My Garden 5/11/2011

I didn't talk much in this video because I think the birds sound nice. I'm enjoying the Lettuce and Chives right now. Soon the strawberries will be ready. I covered the strawberries with bird netting yesterday because the Robins love to eat them.

My Garden, April 11th, 2011

Below: Finished prepping the other two boxes today. I had some weeds to pull. Only took about 20 minutes. I'll let the new soil settle for a couple days then I'll plant some seeds of Carrots, lettuce, radishes, and Bush Beans. Fun fun!

Below: Strawberries in the First box, Lettuce in the second box, and so far only Chives in the Third box, Nothing in the fourth box. Looking forward to planting more.

Below: How the lettuce looks today. Still growing.

That's all for this year

This was a rough year for my garden. Very little rain this summer that really did it in. I watered it some with the hose. I prefer nature to do the watering, too much work for me. I pulled out my plants last week and removed two garden boxes I set up this year in spring (was too hard to mow around and decided to have a simple garden for next year, looks better). So I am back down to four 4 x 4 foot garden boxes. Last weekend we (hubby) aerated and seeded the lawn including around my garden boxes. I still have to pull out my luffa plant. The luffa was my favorite plant this year. I didn't turn the luffas into scrubbers, maybe next year, but TONS of yellow flowers that the bees LOVED. Such a neat plant. I did eat the plant. If you pick them under 6 inches long they are tender and to me taste like asparagus. The luffa plant is a great screening plant that will cover a fence. I didn't get one pumpkin. I refused to spray the plants just to see what would happen. Well, the stink bug devoured all of my squash plants :( except the summer squash. I got a few of those. SO tasty!!!

Looking forward to January when I start planting seeds indoors and planning my garden. I'll be back in January. Time to enjoy the Fall weather around here. Love this time of year!!!! See you in January.

a luffa and a pumpkin

This luffa snuck up on me. One day it wasn't there and the next day...BAM! and 6 inch long luffa! In the photo it's about 14 inches long. Seems to be a fast grower. So far it's the only luffa that I see.

Below: A pumpkin growing. It's about the size of a golfball right now.

Today's garden pictures, August 11th 2010

It's been a HOT, without rain AND humid summer. Not my favorite kind of summer. My garden has suffered. When you look at the whole garden it doesn't look so great.... you see the burnt leaves on the tomato plants and such, but if you look just at each section then the garden doesn't look so bad. Some plants have really taken off, like the squash and the luffa.

Last night we celebrated our middle daughter's birthday. She asked for tacos for dinner. I used the peppers from the garden, jalapeno (only had one, lol), banana peppers, and some little tiny bells. Cook up ground turkey, add minced fresh garlic, add veggies (peppers) and a can of pinto beans. Serve on corn tortillas (that I sprinkled with chz and popped in the oven on a cookie sheet for a couple minutes just to heat up). Add whatever sauce you want, salsa, tobasco, sour cream...whatever you have on hand really. Serve with a salad. done. One of our easy family favs.

I took these garden pictures this morning.

Below: Garden still looking rough.

Below: Luffa plant gone wild! No luffas present just yet. Hope I get some. If not, the flowers were worth it.
Below: Luffa plant and the squash and an old chair I still use which was left by the last home owner..oh, and Rory our beagle/english setter mix. GREAT dog!!!!! Except she likes to dig holes.
Below: Pumpkin, but not sure which one. Again, my mystery garden (stakes failed me)
Below: The luffa (growing along the top of the fence) and squash growing through the garden wire fence and will soon cover the horseshoe area.
Below: we ate one of these last night. OH MY YUM!!!!! I think it's a Calabasa. Will check package later and edit this if I'm wrong.

Below: We ate this little watermelon yesterday. Was good. Because of the drought it stayed small. It was suppose to be a 20 lb. watermelon. I have two more out in the garden.
Below: Notice the grape tomatoes and peppers. I gave the summer squash to my oldest to take home. I have more growning. YUM! I am a big fan of squash.

What I picked today, Monday 24 May

More radishes today. Small onions, pea pods and greens to saute for dinner tonight. Not sure what I'll do with the radishes, may have to pick some lettuce to make a salad. I also snacked on 4 strawberries. The only thing I will be picking over the next couple days will be strawberries, chives, parsley, maybe one more small salad for the family (of 5).

My Tomato Plants

I thinned out my seeds yesterday. Each pot had about three tomato plants each. You cut away the weakest and keep the strongest one. I'm so proud of my seeds. I totally failed at this last year. Soon I will transplant them into another jiffy pot with regular soil. (regular soil mix which is Equal parts of compost/peat moss/and Vermeculite or Perlite.

March 9th 2010

March 9th.

Had fun planting seeds directly in the boxes this morning. Early spring plants. Regular Peas, Sugar Snap Peas, Onions, Several types of lettuce, Turnips, Carrots, and Swiss Chard.

Next planting will be about March 15th when I try Beets from seed. My beets didn't work out last year. After that next planting will be about April 1st. I will also be picking up some lettuce already started from the local nursery and maybe broccoli. fun fun!

If you do a search for your area, "planting dates (and the area you live)" then you can get some good ideas when to plant in your area for seed and for the transplants that you started indoors.

More March 8th photos, work I did today.

Above: Worked in the garden today. All ready now. This year going to add some stepping stones and a couple wind chimes.

Above: many Cilantro plants made it through the winter in the garden boxes, decided to put one in this pot.

Above: Chives popping up

Above: Looks so fresh, love that!

Garden update, April 28th 2009

photo update

Garden area not done yet, but I can start planting. Will be planting early spring plants today; peas, parsley, lettuce, spinach (< from seed). cabbage, brocolli (< plants that I started from seed indoors)





added the special soil mix on Saturday (fourth box going to another area in yard, will show when complete)



Made the grids Yesterday, need to work on grass and add pretty rocks, the border, a water feature, pretty windchimes....I'm sure I'll think of lots to do.




Maddie relaxing

My first post

I thought I'd blog about my garden. This will be my first year gardening. I have tried tomatoes in containers, but that is about it. I also helped out a neighbor with his row garden and it was a LOT of work. I just about gave up on the idea of gardening until I found this book, www.squarefootgardening.com

I am so excited to try this. It is early March. We still have several inches of snow on the ground, but this weekend it will hit 70 for the high so I'm hoping I can start building the garden boxes and get them into place.


-Jill