Garden Stuff...

Wow it has been months since I logged in and posted...as usual I went through one of my bored with the Internet, cooking, gardening, really just bored with life in general slumps. I kept at the garden though-Its going good-but SLOW. Next year I really think I might just go ahead and plant from seedlings instead of seed to speed the process up. My coworkers have been bringing in bags of cucumbers, tomatoes and summer squash to share and my plants are just now starting to form their veggies.

The early rains were great for the garden but then came the very very hot and dry June which was stressful on the garden. Even with regular watering the plants were looking kind of sad.

The cucumbers got a strange disease and I had to remove most of the plants. there are about 8 left though and they look like they might be trying to produce healthy disease free cucumbers now.

The onions are coming right along and should be ready by fall.

I've yet to pick any radishes-but I've got a couple good plants from the seed pack.

The spinach is nice...I've been pinching back leaves and harvesting leaves for salads pretty much every other day now. I've got about 5 decent spinach plants.

The lettuce is slow. Very slow...but lettuce doesn't like hot weather at all. It might start to do well late September -early October.

The peppers aren't doing anything at all. Weird-they were the biggest producer last year.

The tomato plants are doing great. I've got a bunch of green tomatoes and lots of flowers so they should give us plenty of yellow and red tomatoes this year.

Garden Update: 4 weeks

(Tomato plant)

I am a little late in posting this as these pics were taken last week Thursday...but you get the idea. We are one month in the ground now and things are growing nicely.

The garden is more shaded than I had thought it was going to be. The trees in the woods have really gotten full with leaves and they are keeping the garden out of full sun for most of the early part of the day. I am thinking about taking a saw and hacking off a few of the larger branches.

Anyway...here's how things look as of last week Thursday:

Peppers and Cucumbers...

Onions and Lettuce...

Spinach and Radishes...

I'm getting ready to go ahead and plant some zucchini and summer squash where the cabbage and broccoli shriveled up and died. I also think I might throw some yellow watermelon seed out alongside the garden and see how it does. We were able to throw seed out at work last year and it grew some nice watermelon without us doing a thing.

Garden Update 2009: 3 weeks

Today is the 3 week mark for the seedlings (and some seed) we put out in the garden. The rains have been kind to the plants and are really helping them grow rather nicely. Everything is growing and looking great except the broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts...they have bit the dust. But-they were from old seed packets so maybe that was the problem. Maybe I will plant a row of squash in their place.

I've really got to get out there and start pinching off some leaves tonight in order to encourage more growth from the plants. I'll need to make sure I pick up some cages for the tomato plants soon as well. The herb wheel will be started in a couple of weeks from plants. I'm just going to pick up some seedlings from the nursery and plant them.

Peppers, Week 3 (and some grass sprouting up from the seed the husband threw out last weekend):

Spinach, Week 3:

Radishes, Week 3:

Tomatoes, Week 3:

Cucumbers, Week 3:

2009 Garden Update: 10 Days In the Ground

So it has been ten days since I put seeds and seedlings in the ground and so far so good! Everything has either grown a bit or started to come up. We had a rough few days of very cold temps, lots of wind and then finally quarter sized hail one day but it looks like the little plants have battled through and are going to do just fine.

Here's some snaps of the seedlings at ten days in:

Tomato plant




Lettuce seedlings



Spinach




Radishes



Cucumbers




Peppers



Yesterday I added some plant food and raked into the top inch or so of the soil. I also have some cabbage, broccoli, brussels and onions in there. The cabbage, broccoli and brussels are real iffy right about now-they just aren't looking so great-but we will see if they hold on or not. I transplanted them as seedlings from a jiffy tray I had started inside the house. So maybe something didn't go over so well in the transplant? Not sure.

The onion sprouts are simply too little to photograph.

I'd really like to dig up another plot beside this one and get some zucchini, squash and potatoes going in that plot.

Long Time No Garden...

It just came to me that I haven't mentioned the little veggie garden in quite some time and really that's simply because there has not been much progress. With the crazy weather we've had here I haven't been able to actually get the seedlings into the ground until yesterday. They still seem pretty fragile to me and there just hasn't been an abundance of sun for them either so they are really growing pretty slowly.

Yesterday I got outside and finally was able to put seedlings for both red and yellow tomatoes, bell peppers, cabbage, broccoli, and brussel sprouts in the ground. I put lettuce, radish, cucumber, spinach and onion seed in the ground too. We'll see what happens.

It got really cold again last night-grrrr....but hopefully not cold enough to stunt the growth of these plants. I swear I might cry or throw a tantrum if I don't get some veggies out of this lot this year.

I haven't started the herb wheel yet-everything I've read says to wait until it gets a bit warmer.

This Week's Theme: Grape Tomatoes!

I bought a bunch of grape tomatoes at the grocery this week and then when I was meal planning and perusing recipes I happened to come across three different recipes to use them in. Odd. Its as though grape tomatoes were meant to be this week.

Is there some cosmic significance to all of the tomatoness this week? Could the sudden abundance of tomatoes in my life have some hidden meaning?

The dream dictionary lists this info about "dreaming' of tomatoes:

To dream of eating tomatoes, signals the approach of good health. To see them growing, denotes domestic enjoyment and happiness. For a young woman to see ripe ones, foretells her happiness in the married state.

Well, shit fire! If all that is true and applies to the waking hours then dammit I'm in for some goodness in the next few weeks! Ya hooey! Sounds good to me so let's just go with it,mmmkay?

I've got three recipes I'll be sharing this week:

**Chicken salad with Grape Tomatoes

**Flounder Packets with Lemon and Tomatoes

**Couscous with Grape Tomatoes

Speaking of tomatoes...the seedlings are growing in the starter tray and ALMOST ready to be transplanted into the garden plot. I've got the soil all worked over in the plot and ready for the seedlings and seeds to be planted. So far everything but the peppers have sprouted.

I planted two different types of tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, brussels and peppers in this batch. I don't have the tray in front of me, but I might have planted some onion too-or I might be saving those seeds to go directly into the garden with the cucumber seeds...can't remember. Oh well.

Got some mesculin greens mix started in a window box too.

I want to get some summer squash and corn started too. Probably start those the first week in April.

I need to get the circle dug up and the bricks installed for the herb wheel also. If the weather cooperates I'll get all of this and some tree mulching done over the weekend.

Friday's Happy Clips and Garden Snips

Friday Happy Clips...

Gots-ta love Pre-schooler artwork! I have binders full of artwork from the first 4 years of this child's life. The hardest part is deciding what to keep and what to toss. I just want to keep every little scribbled on paper he makes. This one is a definite keeper and makes me giggle. Its called "Dog Chasing Cat"-I have to wonder about the blank look on the striped dogs face. He doesn't seem too terribly excited about "chasing" this 6 legged cat. The cat looks thoroughly annoyed. Maybe I'll mat and frame this one, it makes me giggle every time I look at it.

And the silly little artist who created this fabulous work of art-well, we can not forget him. He was full of happiness this week. This, after Satan himself invaded and took over his little body over the weekend. HOLY 4 YEAR OLD ATTITUDE! I was on the verge of entering the land of "Mommie Dearest"with this child this weekend. It WERE NOT purrty folks, not purrty at all. Alas, my happy silly and angelically behaved little boy is back and has rebuked the devilish ways of yester-weekend.




Garden Snips...



Here's the garden plan for this year:

One 5 ft in diameter circular sectioned herb garden (IF I can find FREE or next to nothing bricks) IE, an Herb Wheel.

One 8x10 foot vegetable garden.

"Salad Bowl" window box

Herbs:

Rosemary

Cilantro

Dill

Basil

Chives

Thyme

Mint

Veggies:

Tomatoes-three varieties including one yellow tomato

Corn

Cabbage

Broccoli

Carrots

Yellow Squash and Zucchini

Pole Beans

Cucumbers

Red leaf lettuce

Bibb Lettuce

Dandelion Greens

Supplies Needed:

Mid turn tiller (RENT $35)

Twine (already have on hand)

Bricks (HOPEFULLY FREE)

landscaping timbers, 2x?? ($20)

Stakes ($10)

Plastic fencing roll ($10)

Organic Topsoil-probably about a yard and a half ($35)

Mulch ($20)

Trellis of some sort ($10)

Zip ties (already have on hand)

Irrigation drip style hose ($10)

Starter pod trays (already have on hand)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can't wait to get started, I'll probably start marking off and digging up the plots outside and plant the seeds indoors in the starter trays this weekend. I have to pick up a few more seed packets and some herb plants over the next few weeks.

I might fore go building the rain barrel-just depends on what the cost is going to be for the supplies to actually make one.

Garden Update: 5 months

So its been about 5 months since I first planted my first round of seeds. I've learned plenty over the last few months and I am already making plans based on this years learning experience. I'm not so scared of planting things directly in the ground now. I can't wait to have a bountiful garden next season. I am sure that I'll be able to produce enough vegetables to feed our family both fresh and frozen and maybe some to take to the local farmer market and food bank.

What I have not yet learned is how to get rid of these disgusting little white aphid (?) bugs that seem to LOVE all things in the cabbage family. They are relentless. I'll have to work hard on that next year. I really want to have broccoli and Brussels sprouts in the garden because my family eats alot of those two veggies. I do have some little sprouts forming on the "trunk" of the little Brussels plant right now...so I might actually end up with a few sprouts this year.

Basil wins as being the best performer so far-it grows so quickly and abundantly and each time you pull off some leaves to use; within the next day or so the plant is covered back and full of more leaves to use. I can't use the basil fast enough! I'll be making a few batches of pesto to freeze this weekend.

There is really something about natural rain that makes the plants grow faster and green up more than water from a hose ever can. The rains we got over the last week really made things happen in the garden. Just take a look at how fast the cucumbers have developed, I only planted these about a month ago and they already have baby cucs!

I have also found out that apparently my peppers are destined to be sweet baby bells and NOT full size green peppers because they have started to change to a gorgeous red color already at their petite size. Isn't the color amazing?

Pumpkins also grow pretty quickly and its looking like we might have out little mini pumpkin patch in the backyard this year just in time for fall. They already have quite a few large pretty yellow orange blossoms.

This weekend I'm going to prepare another small section of the yard for planting some fall veggies. I've read that carrots, onions, lettuce, and greens like collards and spinach all do well in the fall. Its pretty mild here well into November so I hope to get a decent crop out of this next planting. I've been thinking about trying asparagus or potatoes too. Can't wait to see what this next round of seeds produce!

Garden Update: Tuesday July 29, 2008

At ten days in here is the little mini -garden we just planted! Everything has begun to sprout except the Cilantro. The Dill has two TINY little sprouts and and onions have little green threads poking up from the soil.

The sunflowers were the first to sprout, then the beans and pumpkins.

Pole Beans

Pumpkins

Sunflowers

Update from the container garden on the deck:

We have a little tiny crown of broccoli forming!

Tons of Peppers

The cucumber plants are growing quickly too

And finally the brussel sprout plants are fighting back after the destructive cabbage worms nearly destroyed them.

Garden Update: 4 months

I have finally planted some seed in the ground! Its just a small 5x3 plot-but its a start. I'm tired as hell from shoveling and raking all day to get the little plot together. I broke up and dug up that hard red clay we have here and had to break up a bunch of shale, limestone and rock too. Our yard backs up to a hilly ridge line and there is just a ridiculous amount of rock in the ground. I was just so tired of waiting to rent a tiller and I knew shoveling and working in that heat would do some much needed calorie burning so Red and I covered ourselves in bug spray and got out there and busted our humps.

I bought a bag of sand and two bags of garden soil and filled the trench with it and then we planted our seeds. I think in two weeks I will do the same thing to the area right next to this plot. Maybe by August I can have four of these little plots going and then Red and I can make homemade stepping stones to go in between. the plots.

I also have to add the timbers along the perimeter of the plots and probably wrap some fencing around it all to keep critters out.

Oh and yeah...in true Clumsy Cathee form I think I may have broken a bone in my hand while "hammering" those stakes into the ground. Nice.Very nice-and to be expected. I can't do anything physical without injuring myself. at least its my left hand and its not impeding everything I do.

We planted pumpkins, pole beans, onions, dill, cilantro, and sunflowers. Weird combo-but most of that is seed packets my mom sent me in the mail and then some old seeds I had laying around the house. Seed packets have expiration dates on them, but I'm not so sure I trust them. the cucmbers I planted below came from an old seed packet that had an expiration date of Oct 2006!

I also started some basil a few weeks ago and some cucumbers. They are in containers up on the deck. They are coming along nicely. It only took them about two days to sprout.

Cabbage worms tore up my brussel sprouts and broccoli-but they are making a comeback after I desperately reached for the sevin-dust to annihilate those greedy bastards. They almost obliterated my plants in one day. I have no idea where the things came from-but there was TONS of them.

The peppers are coming along nicely. I have at least 10-12 buds on each plant and there are at least 3-4 little peppers growing on each plant right now.


The beans and the peas...well-they bit the dust. The beans were looking nice until we got a big rainstorm one night and they sat in a water-logged swampy mess for about three days. The container they were in had no drainage and I was a bad gardener and didn't pay them any attention or bother to drain off any of the water for a couple of days. Oh well-lesson learned: proper drainage is important afterall!