Fertilizing and more

I've been think about how to prepare the soil this time.  I need
to pay more attention to fertilizing.  In the past I used compost,  garden
manure and epson salts.

I've always had a green thumb, even my cooking experiments as a
toddler would end up germinating, my Mom says. But although I've been
successful with tomatoes and  green-beans, I don't get the best yield
especially in the leafy green department.

Looking at the past two seasons, these are the areas that need
improvement.

- Leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, and chard. Granted, they are
  flavorfull, but I get small plants that go to seed quickly, or maybe
  I wait too long to harvest hoping the plant will get bigger and then
  they go to seed.

- Red beets too small. I won't compare with the store bought ones, but
 compared to the farmer's market, mine are pretty small.

- Zucchini and pumpkin: lots of flowers, but hardly any fruit. At the
  farmers market last year, they suggested it may be a pollination
  problem. So I'm going to plant some flowers that should attract more
  bees. Maybe some lavender plants and gaillardias. Those are always full of bees and
  butterflies in the flower garden. Hopefully the Fairy Meadow mix will bring lots of friendly bugs too.

Here is one of my all-times favorite pictures... Lunch time...

From Gaillardia

- Carrots: delicious but really small. The kids love to dig them out though.

- Corn: I'm not going to do corn this year, although I love the leaves waving in the wind, the ears are small, and it is a gamble against the squirrels that know better than I do when they are ready to harvest!