04/22/2011

I have been super busy lately so I haven't had much time to post anything.  I am leaving for a week so I wanted to just share a couple of photos of the garden.  These photos are about a week old, so my seedlings are a bit bigger now but I didn't have time to update the photos.  When I get back in about a week I will post new photos.  That will be at the beginning of May so my seedlings are getting close to being planted outside.  I have already started hardening them off so they are pretty tough and will hopefully survive the transition from pot to ground.

First a couple of pictures of my seedlings, all of them are doing really well so far!

Fairy tale eggplant

Jalapeno

Second try at Okra, these are much more healthy than the first ones I planted.

This week I also prepared all of my garden plots.  My plot with all of my salad greens and peas are planted and have started growing.  This morning I checked the peas and I can see them poking through a bit.  My North garden with my containers was weeded and I even dug up some grass in preparation for sunflowers.  

In this plot I have onions and garlic growing.  I have placed old milk cartons and soda bottles in the area where I am planting my beans so that the soil is nice and warm for the little seeds to germinate.  

Plants from the nursery......

I replaced my Rosemary which did not make it through the winter

Strawberries...you can see my pumpkin patch in the background.

I also made to hanging containers.  It has purple pansies and a Hosta in the middle.  Buying already made containers can be pretty pricey but making my own only cost me about $4 each.

My magnolia is in full bloom right now....If only it bloomed year around!

This year the focus will be on the backyard.  I need to landscape it so it looks nice but the plants have to be strong enough to survive my huge German Shepherd so this should be interesting!

I noticed today that my tulips are starting to bloom, hopefully when I get back everything will be in full bloom!

week 6 (04/07/2011)

 

This week has been filled with crazy weather, from 70 degree weather to snow storms!  My Magnolia is starting to bloom and it smells extremely sweet.  This plant is by far my favorite in the garden thus far.  The tulips still have not bloomed but they are getting close!  I can't wait till everything is sunny and warm.  

The raspberries look very healthy and they are sprouting up everywhere.  It kills me to pull up a healthy raspberry plant but I can't have them taking over the yard.  Hopefully I will have a lot of berries this summer.  So far I have four plants and all of them look promising.

I know I just barely posted a picture of my garlic but it looks so good I just had to post another picture.  All of the garlic that I planted is doing great except for the three or four my doggy crushed.  I was so worried last year because I planted them right before thanksgiving and we had a warm spell.  Most of the garlic sprouted right before winter really got started.  This mishap didn't seem to bother the garlic at all and it looks like the harvest is going to be a lot more successful than last years.

All of my pepper sprouts have come up and are doing very well.

This is my second try at okra, hopefully it is more successful than the last.

Here is a picture of some of my tomato seedlings.  These are Roma tomatoes.  I just planted a bunch of them in a container, every other day or so I will make sure they aren't crowded and maybe pull a couple of the seedlings out.  I hope this strategy works out, so far it has but the seedlings are still pretty young.

This week I planted......

ONIONS

CORN

.....and potatoes.  I have never planted potatoes but I'm excited about the process.  Because you have to use a technique called 'hilling'  while growing your potatoes I planted them in deep holes.  The potatoes are covered with about three inches of soil.  As the potatoes grow I will fill the hole with more dirt until a little hill is in the place of the holes.  You have to do this because as the potatoes grow on the stem of the plant, you want to keep them covered.  If a potato is exposed to light it will turn green, If you eat a green potato it will hurt your stomach.  In this picture you can also see my bamboo teepees I constructed for my beans.  The beans are not in the ground yet because I wanted to wait until it gets a bit warmer.  Hopefully we wont have any more huge snowstorms!