New Year, New Plants!

Gardening for 2014 is underway at our house. The small bed is planted and we are getting ready to plant the big bed this week. We added peat moss, mushroom compost and composted manure to the big bed on Monday and it looks great!

Small bed with herbs, lettuce, broccoli, and spinach.

Lettuce and spinach.

Tomato and squash plants for the big bed.

I did a little landscaping in our front
yard too. That stick is a redbud tree.

I also turned some cement blocks on their side to use a planters!

                                 

July 22nd 2013 Grow Baby Grow!!

Weather has been quite nice this year.  Still waiting on the tomatoes to really take off.  The cucumbers, beans, zucchini, peppers, and herbs have tasted delicious!

Jill inspecting the zucchini.

Cherokee Purple mmmm!!

Freakishly huge!

Tasty zucchini!!!

I smell fresh salsa.

Working on a cucumber and bean tunnel.

Look at all the beans!

Green Peppers!

Tomatoes!!! Notice the straggler outside the box from a fallen tomato from last year.

Off we go!

On Memorial Day, Phil and I headed to Stuckeyer's Farms to buy plants.  It was worth the 20 minute drive. We bought 6 tomato plants, 2 pepper plants, and 4 herb plants for less than $23!

Catnip from last year. I did trim it back a bit
and hung it in the basement to dry.

I found this tiny worm when planting our new plants.
I have never seen a baby worm this small!

A view of both of our garden beds.

Small bed: Pole Beans, Cucumbers, Dill, Bell Peppers, Carrots,
Anaheim Chilies, Catnip, Oregano, Parsley, Basil, Lavender, Lettuce, and Strawberries.

Big bed: Supersonic Tomatoes, Cherokee Purple Tomatoes,
Mountain Fresh Tomatoes, Bush Beans, Squash, Hot Banana Peppers.

Cherokee Purple Tomatoes. 

This end of the bed has seeds that haven't sprouted yet
or ones that just sprouted so it's looking a little sad. Before we know it
the zucchini squash will have taken over. 

Slowly but surely

We are slowly making progress, mainly in our little bed. In the past, Phil has led the gardening campaign but this year with the bathroom renovation (the bathroom is now functional!) I've been doing the little bit of gardening that has been done.

Small Bed

The small bed has pole beans and cucumbers growing int he back row. There are lettuces in the front row and I planted some cilantro seeds in there yesterday too. Cilantro is the only herb I've ever successfully grown from seed. We also have the two green pepper plants donated by Greg. 3 strawberry plants, last year's cat nip and lavender are in this bed as well. There are two squares of carrots too!

Big Bed

The big bed still looks sad. There are 4 tomato plants and some marigolds. I also planted two squash seeds yesterday. My plan was to plant some bush beans as well but when I went to our seed storage I couldn't find any and then remembered that I planted the last of them last year. The Lowes by our house is no longer selling seeds so I had to ask a coworker this morning if she had any to spare.

Cat nip that I brought inside over the winter.
It survived and it is thriving now that it is back outside.

Last year's lavender. I wasn't sure if this guy was
going to make it but it has new growth so I am expecting it to
continue to grow.

Strawberries! This is the first year I've planted these early enough to get fruit. 

And here is a quick shot of the bathroom. We still need to put some finishing touches on it but we can use it which is the most important part! Phil did such a great job. It is beautiful! I'll post some better pictures once we are all the way finished. 

Tomatoes!

We now have four tomato plants and two bell pepper plants in our gardens!! 

Phil works at Nuway and the owner, Greg Rhomberg brought in a few plants for us.

Thanks, Greg!

 

We are slowly making progress!

A bit behind...

We have been slowly renovating our bathroom since New Year's day, which means the garden hasn't gotten the attention it is used to by this time of year. We have started seeds inside (most of which didn't take or aren't making it).

We used a new "greenhouse" that we got for Christmas this year that came with a heated mat. I think the actual term might be "hothouse".

On April 20, I started cucumbers, green beans, lettuce (WAY LATE), and carrots outside. I also transplanted the lavender and catnip that I brought in over the winter. I've since added a few strawberry plants and marigolds.  Only the little bed has been planted (more to come). The big bed has been tilled but that's it so far. I am thinking this year we'll be buying most of our plants.

Things are Growing

The garden has really taken off. Sadly, we are loosing one of our zucchini plants. It's either bacterial wilt or  powder mildew. We'll be pulling it out soon.

Getting Smart

Decided to start dehydrating earlier this year: Basil, Parsley, and Dill.

96 Degrees in the Shade! Water those plants!

Small Bed: This best has two variety of cucumbers, two kinds of peppers, two kind of beans, two kinds of lettuce. Lots of herbs too: Basil, Parsley, Cilantro, Dill, Pineapple sage, oregano, and cat nip. Newly planted yesterday: Strawberries!

Herbs and Lettuce taste great!  Cucumbers and Pole beans starting to pop up!

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Donated Tomatoes from Sam's dad and Annie's garden.  Really going to town!!!

The larger bed has all of our tomatoes. We also planted two zucchini plants, giving
them each much more room than last year. We also have broccoli and bell peppers in there.

Big Bed

Tomatoes!

TOMATOES!!!

March Garden Update!! - Spring is finally here! YAYYYY!!!!

Nothing like some good old fashioned manual labor to kick off SPRING!!!  WOO HOO!!  Had to hand till the small bed and part of the large bed due to carburetor issues with the tiller. 

Jill planted our broccoli and lettuce.  I decided to give the big bed a 6 inch buffer from the edge of the box in hopes to control overgrowth.

Lettuce in the small bed.  Grid all laid out and ready for herbs and cucumbers.

Worm.

Moving away from the rope method that I used last year and replaced it with recycled wire mesh from my sister.  Even though the rope worked well, the cucumbers are going to love the mesh!  I'm also going to chance not having a fence around the small bed.  The squirrels and birds did not seem to be a problem last year due to the success with feed and quenching their thirst via bird bath.  I do however still have some fence on hand.

AHHHHHHH A SNAKE!!!!!  Found this little guy by the stairs of the house and tossed him into the neighbor's yard.   I thought about throwing him in the garden but I feared that he might get chopped up.  I don't mind worms, but I can't do snakes.

A couple of hours bustin' out the old carpenter skills.  Result: 3 rows of trellis for the tomatoes!!!  Wood is recycled from my old bedroom and music room at my parent's house.  I ran out of mesh midway through but I think I'll have no problem buying some extra.

Grid and mesh on the small bed.

Herbs and Flowers

Tomatoes and Peppers