Garden Update

Growing up, my whole family grew awesome gardens.  I suppose the South Louisiana soil is perfect for such things.  Ever since I moved to Texas, I have been trying my hand at gardening, without a whole lot of success.   I will have good luck with one type of plant in particular during one season, and not be able to get it to grow a bit the next year.   This year hardly any of the seeds that I planted came up.  I am having better luck with some plants that I bought, however.

I still have my container garden in pots along my side fence (which I always plant in early spring and forget that the tree above them will grow its leaves back...so it's a little more shady than would be ideal.)

A month or so ago, I drove up into my driveway from somewhere one night and noticed the neighbors across the street were throwing away two wooden pallets.  I had seen several ideas for pallet gardens on pinterest, so I made my husband go grab them.

I laid them out in my backyard along my old garden plot.  He filled them up with soil before I was able to tell him that I wanted to line them with newspapers, however, so I am having some trouble with grass and ivy (someone had English Ivy growing on our back fence and we have been battling it for 7 years now!) growing up from underneath.

I grew the leeks and lettuces from bases of produce from our Bountiful Baskets.  The leeks are still doing ok, but I am currently battling roly polys.   They've killed a lettuce, a couple celery, and my bok choy.  I'm not happy.    I did some reading up on natural ways to keep insects away and garlic, onions, and hot peppers seemed to be the key.   I planted garlic all around throughout the pallet and today i mixed up a concoction and spread all around and watered it down good, so *crosses fingers*.


I did have one garden highlight this morning:

I've got a tomato peeking out!  And it looks like my basil seeds are finally sprouting (that was one plant that did WELL last year, so I'm excited about that).


Did you plant anything this year?

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Garden Update

This year is the first year I've ever planted a fall garden, and I must say I've been very impressed with it.   My summer gardens have never fared well in this Texas heat, so I figured that planting a fall one might be worth a shot.

So far, it is looking more beautiful than any summer garden of mine ever has!

And yes, you can see my weenie dogs play fighting in the front.

I've already harvested some lettuces and swiss chard to mix in a salad.

The top is a type of leaf lettuce (It's kind of bitter so I won't recommend it), and the bottom is Arugula, looking kind of sparse because I'd trimmed it the day before.

I actually am seeing some beans and peas growing finally!  I've always had issues with my produce growing big enough to harvest.  They seem to stall out so I'm holding my breath on these!

A few green beans, that appear larger in this picture than they actually are.

My first pea, and I've since noticed a few more!

I'm pretty excited about my huge pot of carrots!  I tried them once before in the ground here (do not recommend!) and they got about an inch long.    I have a friend from church who has a very nice container garden, and a husband with a very green thumb, and I saw pictures of her carrots last year, and also a picture on pinterest showing how they grew well in a deep pot, so I tried it, and I have to say, so far so good!

Carrots in front, the old ice chest in the back contains a winter squash.   I'm not going to get too excited about it because borer bugs have gotten to every single squash plant I have ever attempted growing, and I did find a larva wrapped in a dead leaf in there with it last week, so apparently getting them off of the ground doesn't help too much!

Now this one is the biggest and most beautiful plant I've got growing, only I have no idea what it is!   Well, that's not entirely true.   I have 4 ideas what it could be!   You see, I planted broccoli, cauliflower  and green and purple cabbage.    Two sprouted, two did not, and I cannot recall which order I potted them in.  So this is one of those 4, and I have another smaller one in a nearby pot that looks pretty much identical, so I guess I'm playing a waiting game!  Unless one of you has any guesses?

To the left of this one, you can see a rather large tomato plant.   I did not actually plant this tomato plant.  My summer garden contained tomatoes in that pot, and two sprung up from the soil uninvited.  I actually had to transplant my other smaller unknown vegetable when I realized that there where actually two types of plants growing in that pot.   Ii didn't think tomatoes did well in cooler weather, but hey...this is Texas!  We shall see what happens!

So there you have it!  That is the current state of my garden as of a few days ago  (I've been fighting with blogger to allow me to upload pictures for 3 days now, and I was finally able to figure out a way to get around my issue with the advice of some very nice bloggers!  *mwuah*).  As my summer garden this year was very disappointing, I am quite thrilled about the state of things!

I still need to learn about what to do when freezing strikes, because, this being Texas, that comes on without warning sometimes.   Thankfully the coldest its been has been around 36 so far, and nice mild temps are still showing up in the forecast, so I'm really hopeful for good results from this crop!

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Garden Update

I haven't really posted much about my garden this year, but I have attempted some container gardening in pots (our garden soil is not the best).

Here are my plants:

My pea plant was really struggling until I gave it something to climb.   Now if it would just bloom...

I've got a few tomatoes.

The one thing I've been able to harvest already has been a handful of okra.

I've even got a mystery plant growing strong in the compost pile.   I'm thinking its a cantaloupe.

I am having some issues with critters.   I had intended to kill this one that was munching away on my basil, but when you have a two year old yelling "No!  God made that!" it's kinda hard to follow through with it.

It was looking on the fat side, so we thought it might be about ready to begin its transformation, so we've got him in a bottle with some food and airholes and a stick to climb.   If he starts looking ill, I'll release him.   Don't worry, I was sure to ask my daughter what he needed, since they grew caterpillars and released butterflies in Kindergarten this past year.  ;)

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Herb Garden Update + Getting Started With Vegetables

I wanted to give you guys an update on how my herb garden is growing.

If you recall I planted two pots each of basil, thyme, oregano, and cilantro.

Some pots it is hard to tell from the picture, but at least something has sprouted in each one.

My next steps will be moving these sprouts into larger more permanent pot homes.

Don't forget about my giveaway for the Growing Culinary Herbs E-book.  It ends tonight and has VERY low entries, plus I have 10 copies to giveaway so your chances of winning are very good!

I have since planted seeds of several vegetables:  tomatoes, corn, okra, peas, green beans, cucumbers, some hot peppers for my husband, and some melons.   I'm waiting on those to sprout so that I can move them to bigger containers or put them in the ground.

I've already got some potatoes growing, as well as some pumpkin, green onion, and garlic that actually sprouted in my compost pile and I moved them to pots, and a rosemary that is still going strong from last year.

I'm very excited about my garden this year.  The only other thing that I'd like is bell peppers, and I think I will purchase some plants instead of starting those from seeds, just because I was out of seeds.  I may also buy some strawberry plants.

What are you growing this year?

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Garden Update

It has been a long time since I posted about my garden.  But, it is finally being productive. =)  I took these pictures a few days back, and I have since picked 3 whole green beans and a handful of peas (and weeded..lol), and there is about that same amount that should be ready to pick tomorrow.  Not a lot, I know, but it is fun, and my daughter loves watching the plants grow.   She can't wait until there are enough green beans to cook them.

My green beans.

Sugar peas.

Cantaloupe blooms.  No fruit yet, and praying the birds and squirrels don't eat them all this time around. Anyone have tips to stop that? 

Something already ate my poor broccoli. =(

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Garden Update

There has not been much change in the garden.  The peas plants (closest in the picture) have grown the most.  They are going to be vines, so I need to put up a trellis for them to climb.  I had some bean plants sprouting, but noticed this morning that it looked like the leaves had been eaten by a bug.  I hope it didnt not kill the whole plant. =(  Also, we've had a little bit of cooler weather and rain.  I know the rain is good for them, but I hope the lower temperatures don't hurt them.

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The Garden that Almost Wasn't

The sun was shining.  The baby was sleeping.  My daughter and I went out into the back yard.  We gathered all of our tools.  I dug some holes for our pea plants.  I showed her which ones they were, and she picked them up gently and placed them in the holes.  After we had put all of the peas out, I went back over them, gently covering them with soil.  First, an ugly brown spider jumped out at me.  I went to grab my shoe but couldn't find it when I returned.  I made my way down the first row of peas.  When I came to the one on the end, I moved a bit of dirt and some movement under it startled me.  Under that clump of dirt that I had just moved with my bare hands, and I had just sent my 3 year old to put a pea plant in, was a small snake.  It poked its little head up out of the ground and looked at me as if to say, hey I was sleeping, and then it tried to burrow back under the dirt. 

I was excited at first.  Well, its not everyday my little city child gets to view wildlife close up.  So I called her over to see it, and gently dug it back out with a stick.  It wiggled and squirmed, and looked annoyed but not very menacing.  Then my mommy brain kicked in.  What kind of snake is this?  I had no clue.  It was small, not even a foot long, pencil thin, and brownish grey.  What it poisonous?  Where there more?  I mean, this was a pretty small snake.  What it if had just hatched?  What if there was a whole nest of poisonous baby snakes in my garden.  Yes, that very same garden that I am standing in at this very moment wearing no shoes! 

I took a breath.  I made Bethany go back in the grass.  I called my grandpa.  I thought surely he would know what kind it was, but sadly he did not.  His advice was to dispose of the little critter, just to be safe. 

After all of that excitement, I was a bit nervous about continuing with my planting.  I did work up the courage to carry on.  My daughter decided against helping me anymore, though.  Things probably went quicker that way, and quick is good when there might be more snakes, I figured.  In the end, I got all of the ones that had sprouted into the ground.  There are a few stragglers that I am still hoping will grow, so I left some empty spots for them.  Here's what it looked like after I watered it this morning.  Nothing too exciting.  My sprouts are barely visible.  I'll try to take weekly pictures so you can watch it grow with me =).

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My plan for tomorrow

My seeds have sprouted (most of them anyway).  My garden rows are made.  My coupons are clipped and organized (yes, on Sunday!  woohoo!)  New grocery ads won't come until Tuesday.  So, what will I do with my Monday?  My plan is to transplant my sprouts to my garden.  I'll let you guys see the finished product, and then we will hope for the best.  I've not had much luck with my garden in the past, but I'm trying some new plants this time.  Hopefully they will work out.  If not, at least my daughter had fun planting them.  She loves to help pick stuff too. =)

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Sprouts =)

Ok, so I had a cute little picture to post, but it is refusing to upload this morning. =(  Oh, well.  This one wasn't very impressive.  Just a few little plant sprouts.  It has been so windy here that the lid keeps blowing off of the planter, no matter what I weigh it down with, and the markers have blown away too.  So, I pretty much have no idea what is planted in the rows.  I guess it will be a surprise. =)

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Gardening on a Gorgeous Day

I hear a lot of people talk about having their own garden as a way to save money.  I will be the first person to tell you that my garden probably does not save me any money.  Why, you may ask?  Well, we have awful soil.  Here and there we've added bagged soil and compost to it, and even rented a tiller once, but underneath it's just too rocky. 

Now, I told myself that I just wasn't going to mess with it this year because we didnt really have much money to put into it.  I was sad about that choice though because it is such a fun thing to do, and my daughter enjoys it too.  Then, one day I went to look for something in the back shed, and I found some seeds that I thought I had used up last year.  Lot's of them, too.  So I began busting up my little garden plot and getting some weeds out of it.  Today, my daughter and I planted some seeds in one of those seed starter trays.  I know I got a kinda late start, but with this crazy weather and two weeks ago we had 6 inches of snow.  When they sprout my husband is going to get some rows fixed up for us to plant them in.  I'm going to plant some herbs and spinach in a long window planter.  I hope those do well.  It would be so nice to be able to go out and pick a salad. =)  Here is a picture of my little garden helper.

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