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Video Summary
Hey everyone! Today I’m giving you a garden tour and we’re actually harvesting our very first thing this year – some volunteer lettuce from last year! But I have to be honest, things are not looking great out here. We got hit with a ton of hail that took out a lot of my tomatoes and flooded everything for days and days, and we keep having rain so nothing is drying out. My peppers and onions are still here but they’re not looking great from too much water. I planted a bunch of new things I’ve never grown before like turnips, rutabagas, pak choy, and kohlrabi, so I honestly can’t tell what’s weeds and what’s not, so I’m just waiting to see before I start weeding. The good news is potatoes don’t mind flooding at all – they’ve gone crazy and look fantastic! My spinach is coming along but you can tell where the hail just beat through it. Most of my squash didn’t germinate, my blackberry bare root plant is just a twig that needs to come out, but I’m surprised my blueberries came back (though they’re not looking fantastic after the hail). One of my blackberry plants is actually doing great with a new shoot coming from the roots. Everything is very light green from being overwatered since I haven’t had the water running because it’s been raining so much. I’m getting little buds on my raspberry plants, but here’s my question for you all: my raspberries are growing really well but these are all new canes, and none of my canes from last year have any raspberries or leaves at all. My assumption was the new canes grow and in the second year they produce, but all these other canes are in their second year, so why aren’t they growing? What am I doing wrong? This plant has been here for like five years and I’ve only gotten raspberries once! My grapes are doing well with tons of little grapes started, I have two watermelon plants and a cantaloupe, my hibiscus is coming back, and I planted a sugar pie pumpkin that just sprouted. I have some asparagus but I honestly can’t tell if it’s asparagus or a weed! My three corn plants all came up which is great since corn is hit or miss for me. Carrots are coming up spotty, green beans are doing okay, and my onions are all volunteers from last year. The radishes (my first time growing them) have spotty germination but little radishes are forming! Now here’s my most sad area – I planted nine tomato plants total and lost most of them to the hail. I have three that survived decently though they’ve been trashed by hail and too much water. One broke during the hailstorm and I left it, then realized it was still alive because tomatoes will root all along their stem, so today I transplanted it upright. I planted three unknown tomato seeds from 2017 hoping one will stick. We harvested the volunteer lettuce which will need to be really washed since it has wood shavings and hail damage. This is our first harvest at the end of the first week of June!
Video Transcript
Hey everyone, welcome back. It’s Kari and this is Keep It Simple DIY, and today I am out in my garden. So I am going to give you a garden tour, and we are actually going to get to harvest our very first thing this year, and it’s going to be some lettuce that was volunteer from last year. So let me flip you around and show you how it’s looking.
This section right here is where I have my peppers and onions. And we got a ton of hail. This hail took out a lot of my tomatoes and flooded everything for days and days. So realistically, oh, I’m glad that these are still here, but they’re not looking great. They’re looking like they’ve had too much water. I’m hoping that it’ll dry out soon, but we keep having rain, so it’s not drying out.
I’ve got the calla lilies that are doing great here. And then this is the volunteer potato. And I put a ton of different things in this bed that I had never grown before, so I can’t exactly tell what’s weeds and what’s not. There are turnips and rutabagas, and I don’t even remember what all. Pak choy, kohlrabi. So we’re just going to wait and see on this before I start going, like I’m pretty sure most of this stuff here is weeds, but I want to just make sure first. Like these here, I’m pretty sure that’s a weed.
Over here though, one thing that doesn’t mind all the flooding is the potatoes. These have gone crazy. So we will see how these go at the end of the year, but potatoes are looking fantastic.
Spinach is coming along fine, and then I do believe I started some cilantro over on the far right side of this bed. The spinach, some of it you can tell where like the hail just beat through it. So it’s coming back little by little. It looks like I didn’t get great germination with it, but we’re surviving.
And then this bed looks like there’s not really anything going on. Actually, this is one where I had cilantro, so maybe these little guys might come up and be some cilantro. But I do have some squash way out here. You can see a squash plant, and then there’s another one to the left of it about right there. But I did put two different types of squash plants, yellow and green, and those two were one type. And the other type was closer in like here, and I don’t remember which ones those are, but the other two did not germinate.
Looking out at the whole view of the yard, a few things didn’t come back. The trees did not come back, so I’m going to have to figure out what to do with them. But over here, this was a blackberry bare root plant. It’s just a twig. It needs to come out. I’m going to probably return that if I can.
I’m still surprised with my blueberries that they came back. They’re not looking fantastic. I mean, really the hail just got everything. So hopefully that’ll stay good. The hibiscus is coming back just fine.
And then over here, this is a blackberry bare root plant just like that other one that didn’t grow, but it actually is doing great. It has another shoot that came from the roots, at least I think that’s what that is, and it’s looking good. You can definitely tell this light green that it’s been completely overwatered. And that’s just been everything. I actually should put that in there. I haven’t had the water running because it’s been raining so much, but these will all be very happy to be dried out.
And then it looks like we are just, there’s my shadow, it looks like we’re just getting ready to get some little buds. It’s hard to see. Little buds on my raspberry plants. Okay, kind of tacked a little bit by that one.
Here’s where I have a question for all of you. My raspberries are growing really well, but all of these are new canes, and none of my canes from last year have any raspberries on them or any leaves at all. And so my assumption is that the new canes will grow, and in the second year they’ll produce. Well, all of these other canes, this is their second year, and so I’m wondering why they’re not growing too. What am I doing wrong? How do I get this to actually produce fruit? Last year was the first year I was able to get canes to produce out of it. It’s been here for like five years and I haven’t gotten any raspberries.
Just like the blackberries, my blueberries, only one of the plants survived. So this one, I will have to find something else to go there.
But my grapes are doing well. This first grape is a little bit more tame. We’ve got tons of little grapes started here and here and then down here, and hopefully we get even more of these. I can tell along these buds that some of them are still coming.
And then right underneath, I do have two watermelon plants. I just bought it from the store and there were two, and I figured one can go one direction, one can go the other.
This plant definitely needs to be tamed. It’s another grape tree, bush, grapevine. It’s a vine. It just looks like trees and bushes and everything. I’m waiting to come in and prune because I’m not sure how much of this is going to come back, and I don’t want to prune like the best looking cane that comes up if I’m going to need it. But I do have one that came back right here, so we’re doing well.
Oh, you know what, I lied. That other plant that we saw right there next to the grapes is a cantaloupe. This is the watermelon. So watermelon’s doing okay. It’s loving all the extra water.
Hibiscus is coming back. And then this here is a sugar pie pumpkin and it’s just sprouted. I did put I think two seeds in here and only one is sprouted, but it just sprouted. So hopefully we will get another sugar pie pumpkin to sprout and then we’ll have a bunch. I would like to can it if I can. Every year I at least make a pumpkin pie with the pumpkins that I grow.
And then I put some butternut squash in this bed, and there’s only, well let’s see, one came up right there. Looks like I might be getting some other things to sprout in this bed. Oh, right here. And this is year two of having asparagus, and it looks like this is the only asparagus that’s up. So I’m kind of just holding my breath. Is that even an asparagus or is that a weed? I can’t tell. I have to go look up what an asparagus looks like. That could just be a weed. We live in a very like tumbleweedy area.
I only planted three corns this year, but all three have come up, so that’s fantastic. I’ve found that I don’t know, corn, it’s hit or miss. So I figured let’s get enough to hopefully get some for fresh eating and then we’ll call it.
Here, the volunteer lettuce. This is what we need to harvest today. And our other volunteer lettuce is down here in the rocks. But this bed has carrots planted out and it’s coming up spotty, but we are getting some carrots. So once I know exactly where they’ve come up, I am going to decide what to do with the extra space on the bed.
And then over here we’re doing pretty okay with the green beans. Green beans are coming up pretty well. Now I did plant all the areas, so there’s some patchiness where we didn’t have germination. And all the onions that are in here are just volunteers because this is where my onion bed was last year. I decided not to move them, so I figured they’d do better. And this one’s already bolting, which is pretty cool.
This bed is my pea bed. Same thing, I did fill the whole bed and it looks like we have some spotty germination. This area back behind that sprinkler head though, I did see a bunny, so perhaps the bunny’s been snacking on my peas.
And then this is a first for me. I think they’re the radishes or beets. I’m pretty sure these are radishes. I’ve never grown them before, but we’re doing really well. The germination was very spotty, of course. That’s kind of how it’s been going out here, but we’re getting little radishes to form.
Now here’s my most sad area. I planted out nine tomato plants, five of them in these five spots, and then I planted some over here. I planted two here and then two down there. This fourth one didn’t live, so I moved one over, and then that didn’t live. And I moved another one over and that didn’t live. So then I was like, okay, I’m not moving another one until they’re stronger. But then we got pummeled with hail, and so I lost all of the ones that were over there left, which there was, I think two left, or maybe one had died before. Regardless, all of them from over there are not here anymore.
I have three that survived decently. I mean, it has seen better days. I mean, look, these leaves have just been trashed. But the new growth is actually looking very healthy, which is promising. So that plant’s going to come back and be just fine, so long as it doesn’t get pummeled with hail again. And that’s a Costoluto Genovese.
And then this one here is a Moneymaker. And same goes, I mean, pummeled with hail, way too much water. And now we’re kind of starting to get to the point where it’s not that bad. It’s kind of, fertilize Hydronics. I fertilized earlier today.
This one though is interesting. This is, I forgot what they’re called, but they’re the ones that are really pink. And if I mean, you can barely see it here, it’s growing on its side. So what happened was it broke during the hailstorm and I just left it there. And I know that tomatoes will root all along their stem no matter where it is, so it started growing here. So I realized it was still alive, and then today I just came in and I transplanted it so that this stem was actually facing up. So hopefully we’ll get some growth coming up.
And then I’ve got one little tomato over here that’s just, I call it a home tomato. It’s from 2017’s garden, I think. I just saved some seeds. I don’t remember what I saved them from. Hopefully it’s a cherry tomato because those are delicious and I haven’t had any in a while.
And I just planted three seeds in this today with unknown varieties, and I’m hoping that one of them will stick.
So that’s a general overview. Let’s come back over here to the lettuce and do our first harvest of the season. You know, this one I’m actually just going to pull the whole thing up because it is in my rock. Okay, there’s that. Where do I want to stick this? I’m just going to stick that in the garden.
I’m just going to, instead of letting this become a whole big head of lettuce, come in here and cut off and hope that it grows back. So this lettuce will need to be really washed. I mean, I’ve got tons of like wood shavings in there. And some of this is just kind of a disaster from the hail. The hail was terrible.
Okay, and this pizza, then just going to let, just take them off there. All right, first harvest of the season.
All righty. And here we have it, our first harvest of the season. And it is the end of the first week of June. And I will keep you guys updated as the growing season goes. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. I will be posting more garden tour videos as we go through the season, so you’ll definitely want to be subscribed and hit the notification bell so you can see all of that.
If you happen to know what I’m doing wrong with my raspberries, please leave a comment down below and let me know so I can be more successful with that. And I will see you next time. Bye!
