absentee gardener

Since I broke my big toe 3 weeks ago, this is my first trip to the garden since things started growing. Heavy dew and mist each morning and 70's each afternoon. It should be growing a bit faster, but at least it's growing.


Waiting on blackberries, next week we'll be canning syrup and jelly



pumpkins are doing really well for now but I've yet to have a carvable pumpkin


I was in such a hurry to plant this year I forgot to label anything. It's a pepper of some sort


First year for onions and they are doing very well. Hubby hits the garden before dinner every night for a couple onions and a hot pepper


The carrots are on the small side but since I'm not canning carrots this year there's no hurry


I dumped a package of seeds on the ground and they grew, go figure :)


My corn is once again doing crap...


My beans are doing ok, even the 4 rows that I planted that hubby plowed up again! Those rows aren't rows anymore but I wasn't planning on weeding anyway


Something is eating all my cabbage. I can take care of that ;)


Tomatoes are (as always) doing very well


Hot peppers that are going to be salsa this year


This is a radish, an icicle radish . Sdad wanted it but it's too spicy for me

They grow much larger than the red radishes.


4 rows of beets and can't wait to can these!

rainy days and mondays...

We have yet to reach 70 this year. I wish...

that my grapes where doing better. All this cold has stunted and molded them already.


that my peas liked the rain as much as they like cool weather.


that my radishes grew well under water.


that I could tell which seeds had been eaten by the now deceased field mice


that my tomato plants where doing as well as my zucchini :P


that my pepper plants weren't so fragile


that my strawberry plants hadn't decided to bloom before the bees came out.


that I could have enjoyed my beautiful roses instead of rotting in bud form


that my stupid weeds would stop doing what I need my garden to do.

may days in the garden

Rather than do the hanging tomatoes this year I used the old swingset with some extra field fencing to create a pea fence. They're in the ground but we'll need warmer days to see them. In the center is old boards lying around for weed control.


I'm very pleased with the pickling cucs. They are doing the best in the green house right now. I've found a few pots that aren't coming up so I'm assuming that the rodents ate the seed and I'll replant...since I'm sure that won't happen again :)


D-con's getting quite a few hits :) Less rodents around to chew up my seeds.


This one pisses me off. I've hired people in the past to eradicate these rotten mole bastards. At 35 dollars a carcass x 6 I thought it would be cheaper to get a couple traps and have hubby go play great white hunter. Nope. Traps have been in the ground for a month without a single hit. Then I wake up to this one morning. Yes...good kitty. Count for this year...Cat 1/ hubby 0. Now the race is on to get the other one :)

we're getting there!

I can't find the label for this tray but who cares? They're growing!!!


Except not this tray. The stupid rodents climbed under the plastic, dug up some babies and ate the seed. Then they just tossed the poor plant aside like it was nothing! Stupid rodents...


Since everything was coming up I took off the plastic and set up the grow lights. As an added bonus I dotted 8 boxes of de-con in between the trays. Stupid rodents...

and off we go

I took all the kids to the expo for earth day and was pleasantly surprised at how reasonable the prices were this year. I replaced my deceased rhubarb with healthy plants for less than I paid for just the roots last year.


It feels like it should be warmer, but this is our warmest day so far this year so it's time to get busy


A lot of multi-tasking. First gather all the fir branches that blew down this winter and anything else that can't be tilled into the garden


and then it's off to the green house. My grapes are off to a good start :) Since I use the green house to store all the pool stuff in the winter first we empty it out..


me personally? I'm not going in there. It's covered in wasps. Lucky for me my sdad didn't mind (til he got stung)



Yes, I have a great green house that I have never used for my starts. Well, I have put the seeds in there and every year the rodents decimate my pots. I'm going to try again, but this is my last year. If they get through the screen then I give up. There's not enough cats, de-con, or Coumadin to take care of all the field mice in our area.


of course, the younger the kid the shorter the attention span :)


green house all cleaned out again, tables re-leveled and we are ready!


we reused all the pots from previous years and last years berry halics lined with coffee filters. We have 60 tomatoes started, a combination of Early girls, Beef steak, and Romas for canning. We have 25 cauliflowers, 40 pickling cucs, 10 each acorn squash, zucchini, broccoli, and green peppers.

random shots of a February Spring

strawberry plants

azaleas

moles are active

rain and mud

magnolia tree trying to bloom

daffodils ready to pop

and the crowning glory...cherry blossoms :)

that time of year :)

I went to my local nursery to start seed shopping and the owner shared that there was a shortage of corn and beans this year. He didn't expect another shipment of either this year. Just an FYI. Start seed shopping early.

After spending 40 dollars for 20 packets my daughter shared that she bought hers at the dollar store for 4/1.00 and grew a huge garden every year. hmm. Yes I want heirlooms but I also want a lot of veggies for canning this year. I only spent 10.00 at the dollar store and got another 40 packets, including 10 packets of flowers...just because :) At .25 cents a package I can have a pretty garden too!

Next step is to hunt down that site that had the step by step directions making seed pots using newspaper and start my tomatoes, peppers cauliflower and broccoli.

Another change this year is putting in a spice and herb garden. I've been told that it should be in a different spot because they can take over. After dealing with the mint fiasco I will be very careful :)

there goes the starting gun

Right after the first of the year I started receiving my seed magazines and have now picked my winner :) Abundant Life, out of Oregon. The seeds are usda certified organic and most of the seeds are heirlooms. Again :) I will be trying to seed save at the end of this growing year. I didn't have very good luck last year. My seed molded instead of drying. I even lost my sunflowers to mold.

New list for this year's planting.
We planted 1 row of beets. This year we will plant 3 rows and then 3 weeks later 3 more rows. We hope to have more for eating and then plenty to can.
We planted 3 rows of cucs and got about 4 cucumbers. We'll move the cucs to another spot and plant double.
No melons this year but still plenty of zucchini
I'm not sure about trying any corn this year
50 tomato plants was a bit much, considering that I didn't even like some of the types planted. No brandywines or any other wrinkly types. They're too much of a pain to peel. I really didn't like the yellow or orange ones either. Just the canning reds and some romas. Maybe around 30 plants and a few cherrys.
I plan on having a much larger potato crop now that I know how they grow. It might be obvious to others but I had no idea that potatoes grew the first layer below ground and then you needed to add dirt because they following layers came out above, not below.
to be continued...

sudden realization

This may seem to be an odd picture for a gardening blog but, get this, these are the first nails that I have been able to keep since I put my first seeds in the ground last May. No one tells you about the little annoyances about gardening. It had been so long since I had nails that I didn't even realize they were back until I broke one :) I'll enjoy them until they're gone again in the spring.

death for this year

My garden is done for the year. My very first garden.

We had our first freeze last night and that finished it off. We have removed all the cages and endless yards of hose and row markers to be reused next year.

I had thought that my zucchini would do ok for another couple weeks but the frost did it in.


I started my tomatoes in February inside the house
Now all I have to show for it is empty cages and

dead plants. My hanging tomatoes did poorly this year anyway so I'm not going to plant any next year.
We are ready to plow it all up for the year. I have quite a bit of chicken poop shavings to go in plus the dead plants will be plowed back in. The only thing I'm putting in for a winter garden is garlic. We can quite a bit with it plus Ds loves to cook with it. I have an old trampoline screen that I plan on using as a winter cover. The black screen should be great for heat and maybe cut down on the weeds. Yes I should add more to enrich the soil...but why? I got my produce and never had to weed once! We're good with that :)

What I learned this year;

• plowing sucks
• the plants are not that fragile
• unless you don't water during a heatwave
• spending hours choosing specialty seeds is a waste of time
• chose seeds that reflect what you want to eat and can
• planting a garden is as easy as putting a seed in the ground
• expecting to have that seed produce a great crop takes a lot of research
• a garden saves a great deal of money
• a garden takes a great deal of time
• and most important...the people who ask you for produce are never the people who help with the garden.

A very special thank you to my stepdad. He taught me how to do this. He came out every day to water and gave me the push to actually follow through. I would have quit in July if I wasn't embarrassed to have an 80 year old show me up. So, thank you sdad. You taught me something that I will be able to use for the rst of my life and if any of my children or grandchildren ever want to get off their butt I will pass that skill on.