Do you take this garden? I DO!

So to put it mildly, gardening is like a marriage, in sickness and in health till death do us part. I am not feeling too well this week BUT the 2 hours of hard work I put into my garden today felt good...and I am hoping I got a little sun on my pasty self too.


I finally prepped the tomato "run" that is what I am gonna call it..that or tomato alley. It was a rambling mass of weeds and grass (what little we have seemed to congregate right where I wanted to plant my 'maters.





Here is a nice before shot (to the right) and hey gimme a break "they" did say throw "everything on the lasagna compost pile...so lawn chairs and rogue garden tools apply right? Actually my loving husband was mowing the lawn and this is all the stuff he found int he grass....I know I know...


To the left is the finished product of today's endeavour and most of my tomatoes are planted too. Yay me... well My husband helped out a lot and my oldest pretended to help and my youngest tried to kill all the plants..but fun was had by all. Then as if if by divine intervention, it rained:) Dear God, My water bill thanks you. Honestly though the Lord could not have blessed us with a more perfect Easter Sunday;)


So the run down, 2 San Marzano tomato plants, 2 Romas, 3 Brandywine, 4 Mortgage Lifters, 2 Rutger tomatoes, 2 cherries, and 2 grapes. I also planted my burpless cucumber near the trellis. We prepped the bean area and I should be planting 3 types of pole beans tomorrow, mostly green beans and the rest are dry beans. By next weekend a whole bunch of everything is due to go in the dirt so Bed one will be chock full of goodness and succession planting in bed 2/3 will start as well. Bed 4 will keep on cooking I-talian style...(lame I know....lasagna ~ Italian..)



Thanks again to my wonderful other half, I now have grass in my compost bin, now I need a pitch fork REALLY badly...so I am gonna have to break down and get one, perhaps I should not leave it in the grass/weeds.... I am so bad. I will say I did pick up all my tools and put them in the shed today, next week maybe I will wash them off first. Baby steps.


I have decided to grow my corn after all, despite the distinct possibility that I will merely be feeding stinkbugs...boo. So i think I will see if I can get any growth in bed 4 (the I-talian bed) since it is pretty well mounded already and we'll grow squash around the base and beans as well. I am planting pumpkins over by the sunflowers. So these are the last two bed areas to work this year. I am super excited to report that I did make a "soapicidal" spray with fels naptha soap to hopefully thwart whatever evil beasty is gnawing on my leafy greens..bad bug bad. Next week will warrant a trip to the common market for some essential mint oils, for the stinkbugs.


The soap spray was easy to make, I shaved of a couple good size slivers of fels naptha which I already have on hand because I make my own laundry detergent (withhold your awe...really...LOL...now ask me how far behind on laundry I am )...back to the soap, put those slivers in a spray bottle with some hot water and let it dissolve a bit then fill the bottle up with cool water and commence spraying. We will see if it really works. (insert evil maniacal laugh)


Here is pic of some of my peas and my cuke I planted today. he is the little guy to the left of the nearest pea plant on the trellis. Don't be cruel, every one thinks their baby is the cutest...my garden is the bomb (well it look like it was bombed...) Ah well, we all go through our awkward teenage years..that is just merely where my garden is at the moment, she will be gorgeous in a another week or so, I can feel it.











Happy growing:)

Photo Update!!

Finally got out in the yard with my camera today...it was really freaking cold out considering earlier this week it was 80 degrees. Here are some shots I took of the daily "rounds" ...

No garden is complete without a mystery. My youngest son plucked a seedling weeks ago that I managed to save but I "Guessed" it was Kale (the larger of the two plants). Clearly it is not the same thing as my other known Kale seedling near by....sigh.







Bok Choi and Mustard (purple) and onions of course. Not great pictures, much prettier in real life.











All Hail the Mighty Stinky Marigold, protector of the garden, may you ward off the mean buggies that want to eat my veggies.





Lettuce, black seeded simpson and an asian mix....all loose leaf.

Peas Please. All of my peas are up save one. I am noticing some slight white streaking on some of the leaves on a few of the plants and hoping it is not something dreadful. They are progressing nicely.

Prolific is a great word to describe what is going on in my flower bed/ kitchen garden. The dill and cilantro switched places, probably a simple fact of where they dropped their seed, but they are back in force and many many recipes are glad for their return.

Really cute kid, grown organically with no pesticides (BELIEVE ME)

Interloper: uninvited guest of the Ipomoea Violacea variety... aka...pervasive freaking morning glories from H.E. double hockey sticks... I actually think there are more in the yard now than actual grass....

Heathen slugs....eat while you can, I got your number....I know where you live. Already chomping my cabbage.. I am starting to think cabbage does not have a prayer around here.

April Showers bring Lettuce and Spinach?

Amazing few weeks here to update on. Let's begin with the arrival of my berries from Burpee. It was quite a learning experience. For once I actually read the instructions and for the most part complied. Alas I did not spend weeks prepping the soil...I actually spend about a day and a half arguing with myself about where to plant them in the front yard, that and turning the soil pretty much sums up my prep. I will say the soil up front is very dark and full of HUGE worms. That is a good sign:) I planted two blueberry plants (I can not recall what kind of the top of my head but will update that. There are 2 kinds, this much I know), 1 raspberry plant and around 30 Evie - 2 strawberry plants. These I planted in the front yard which we will call from this point forward my orchard;)

The "farm" is doing well. I have a ton of stuff in the ground right now and I am sure I can not remember it all so here is a brief run down. Bok choi doing well ready to be thinned again, mustard is rocking, Spinach is really doing well, and I will plant a second crop this week. cabbage is already under assault :( I fear it is slugs..so I am putting my slug bait out this week as well...best to lay down the law early. Lettuce is coming along it didn't look so hot after I transplanted but is looking better now. I have about six broccoli seedling that are coming along, about six garlic bulbs and more onions than any girls should ever want or need. All but 1 pea is out and getting ready to climb the tee pee legs. My perennials are popping up and hopefully will thrive and I planted about 2 dozen marigolds around the perimeter of beds 2 and 3. (pictures coming later today:)

The flower bed is showing progress. The dill and cilantro are prolific it seems...I will have to cull a lot of it out. I keep getting excited that something new is popping out then I realize it is dill or cilantro...grrr. I DID identify thyme the other day and I planted my basil seedlings but I am just not sure they are doing anything FRUSTRATING. There seems to be a marigold that seeded from last year... and some other mysterious things probably weeds popping out but one can dream. For instance I spent two weeks giddy about possible black eyed susan seedling popping out and it turned out to be clover...humph.

Which leads me to my window which you would think is getting less and less crowded...yeah right. No small thanks to the concept of breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is a seedling growing technique I learned last year (where else but on the INTERnet) Essentially you grow a baby seedling (breakfast) you move him (or her to be fair) to a midsized container and when he/she gets leggy again you move them to a bigger container or outside. This is really helpful for tomatoes and late spring/ summer plants that you wanna get a head start on. This morning most of my tomatoes and a few peppers moved up to lunch:) I ran out of midsized containers or they all would have made the move.

Bed 4 is lasagna composting away, I added straw but my husband mulched the grass this week. I NEED the grass. It will wait I am sure. I did add straw to the pile. I paid 5 for the cail so not so cheap but it goes a long way.

My homework for next post entry is to look up natural spray protection against uninvited garden party crashers, to prep and plant the tomato bed, plant my mid to late spring seeds, BEANS and what not AND to EAT THE FIRST FOOD from my garden;)


Happy Growing