July in the Garden: Right Side Bed 1

Welcome back to the garden. I'm in growing zone 5b for southern Wisconsin, which hopefully helps you on your own gardening journey. As you might remember from my June notes (Garden notes: what's growing on), I included a picture of my garden layout; I'm sharing it again below for reference. 


Let's jump into some July updates and see what's improved and where I am still having issues.

Since I spend a fair amount of time in the garden, I was able to take notes based on the mental picture I have of the layout and what is planted where.

On the Right Side Bed 1 I planted two 'Early Girl' variety tomatoes. They are finally starting to take off. We have had a decent amount of rain this year which has both helped and hindered the garden. Too little water means I have to go out and water everything; too much water and I worry about root rot or blight from wet leaves.

The tomato plant that is on the most southwest corner of the garden space is the most prolific in terms of growth height. I added two stakes to help hold up a couple of stems as I am concerned about their height. My main concern is their height;, once they are heavily laden with fruit, the stems could break and cause the loss of any developing fruit.

I have only a few fruits growing though since the spring was wet and cool and the plants took so long to get taller. I also picked off flowers that were trying to grow in June, the plants were just too small then. I am hoping the stakes I place in are enough to support further upward growth. I know many gardeners will stop the upward growth so plants can start concentrating on flower and fruit production. I do prune a little, especially leaves that are close to the ground (which can suffer from soil borne disease). I will also take off leaves that are showing signs of blight so it does not spread upward.

The second plant, while not as tall as the one on the southwest side, is moving in the right direction. It appears that both of these plants started setting fruit overnight! They most likely had blossoms or the beginnings of fruit and I missed them yesterday on my walk-through.

Right Side Bed 1


In addition to the tomatoes, I have basil and French bush beans called 'Purple Queen'. I first saw purple beans for sale at a market and was intrigued. How many beans have been missed when harvesting due to them being green and blending in with the leaves? The purple beans are easier to see when harvesting because of their color even though I still have to look under the leaves for them. Definitely going to have to let a few of these mature on the plant so I have more for next year.

One of the things I was trying to accomplish in the garden this year was maximizing use of space. This bed definitely has room for improvement to reach this goal. I have unused space for low growing plants or more flowers. Based on some research I could plant carrots or some leafy greens as they would be shaded by the tomatoes and should grow well but, I have struggled with getting carrots to germinate. I would love to hear your tips because what I've tried so far has not worked.

At the top of the cattle panel aligned to this bed I have attached some garden twine. Coming up in a future post centered around Right Side Bed 4 I will go into greater detail about why I did this.

As for issues, I have not seen a whole lot of trouble in this bed as far as pests are concerned. The main issue I have is as noted above wasted growing space.

This bed certainly has room for improvement, and I'm always learning! Keep an eye out for my next post, where I'll take you over to Right Side Bed 4 and explain why I've attached that garden twine. See you back in the garden soon!


Location: Beloit, WI 53511, USA

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