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 new inside plant, 4/15/11

I purchased this plant today for my kitchen, a Lemon Thyme herb. I was reading this very funny book, Our Lady Of Weight Loss, by Janice Taylor, and on page 213 see talks about getting this plant for the kitchen. So I did. I already had the cute yellow pot to plant it in. It was a gift. Next to the plant is my dog walking lady, also a gift. and the cute fabric placemat that my Mom made :) Love you Mom!

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.

Starting a New Garden Year, 2011...Yippee!!!

Below: My Before Garden Photo.

Photo taken April 1st, 2011 (notice the lettuce in the wheelbarrow that I was about to plant) fun fun! But first I had to clear out the old fall leaves and add some soil for the lettuce box. Also notice no leaves on the trees yet as of April 1st. Leaves are popping out now though (April 5th)

I've scaled back a bit. I've decided to purchase a lot of my plants this year. Starting from seed is fun, but last year I got a bit obsessed to the point it's all I could think about, lol. So I decided to take a seed planting break and simplify my garden time this year.

The last two years of planting have been a big experiment for me. I had no clue what I was doing, and I probably still don't, but I've learned a lot. This year I'm also scaling back on my plant choices, so no Okra or Eggplant will be grown this year. Keeping it simple and sticking with the things I buy in the store often.

Here is a list of plants I am doing this year: Strawberries, Thyme, Lettuce, Arugula, Radishes, Carrots, Bush Beans, Parsley, Chives, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Basil, and Jalapenos.

I read the Companion planting article at http://ghorganics.com/page2.html and I also checked out my planting dates for where I live in Virginia at http://www.southernexposure.com/plantingdates.pdf

By reading the Companion guide article I figured out why my lettuce didn't taste so hot last year, so a VERY helpful read.

Just to recap, I have four 4x4 squarefoot garden beds that My husband and I made from untreated 2x6's. I filled them with the Mel's Mix recipe to start (compost, vermeculite, and peat moss). This will be my 3rd year using them. They seem to be holding up just fine :) This year I just grabbed a bag of ORGANIC garden soil to add to the lettuce box. We'll see how that works out.

Below: a box free of old leaves and about to plant the lettuce :)

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.

little picks

making soup tonight. grabbed some peppers, chives, two baby summer squashes and couple grape tomatoes for the soup. I have some leftover chicken to use up.

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.

My First Squash

Butterfly visitor

I love walking down to the garden in the morning. It's a small garden, but I seem to always find something neat. My sunflowers opened yesterday. I only have 4 very tall sunflowers growing that I planted in the spring. One opened fully, another is half way there. The other two, still growing.

I planted several sunflowers for the fall on the side of our house for my neighbors to see. The kids also planted pumpkins with it. I hope it looks cute come fall.

The Squash is coming, The Squash is coming!!!!!!!

Yippee!!!!!!!

Again, my garden is a mystery this year. My garden stakes failed me. Not sure what these are, lol. Could be: Acorn, butternut, long island pumpkin, little pumpkins, big pumkins, and honestly, not sure if I planted summer squash, lol. The bottom two look like summer squash. Next year. I'm keeping a journal. writing it down.

I'm VERY excited to see these :)

Another Garden surprise this morning :)

This morning I found my spreading petunia with a flower. I started this from seed indoors in February. I started many of them, but this was the only one that made it when I planted them outdoors. I totally expected it to flower MONTHS ago, but it waited until today, July 19th. I'll start them from seed in January next year instead. I love spreading petunias.

Below: My luffa plant. The flower cluster. Neat plant.

Below: My grape tomato plant. I purchased this one from Lowes. I pick about ten off this plant daily for the last couple weeks.
Below: My watermelon still growing. The other one shriveled up, so I tossed it to my dogs. This one is now larger than my hand spread out. I see a couple more watermelons starting. Hope they do well.
My back yard needs to be weeded, but this still looks nice. It's our firepit area. Sadly we rarely use this area but to look at during the day. We are not night people, hard to stay up that late, lol, but we do use it at least once/summer and do smores.

Yesterday's lunch

Oh My! Yum! and Garlicky to the max! I went to the library this week, picked up the book Love Soup by Anna Thomas

Yesterday I made this, Page 350, Deconstructed Hummus Soup. The kids loved it! So did I. The recipe is easy and basic. I added the tomatoes, avocado and goat cheese which are not in the recipe. Fit just right! and looks pretty.

Tomorrow I'm making Summer Tomato and Basil Soup, page 320, using my garden tomatoes and basil. cool! and trying out one of her bread recipes, page 394, Oatmeal Molasses Bread. fun fun!

I'm still finishing my first cup of coffee, about to go out to the garden. Wonder what I'll find out there today, fun fun!

Have a great day!!!

Today's garden pics

July 15th.

Below: What I picked this morning. I decided to pick these tomatoes early. Few small leeks (the last of them), Few small onions (not sure I'll do these next year), couple grape tomatoes.

Below: yellow blossoms tucked away here and there. pretty to see.
Below: Today's Sunflower pic.
I only have about 4 sunflowers growing, three of them are about 7 or 8 feet tall! The sunflowers are from my brother's seeds.
Below: Watermelon flower.
Below: I tried to grow the three sisters here, but only one squash took and one Luffa plant. The luffa seeds I got from Target two years ago. I started the luffa indoors in Feb. From the deck I noticed the flower from the luffa plant, funny how excited I get over things like this. It's a pretty flower, in last two pics.
Sadly, I have no idea which squash this is. I'm hoping the long island pumpkin, but could be just about anything. I need to get better stakes next year, or keep a better log. Such a healthy looking plant though. Seems happy with it's spot.
The luffa flower, about the size of a baseball, pretty big.
Same flower. I can see this from the deck. What a fun surprise this morning :)
Have a great day!

Just picked

My first large tomatoes this year. Same tomatoes from last post. They turn red fast! Hmmm, what to make for dinner tonight?

Garden looking a little rough

I took these pics just a few minutes ago.

My Garden today:

My first large red tomato this year! (plant I started from seed)

sunflower, will be here soon :)

Crimson watermelon, about the size of a softball. I bought this plant

squash flower, looking healthy (started from seed)

cherry tomatoes, you can see the fried up leaves from the summer heat/no rain. (plant I started from seed)

Roma tomatoes, not plentiful, but giving me a few. Started from seed

I think watermelon leaves are the prettiest. (below)

My garden from the deck. Notice the brown grass. More rain the in forecast for this week, yippee!

I haven't spent much time in the garden, except to pick a few things here and there. We finally got some much needed rain the other day. The last rain was over 30 days ago (June 8th) which is not normal for this area. Normally we get thunderstorms rolling through and dropping rain every couple days. So my garden is looking a little rough. I have been picking cherry and grape tomatoes, a couple roma tomatoes, some peppers, few carrots. I'm hoping my squash plants produce well. I LOVE squash (butternut, little pumpkins, and big pumpkins for decoration). They seem to be happy and growing well.