Hi everyone,

I'm back and thought I would give you an update on the luck I have had with the 75 - 80% manure mix that I received from the compost facility. I used nothing but this soil in the raised beds I have - and everything is growing extremely well!

I usually post pictures to my blog every week on the progress of things, but here are some pictures of how things are coming along.

So far, I have produced about a pound of dwarf gray sugar peas out of 100 plants. I have picked them twice so far this week and will go out again Saturday and every three days. I'm surprised - but these were only supposed to get about 3 feet tall, but they are at least four. The chicken wire fencing didn't do the job, so in the fall I will have to double up!

The broccoli have already put on their heads and I will be picking those soon. I'm a bit worried about the cauliflower though. Only one of the eight has put on a curd - which I have blanched the leaves on. I really hope the other 7 produce. They were all treated the same way so I don't know why it hasn't grown. The peppers have also put on a few flowers so those will start growing soon. There are then some green beans along either side that are going good as well.




The broccoli is about twice as large as this photo shows now - all within a few days!




The carrots are doing absolutely great! I hand-planted about 450 of them in a 2 x 13 box and about 400 of them came up. I pulled up one of them and it is about half-way done. They only get about half-sun each day.





Lettuce - what can I say about the lettuce. So far there has been well over six pounds of lettuce from the compost mix. We get about two gallon-sized ziplock bags of lettuce a week - but we have to stuff it in there good.

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The only thing I'm saddened about is the potato bin that I constructed similar to sinfonian's ideas. Unfortunately, I covered up three of the four potatoes too much and they began to wither and they died last week. So, I now only have one potato in the bin. Next year I will know not to cover them up to only leave a few small leaves on the surface.




So, the only issue I have is the cauliflower. Has anyone ever experienced cauliflower that didn't produce a curd but the plant looked fantastic? I'm at a loss as to what the problem is. They have all been treated equally and are planted next to one another in the same soil. I have the Snowball X variety of cauliflower.

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