Playing in the Rain

May 28, 2009 at 12:30 pm (Vegetables, Weekly Project)

It was hot as balls yesterday. The humidity mainly was killer. So there was no way I was getting out there to plant the little garden plot in that.

Then the rains came. No thunder, no lightning… just steady cool rains. And I thought, “Well hell….. probably the best time to plant is in the rain right?” So we got out in the rain and planted 30 tomato plants and 9 cucumbers. And changed a few cucumbers around in the remaining baskets. By the time we were done we were extremely dirty and dripping wet. But it was fun! And the plants didn’t wilt at all. They look GREAT!

From may09

So we’ll see how they do now. I bought my fungicide yesterday ($17.00 frikken dollars!) and a soaker hose. My Sea Magic should be in any day now. I’m expecting these things to make like crazy with as much money as we’ve put into them. (Not to mention the time and energy!) *Fingers crossed*

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Wow has it been a month ALREADY?

May 26, 2009 at 2:01 pm (Gardening Tips, Vegetables)
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Holy Crap it’s been over a month already! I can’t believe it. Time has just been zooming by. So…. this post may be a little long but that’s ok, no one is reading it but me. hehe.

SO, first off…. the reason why I haven’t been on here posting. Other than the normal routine of life, work, being sick with chronic bronchitis AGAIN and the normal… here is WHY I’ve been busy:

We had 4 at first…. then someone dropped a little black one off where I work. That made 5. Then we found another stray kitten, which made 6. But the same day we adopted out the single female (the white one in the top left pic). We had to bottle feed them all for weeks and teach them to potty and clean. Now they are eating good and taking care of themselves. We can’t keep them though but haven’t been able to find homes for them. Anyone need a kitty???

Now on to the gardening!!

I had no earthly idea that EVERY SINGLE tomato seed I planted was going to live. Did I mention before that I planted a LOT of them? LOL! I have tomato plants everywhere still. And that’s after I’ve given dozens away to about half a dozen people. So… here’s what things look like now. (Still most in containers which I realize are too small. I have 5 gallon buckets on the way as we speak to move into.)

From may09

Some of the bigger tomato plants on the picnic table.


Tomatoes!!!!


Peppers!!!!!


Pepper plants being eaten. I never knew slugs were such a HUGE problem! DAMN SLUGS!


Squash and zucchini!


Scrawberries! I mean strawberries!


Pots still sitting everywhere. The onions are about grown out.

Now onto the garden. Remember the dog pen that was the current project? Well it got done! Jesus was it a job. Here’s how it looks now:

Squash and potatoes


Cucumbers, cantalope, watermelon


More tomatoes and cucumbers


And the new tilled plot because we need to plant more of the tomato bushes in the ground! HAHAHA!

Oh and a few more things……

Eggplant and blueberry bush


Blueberry bush #2 and my lavender


MMMMmmm sage! With some onions in the pot that need to come out.

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Yay Onions! Booo….Frost

April 12, 2009 at 11:48 am (General Mumbo-Jumbo)
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Well, the frost that came through did a little damage. I lost the okra (*again*), a few cucumbers, a few watermelon plants and some tomatoes. All of my super sweet 100 tomatoes died! BOO!!! So now either I am going to have to get some more seed started or just buy a few plants from the store. Not sure which yet.

I still haven’t gotten the tiller and got to work with that. This is the project for this week! I hope I can get it started….. I can be such a lazy ass.

So we’re fixing a turkey for Easter and making squash and potato salad. It felt SO SO good to be able to go outside and harvest some green onion to chop into the squash. And it tastes so good…… we munched on some onion tops while we were cutting. Heh.

See them in the top basket hanging off the rack???

From 2009garden

I know I haven’t posted much…. mainly because at this point in the game I’m really waiting for my seedlings to get stronger. My Roma tomatoes are almost at the point where I think they can be separated and thinned. I really wanted to wait until the stalks were a little stronger on everything so I wouldn’t damage them when I moved them around.

As soon as I start working again with them the posts are going to keep coming! Yay for things that stayed alive!

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Cucumbers & Garden Security

April 8, 2009 at 11:54 am (General Mumbo-Jumbo, Vegetables)
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Firstly… what is up with the weather?! I thought spring was here to stay but this cold snap had us down below freezing last night. Can I just say that I am going to be pissy as hell if my plants don’t make it.

Luckily I have wonderful family members who headed out yesterday whilst I was at work and covered all my hanging baskets and racks with plastic. They even wrapped them over with baby blankets and old shirts to help keep the heat in. Awww! The squash, tomatoes and cucumbers in pots came in and were put in the washroom. They look ok, but I know it can take a few days to see for sure.

My cucumbers were just getting their second leaves and looking good too! Man oh man I hope they’re ok.

From 2009garden
From 2009garden
From 2009garden

In other news…. the word on the street is that my garden-security-enforcer team is sleeping on the job. I didn’t quite believe it at first… but after sneaking outside with the camera I came across this incriminating evidence:

From 2009garden
From 2009garden

Not to worry. We had an in-depth conversation about slacking off while on the clock and they assured me it won’t happen again. I’ll be keeping an eye on them…..

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Dirt under the nails!

April 5, 2009 at 2:53 pm (Vegetables)
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Ok, so today was the first day I could get back into the yard. I was up early (for me it’s a miracle) at 8:30 and put my little okra plants into a pot.  I had to buy 2 from the store b/c my okra seeds didn’t make it. The one big disaster I’ve had so far in ‘seeding’ was a flat that apparently had too much water in it and I didn’t drain it out enough. Oopsie! In it were my okra, cantaloupe, chinese giant peppers and my rainbow pepper mix. So got to do the last 3 over again.

From 2009garden

Also attempted to seperate some roma tomatoes and put into peat pots as singles so they can get bigger. I’m not sure if they’re going to do well. The stems are still very fragile and well… they sort of just fell over when I attempted to water them. Heh. I didn’t mess with all of them though, just enough to make one flat so if they die I will still have plenty more. Yay! Here’s my pots before thinning (I only thinned a few in the long basket….)
From 2009garden

There’s really nothing else I can do at the moment. Until we get the tiller from my friend and get the ground tilled up…. it’s just a waiting game for things to grow a bit more and gain some stronger stalks. On the bright side, my pepper plants have a few baby peppers growing AND my strawberries are doing GREAT! So far so good!

From 2009garden

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I’m addicted to seeds!

April 2, 2009 at 6:00 pm (General Mumbo-Jumbo)
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Ok, so I’m spending way too much time gazing at packets of seeds wherever I go. But there’s something about wrapping your grubby dirt-clogged fingers around those little packets of wonder with the brightly colored pictures of flowers and vegetables. You just can’t help getting excited about buying them. Here’s a few things that I’ve already planted and have seedlings from now.

From 2009garden

I’m pretty sure that I’ve fallen into the same trap as most unexperienced gardeners. I have bought way too many packs of way too many things. It’s ok. I figure it increases the chances of something actually living. And there’s always friends to give seedlings away to or plant swaps to trade at.

So I’m not worried. Until 90% of the seeds germinate and I have to figure out what to do with them all. With that in mind…. I have a LOT of pots (most of my gardening will be in containers as we don’t have a lot of ground room to use). The one spot where I am wanting to have an in-ground garden is the old dog pen.

From 2009garden
From 2009garden

As you can see there’s a LOT of work that needs to be done. Our black lab Cory passed away last year after having a long life, so we have this area already fenced in that I can plant some veggies in. I’m figuring it would be a good spot for things like watermelon, cantaloupe, okra, squash and some sunflowers.

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Hello world!

April 2, 2009 at 5:05 pm (General Mumbo-Jumbo)
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And so it begins! The 2009 Gardening season. This is my FIRST real attempt at gardening seriously and my first time trying to start anything from seeds.

Yes, like most people, I’ve bought plants from stores in the past and planted them with mixed results. Most have died, either from a lack of watering (oopsie!) or because I just didn’t know how to take care of them.

At the moment, the only plants that I’ve gotten to live from last summer is a clump of lavendar and rosemary. How they survived I haven’t a clue. Perhaps they are of the stubborn variety (which is definitely suited to my gardening abilities!).

So this year I’ve decided to really buckle down and give it a go.

I even have a seed rack (for keeping my seeds trying to germinate)
From 2009garden

and an outdoor rack for hardening off and watering.

From 2009garden

I hope to hear from others who are more experienced or even just starting out as well. Maybe we can share tips and ideas or just share encouragement to motivate us to get out there and keep it going!

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