Week 6

The peach blossoms have fallen, revealing new peaches as spring launches forward. 

"If I have to cover my plants one more time, I'm gonna have a hissy fit!"

The mesclun mix has grown to maturity and can be cut as a nice addition to the main course for dinner. The potato plants are looking happy and growing rapidly. After the photo was taken, I added another inch of wheat straw around the potato plants. Wheat straw was also applied to all of the walkways which I will show in next week's post. The straw will help keep moisture in the garden and control "some" of the weeds. I want to use wood chips in the future as they are usually listed for free on craigslist and look beautiful. Wheat straw costs a few buckaroos which makes it a quick and affordable solution to a common problem. 

This long row of bush beans are quick growing and will provide beautiful supply of fresh green beans in only 2 months time. The plants are getting hungry and they are due for their fertilizer this coming week which will help out all of my new plants. I have no idea what to expect from my garden this year, but I can't help but to have high hopes for an abundance of veggies. My worst nightmare would be a rainy summer like last year and having to combat moisture which increases the risk of plant disease, fungus, and bugs. Keeping my fingers crossed as I am experiencing both feelings of excitement and nervousness. I keep asking myself, "What did I get myself into?"

Week 5

30 days of progress

3 bags of soil and compost to motivate me

For the first time, I can breathe. The garden is more than complete per my original plans. Here is what I have in my garden so far:

• Herb Garden: Chives, Garlic Chives, Lavender, Mint, Chamomile, Cilantro, Thyme, Basil, Oregano, Parsley.
• Lettuces: Romaine, Black Seeded Simpson, Sylvestra, Buttercrunch, Mesclun Mix

Romaine Lettuce

• Greens: Spinach, Kale, Broccoli
• Other: Cucumber, Summer Squash, Roma Tomatoes, Delicious Tomato, Orange Wellington Hybrid Tomato
• Legumes: Mellow Yellow Bush Beans, Bush Blue Lake Beans, and an improved Bush Blue Lake variety.
• Fruits: Strawberries (transplanted from other areas of the garden) and Peaches (thank you previous home owner!)

I made miniature green houses out of plastic containers and milk jugs for the tomato plants so I could sow them directly in the ground. If you put a stick through the container and into the ground, it won't disappear on you. I have noticed less squirrels lately and I'm not sure why, but I'm not complaining.

The potatoes are making a full recovery from the late frost and they have grown back with a vengeance. I have thinned out all of the sprouts from my early planting except for the onions. I'm waiting on bush bean plants, more peas, squash, cucumber, tomatoes, and a row of herbs listed above to start sprouting up from their raised beds.

The strawberry blossoms are fading away to reveal green fruit that will hopefully grow in size and ripen for the picking. The mesclun mix of salad greens are looking more beautiful with each day and getting closer to the dinner table. My wife and I have already picked out a yummy vinaigrette to put over the top of our salads.

Week 4

"She thinks my tractor's sexy!"

My son's tractor takes me back to when I was in grade school and Kenny Chesney sings "She thinks my tractor's sexy, it really turns her on." If I were to get on my son's tiny plastic tractor singing that song, the most it would do is scare the squirrels away....only temporarily.

This kale plant will hopefully grow to a delicious size so that I can bake up some kale chips or make a healthy smoothie, which my wife refuses to drink if it has the "green stuff" in it. I did not know what to expect when I planted kale and broccoli, but things seems to going well so far.

As nerdy as this sounds, I just love looking at all of the lettuces and the differences between them. They should be getting ready to eat soon. I recently read in "Starter Vegetable Gardens - 24 No-Fail Plans for Small Organic Gardens" that you can get around 3 to 4 trimmings out of each lettuce plant if you don't disturb the root system. 

This is the one and only, Ellouise, hottest chick in the south. She has a lot of fluff and it is going to be warm the summer. She is my girl, but don't tell my wife because she might be jealous that Ellouise gets special attention from time to time. What is this ginormous dandelion?? I have never seen such a thing. It was scary to look at and for some reason I was worried what would happen if I picked it. Is this some mutation or just a super-flower that died?