Today's Plantings, Begonia and Cherry Tomatoes

Well, I did a ton of weeding and mowing today. I also planted a begonia that Robbie brought home from school for me. Poor guy, he dropped it coming in the house, so its a little sad looking.

I'm still not happy with my weeding. There is so much growing in what is supposed to be my flower bed area that is not supposed to. UGH. Well, I'm doing better than last year. So there's progress.

Then I explored the garden. My one row... Anyway, something ate one broccoli plant and one brussel sprout plant. So in their spot I planted one of my Sweet 100 tomato plants and then at the end of the row I planted the other.

Its supposed to rain tomorrow. I hope! I think I'll ask Rob to prime the well for me tonight when he gets home. That way I can water!

Still have the front ditch area to mow and the whole yard could use some trimming. But I'm tired!

Rob also trimmed up the bushes a little. We need to get a chain saw running too so that we can trim the yucky bush by the front gate. I'm going to try to make it more tree like so that it is easier to mow around.

I still have nine roma and nine big boy tomato plants to get in the ground. I'd also like to get some lettuce started. I have tons of seeds I could plant...

One more note, I think only 1 of my 4 vines that I planted over a month ago are going to make it. The blueberry vine definitely has new growth on it. But the others are looking quite dead. Sad but true.

And the red flower below is an Anemone - St. Brigid. Mystery Solved.

What is it?

050708 Flower - What is it 2
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

OK, I'm pretty sure I planted this when I planted my tulip and daffodil bulbs. But I can't for the life of me remember what it is. Anybody have a clue?

Sad thing, I think I may have picked some of these as weeds before they bloomed.

Another beginner gardener funny... The mini-rose bush on the side of the house that never bloomed last year... Its a wild blackberry vine! It's blooming now and I know those aren't roses!

Broccoli and Brussel Sprouts

I planted my first row in my veggie garden today. I didn't do a great job with the prep this year so we'll see how we do...

The tulips and daffodils are done for the season. I don't have a whole lot in the way of flowers in my garden right now. I think I need to invest in some more early to mid spring bloomers.

The shrubs on the north side of the steps are really doing well. But the ones on the south side of the steps are barely even alive. Not sure what to do about that. I'm thinking about moving some of the shrubs that are around on the side of the house out to the front, but I'm not sure that would do any good. The problem with the front of the house is that the south front is just about full sun and the north side is most definitely partial shade. So to make the landscaping perfectly symetrical is impossible. So I think I need to start planning based on balance instead.

I'm figuring out that a gardeners work is never done.

I need to go out and see if there is any new growth on the berry vines that I planted now that we've had a good rain.

I do have some lillies that are growing on the north side of the house, but very slowly. I'm not sure if they will ever put blooms on. They were given to me by a friend that never got around to planting them last year.

I may get a bunch of bulbs from our new neighbor. They are bulldozing the old owners raised beds!!! Sad! But I'll end up with lots of transplants if I want them. So this week I may spend some time seeing what all I can get moved. I figure they die at least I tried to save them before the recking ball so to speak.

Tuesday, Bloomday

OK, In my SparkPeople Veggies and Blooms Gardening Team there is a Tuesday Bloom picture thread. So here is my entry for today.

I had a way busy double booked day, so I went out and took these pictures early and it was still in the 30's so my flowers were still hiding a bit. But here's what I got...


I think some people may consider these weeds. But I love them! They are sweet little purple things if you ask me.


I think my tulip days are numbered now. This one is still looking good, but some of them have already shed their petals.


I think this one is especially showing the temperature outside. It was open yesterday afternoon... I'll have to get another photo tomorrow afternoon when its back int he 70s. Someone gave me this plant and I can not remember the name of it. Something with spider in it I think. But its hardy, so its good for me as a beginner I suppose. Its a return from last year.


Now this one is really a cheat I suppose. Its not my Dogwood. But I saw it today while on my daughter's field trip to the State Park that is just around the bend from our house. I love Dogwood's in bloom. This picture really doesn't do it justice.

Wierd!

I didn't have daffodils until April last year. My daffodils up by the house already have buds on them??? Odd!

Seed Starting Time!!! Yeah!

The kids are going to out of school on Friday for parent teacher conferences, so we are going to use the day to start some of our early seeds for the garden! I'm so excited. I'll post a list of what we planted and maybe some pictures of the kids hard at work on Friday or Saturday.

And tomorrow we are expecting SNOW! The kids are excited to say the least.

Pre-Planning Thoughts

I'm starting to get excited about Spring already. Maybe its because I'm so cold!

Anyway, I'm really wanting to plant some berries this year. I'm thinking about Strawberries, Blueberries and Raspberries. Another thing that I've always want an abundance of is Asparagus. I've done some research and I think I'm going to plant some crowns this year so that next year we'll have a harvest of Asparagus.

Vegetable Garden thoughts...

Corn - I'm going to plant the same variety this year. But this time I'm going to plant more and I'm going to try my hand at pollinating. I think that was my main problem with the formation of the kernels last season. But oh the taste was wonderful!

Cucumbers - Less! We had cucumbers coming out our ears last year. I think this year I'm going with one hill of slicing cukes only. We aren't eating the pickles fast enough to bother again this year.

Broccoli - This was delicious. I'm going to try doing this from seed this year and see how it goes. If my seedlings don't look promising I can always buy some plants at planting time like I did last year. We want more broccoli this year too.

I'm going to do some planning on my outlook calendar and see if I can stay a little more organized and on task this year.

I'm concerned because my garden from last year has still not been turned under. My weekness is knowing what to do prep wise in the soil. It all seems so scientific. And I thought I loved science when I was in school?

I also did not keep up well with the weeds last year. Due to a couple of factors. Number one being that I was out of town for too long. I fear this may be a problem again this season. We are hoping to be able to make a trip to California this summer. But also because I hate being bit by bugs. I have found that if I go out at the hottest part of the day there are less bugs. But then I can't spend as much time without dying from the heat. I will have to continue to experiment with things I can live with to solve this problem. I also think I'm going to try putting newspaper down between rows etc this year and see if that works for me on weed control.

Naked Ladies!

Here are pictures of the blooming Naked Ladies. How fun. For those that don't know. These are plants that have foliage but no bloom in the spring. And then much later in the summer after the foliage has died back, these blooms shoot directly up from the ground.





These are too close to the edge of the flower bed. The dog keeps knocking them over. I'll have to read up on transplanting them further back. Here is one that broke off before it bloomed. We brought it in the house and put it in water. They bloom fine in water.

We had a fantastic vacation in AZ, CA and MS.

When I got home the garden was covered with weeds! And I have not been able to get caught up. Just too hot and too many mosquitos! I can hardly stand to be out there long enough to harvest.

I haven't done much reading to catch up, but I did notice some talking about tomatoes. I have quite a few greens now, but nothing has turned. But I did get a pretty late start on them.

I wasn't too pleased with my beans, I'll pick a different cultivar next year. Let's see... cucumbers!!! I have them coming out my ears! I've pickled some, made cucumber salad a time or two, made garden salads... Can't eat them fast enough. Our corn is to die for! SUPER Sweet! The best I've ever had. But some of the ears on fully developed. I don't know if we just picked some prematurely or if we needed better fertilizing or what. But I will definitely plant more of that corn next year!!! YUMMY!

We've just about eaten all our purple carrots, those were fun. We had them in pot roast and cooked in a roots package on the bbq too.

What else... Lettuce. I like the "year round" variety, but the romaine variety I picked is a little bitter. Probably needed more shade.

I had one super cute little melon on my melon plant, but we had a huge down pour and the next day I noticed it split opened :-( Hopefully more will be put on the vine.

I lost my zucchini plant while I was gone. I'm not sure what happened but it was deader than a doornail when I got home. I think it put off one fruit. I think maybe Rob let it stay on the vine too long. I'm not sure what happened there.

Anyway, we have had some fun and yummies and I've learned a lot. I'll be planting more of a lot of things. Especially Broccoli and Corn. I will also want to plant radish later so it will be ready with the lettuce. I'd also like to get my tomatoes in earlier next year.

Long time no post...

Well, I had a bout with depression and haven't been as active in the garden. And I have the weeds to show for it. But we have been harvesting a little bit...

We have harvested turnips. The first time I made a sweet dish that was pretty tasty. The second time, which was May 30th we had them in our mashed potatoes. They added a nice flavor to them. I made an effort to made some turnip greens, but ended up forgetting to turn down the temperature and burned them while arguing with a five year old! There will be one more harvest of those while we are gone and our neighbor will be getting them. They are up in years and enjoy turnips, but didn't plant a garden this year.

We enjoyed our broccoli, but that is pretty much over. Next year we will definitely plant at least twice as much broccoli. I took out the majority of the broccoli plants because they were starting to show some kind of mold and they were constantly getting infested with cabbage worms.

On May 30th we also harvested the first of our romaine and butter lettuces and some of the spinach. It was still a little early, but we had a very nice salad with them. I especially liked the butter variety. So far the spinach seems quite small.

Today Ashlee discovered our first zucchini! Yeah. But the time we return from our trip to Arizona and California I suspect we'll have it coming out our ears.

Today we planted more tomatoes and marigolds. Mostly we planted them where we took out the broccoli plants. We planted 2 Sweet 100 Tomato plants (Cherry), and 3 Roma Tomato plants. And several more Big Boy tomato plants. I can't remember exactly which are where right now, but most of them are marked in the garden.

We didn't end up planting our seedlings. They were just too spindly. Dad may try to plant some peppers while we are gone, but it is getting pretty late to do any planting now.

I have also started adding more and more to the compost pile. So we should have some really nice soil for next year.

Look for a major update after we return. Rob is supposed to keep the garden watered and cultivated while we are gone.

Today's Garden Happenings

Beautiful day today. But was at the school for a 2nd Grade Luau this morning. This afternoon I planted 4 more rows of corn. I also planted two sets of pumpkins. One at the end of Row 6, the other at the end of Row 9.

Harvested about two meals worth of broccoli this afternoon. There are small black bugs infesting several of my broccoli plants. There was also a green wormy caterpillar thing munching on one of the heads.

Cultivars Planted:
Sweet Corn - SugarPearl Hybrid - Burpee Select
Pumpkin - Small Sugar - American Seed

Plantings of Today

Worked just a bit in the garden today, mostly watering and inspecting. Harvested most of the rest of the radishes. About a third of them had split from over watering. One turnip was inter-mixed with the radishes. We cut it up and added it to our salad as well.

In the place of the radishes I planted 3 of the tomato plants that I bought. I think they are Big Boys. Around them I also planted some marigolds to help control some of the bugs. I planted marigolds in a few other strategic places as well.

Among the corn I planted some yellow squash. I picked out some spots that had not sprouted corn and put two seeds down. I planted three sets total. The first set is in the 6th row (1st row of corn) about 1/2 way down. The second set is in the 7th row just on the other side of the fourth corn seedling. The third set is in I believe the 9th row. It is about 1/2 way up the row as well.

Over near the cucumbers Aimee and I sprinkled some herbs just below the surface. There are three little patches. The first is Parsley, second Basil and last Cilantro.

Cultivars Planted today:
Squash, Early Prolific Straightneck, Summer Squash, Burpee
Parsley, Italian, Walmart Gardens
Basil, Genovese, American Seed
Cilantro, Coriander, American Seed

We ate broccoli!

Yesterday we had our first batch of Broccoli. YUM!!!

So here is a recap of the garden:

Row 1 - 9 Broccoli Plants
Row 2 - Mini Carrots, Turnip, Radish, Purple Carrots
Row 3 - Spinach, Romaine Lettuce, Bush Beans

Hills - (from house side) 1st, Slicing Cucumbers, 2nd and 3rd, Pickling Cucumbers

Row 4 - Year Round Lettuce, Zucchini, Melon Yellow Baby
Row 5 - Bush Beans, Cantaloupe

Rows 6-10 - Sweet Corn

Planted Melons

Well, two of the three zucchini plantings did not make it past the bug feast. So I replanted those two areas with melon seeds.

Row with Butter Lettuce I planted Yellow Water Melon.

Row with new beans I planted Cantaloupe.

Cultivars:
Cantaloupe - Hales Best Jumbo - Walmart Gardens (Popular Early Variety)
Melon - Melon Yellow Baby - Value Seeds

Corn has started to Sprout!

Went out to peek today after a day away having fun elsewhere and the corn has sprouted.

Some kind of bug or something has eaten two of my zucchini plants UGH!

And I think I may have seen a dear track! Oh boy it begins!