Garden Talk

We're back from our vacation! It was such a great trip, friends, family, hiking, mountains, waterfalls, goats! I am glad to be home though. My "garden" was not really growing at a rapid speed before we left so I thought it would be silly to pay someone to come water it, plus I figured, it's New England and it rains all the time here. The only day it rained while we were gone was the day we came home though. Oops. Nothing appears to be dead. I do have some plants that are doing well, some that are okay, and some that are straight up duds. Perhaps if you have any knowledge of how to grow these plants better (at all) you could help me out. 

The sweet pea plants are doing great. I swear they grow two inches over night. I have to keep training them so they'll grow up the trellis. They smell heavenly. Can't complain about this plant. 

 I can however complain about the zucchini and cucumber plants. I planted the seeds directly in the soil, they grew to about the size of my hand, or two hands, and have not grown a bit since late June. Both have a few flowers but nothing else. Charlie thinks it's the soils fault and that we need compost to make them grow. I've fertilized them, probably more than I should. I've also been told they might not be getting enough sun. Ideas, thoughts or general musing are welcomed.

I planted about 20 tomato seeds in my mimi greenhouse, then ended up picking the best six and planted them in the garden. Then they seemed to have died, so I bought four more from the store and planted them, and let the two that looked least dead try to make a come back. They are finally producing, although most of the tomatoes are still green. There was one ready when we got home yesterday. Of my two original plants only one grew. It's the tallest of them all and slowly it has started to flower and have little tomatoes. Last year my tomato plants were producing by July. Perhaps again due to not enough sun or poor soil. The lettuce looks okay. A bit small, but it tastes delicious. I also planted zinnias, which all grew, but are miniature. The one pictured is the biggest/fullest of them all. They are very cute, but not really much to make an arrangement out of. 

Some plants were just too ugly to photograph. My spinach looks like mini weeds, not like spinach. The peas are scrawny. I won't be planting them again since you need a lot to get enough peas to actually eat as a meal. The peppers follow almost the same story line as the tomatoes; planted from seed, grew, transplanted, died, bought new ones, except after buying the new ones from the store they also slowly died. Of four plants I have one pepper. 

As I said any suggestions are welcome. Luckily there is a good farm stand 3 miles away. 

Lauren