling cucumbers and I cannot wait next up are more zucchini and yellow crook squash the zucchini are already starting to produce now we do have a few aphids over on the zucchini as well so we're hoping that once we get the ladybugs they'll take care of the zucchini and the tomatoes and then we have the yellow crook neck squash here uh they're doing a little bit they're growing a little bit slower than the zucchini but zucchini are always super fast so these are looking good they're starting to get some fruit on as well so that is really exciting it's been a few years since we've grown yellow little crook neck squash and I'm excited to have them in the summer and then finishing out this row are some more pepper plants Sarah talked about them a little bit a minute ago these are ones that we bought from our local Amish Greenhouse that we go to uh these two here are cayenne peppers uh these are my two buckets of extra spicy peppers this year so we've got cayenne peppers over here I've got a ghost pepper plant right here and a habanero plant right here so this is where I'm going to be making most of my hot sauce out of this year and then back here these are two they're called mild jalapenos they have a tiny bit of spice but not much at all they're a good snacking pepper and that finishes out this row of the greenhouse so you guys that is the status of both of our major growing areas this year even though we're having some problems different problems in different places we are really confident that we're going to be able to figure those things out and this year is still going to be an amazing growing season right uh there's definitely work to be done now that I'm back on the homestead fulltime after my dad's surgery uh we can really bust out some work because we've got some gorgeous days coming up a a few days of rain mixed in here but it looks like for the most part we've got some nice days coming up we're going to be able to spend some time in here and get all caught up in no time at all and I'm confident that before too long you guys will be seeing me eat the first tomato of the season so you guys we're so happy that you joined us today to see what's going on in the green house and in the garden to see the good bad and kind of some of the ugly you guys if you're enjoying videos like this make sure that you hit the Subscribe button and remember the best way you can help us here on the homestead is just to share our videos on your social media until next time thank you so much for stopping by our Homestead take care and God bless God bless

Channel: Living Traditions Homestead

Views: 67,725

Keywords: Living Traditions Homestead, Missouri, Ozark's, homesteading, Ozarks, self-sufficient, homesteaders, unjobbing

Id: 4mWIFcbfyqk

Length: 25min 50sec (1550 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 01 2024