On the way to emerald green!

I've said many times that I want my yard to be emerald green. These things I have growing are a positive step in that direction!

Top pic is mostly green beans and peas. Green beans to the fore and left of that pic, tallest one is already about 12" high. Peas to the right aren't growing tall as quickly but are taking to the trellis more readily, where I'm having to train the green beans more. I know, the trellis is far from impressive but it will work for now.

Middle pic is largely flowers on the left. Tall plants in the front of the container are pumpkins and some other tall plants are other melons. My pumpkins didn't grow tall at all last year, just sprouted and spread out. These seem ready to climb something, which pumpkins and melons can do but then you have to support each fruit, which I'd rather not do.

Bottom pic is all tomato plants, three varieties. 

I'm experimenting with different lights now, to see which ones the plants respond best to. A couple are sun spectrum standard bulbs and one is a 100W equivalent CFC (burns 23W). Bought a clamp-on light with reflector at Walmart today, about $6. Cool thing, can focus it well in certain areas and will support up to 150W bulb. When I can, I'll get a couple more of those. Hoping the plants respond best to the CFC bulb, as it burns less energy. So far, no discernible difference. 

Weather seems to be warming up here but you can't trust New Mexico weather at all. Few years ago, had record snow.. in April. So, I'd really prefer to keep these plants inside for as long as possible before transplanting them out. Besides, the compost isn't ready yet. 

To that end, I'm letting this batch rest from here on. No more solids and only water from here on. I may wind up spreading it out and covering it well with surface soil in a couple of weeks. Going to do some soil testing this week, see how it measures up to last year. I'll be sorely disappointed if the results haven't budged. Still, I know it's much more amenable to plant life than it was. Holds water better. Tossed a bucket of water out in the early afternoon and the soil is still damp even now. Last year, all the moisture would have disappeared inside of 1-2 hours, at best. Right now, two biggest concerns are Nitrogen and pH. Have to deal with those now, if needed.