May 30th Progress

GardenBox 1

Bok Choy, Carrots, Radishes, Lettuce, Spinach, Onions, Lettuce, Beans

GardenBox 2
Potatoes, Green Onions, Peppers, Peas, Cucumbers

Flowers on peas - Very exciting for me.  They started to flower as soon as my moms came to visit :)

Peas climbing on the trellis from the back

OMG.  My pepper plants are growing peppers!  What's exciting to me is the first plant to start growing peppers is the Fresno pepper...my hometown!!!!

GardenBox 3
Tomatoes, a weed, Basil, Oregano, Rosemary
Add cages this week
I need one more square cage and they seem to be impossible to find :(

View of all three gardens.  My backyard is horrible as you can see...my garden area is my little oasis.  I keep it weeded and have grass clippings (Thanks Krista!) around the garden boxes to help alleviate weeds and so that I'm not walking in mud.  My father-in-law gave me some carpet scraps.  I may add them this weekend.

Father-in-law's garden

More of his garden

Woo Hoo!  My mom bought me another pot.  I'm not sure if I can wait until next year to plant it.  We will see what happens.  It's beautiful.

I needed a way to water my garden area where I planted seeds which have not germinated yet.  I've been watering with a cup which is more gentle than a hose.  The cup still lifts up the seeds and scatters them everywhere they shouldn't be. While shopping with my mom, we came across the hose nozzle that has 1,000 holes which makes the water  that comes out super soft and gentle.

I had to share this photo.  I was thinning out my carrots and pulled this little baby carrots out.  I'm going to add them to my salad tonight.  They actually look like carrots instead of small colorless roots.  So cute.

I finally planted my babies!!!! May 18-21st

I grew an eggplant for my father-in-law and so did his brother (real farmer)...well, here they are...which one do you think I grew?  No!!!  I grew the green one.  His brother hasn't seen my eggplant but swears his is better than anyone's....seriously?  LOL

GardenBox 1 - 8 Bok Choy, 32 Carrots, 16 radishes, 8 pole beans (will have 32), 9 Spinach (will have 27), 10 lettuce (will have 15), 10 spicy lettuce, several onions

GardenBox 2 - 2 Potatoes, several green onions, 8 Cucumbers (will have 16), 16 peas,  1 Eggplant,  8 Peppers (variety).  Today I finally planted my peppers and eggplant.

GardenBox 3 - 12 Tomatoes, 1 Basil, 1 Rosemary, 1 Oregano...and an empty square for my cilantro that I never grew.  My father-in-law has some growing in his garden and I will transplant some once they get a bit bigger.  I also planted my tomatoes.  The herbs were planted a week before.

My first harvest!!!!!  (May 20th)

Second harvest (May 21st)  Don't worry, I'm not going to show you each time I harvest.

Mother's Day - May 13

My favorite thing to do on Mother's Day is plant my annual plants.  This Mother's Day I had two new pots to plant in, an awesome Western Garden Book, and a new garden hose...Let's not forget my bouquet of flowers.  My family has me figured out.

Pot 1 - This is my awesome new pot for this year.  It is so heavy it's unbelievable.  My next update I'll have to take a better picture so you can see how pretty this pot is.

I usually buy so many annuals that you cannot see any dirt in any of my pots.  Then in a month or so, the pot has too much.  I'm trying to see what happens if I give the plants some room to grow.  I still planted them way closer than the tags say, but it's much better than I used to do.  I figured every couple of weeks I'll post updated pictures so I can so just how much each type of annual changes.

Pot 2

Pot 3 -  new pot my mom bought me last time she was visiting - the next picture I will have to not take from the top view   because the pot itself is pretty cool - The white/purple flowers reminds me of the house I grew up in.  I'm sure these were perennials there.  I remember these in our yard.  I never cared for them much but when I saw them in the nursery this year, I just had to have them.  

Pot 4 - I got this pot last year.  This was my husband's mother and step-father's pot.  I thought it was pretty neat to have.  I will do better taking pictures to include the pots so you can see them.

Pot 5 - This pot is old and plastic and is breaking.  I'm replacing this pot next year.

Pot 6 - this was my new pot last year.

Window Box 1 - my husband made me these nice window boxes for the front of the house.  I only bought different types of sweet potato vines and a couple petunias.  Each sweet potato plant was $5...I have two boxes...let's see, that's $50!!  I read only how to grow my own...it makes me sick how easy it is.  I will never buy these again.

Window Box 2 - Just wait...these suckers will get big!

I had two extra petunias from planting my window boxes...I'm doing an experiment.  I place a branch behind them to see if they will vine up the branch.  I heard they will climb.  I thought it could look pretty cool if it actually does it.

May 2-5 Update...You won't believe how it ends!!!

Herbs - May 2

May 2nd - Getting used to being outside...just about ready to plant!  :)  Yahoo!

Garden Box 1 - Bok Choy, Spinach, Lettuce, Onions, Carrots, Green Beans, Radishes

Garden Box 2 - Peas, Potatoes, Green Onions

Garden Box 3 - Haven't separated yet but some onions and chives came up from last year.

May 5 - Father-in-law on his way to pick out his plants.

Father-in-Law's community garden.  He's busy planting right now.

OMG!!!  We just had a horrible hail storm.  All my plants got quite a beating.  I'm so sad :(

Beat up Tomatillo

Blurry picture.  I'm using my cell phone in the dark so this is the best it gets.  You can see how dirty and sad my plants are right now.

You can see some hail and leaves in the container they were in.  I moved them all out so they can dry.  I haven't been able to see my garden yet.  I hope everything is okay.

Ass Kicking

My poor indoor plants are getting the shit beat out of them during this hardening off process.

Poor things!

While my pepper plants were outside, bugs decided to have a snack.

Sad leaves

Not sure they're enjoying the outside

Torn leaf

Mangled leaves

Garden 2 - April 30
Two squares on the left have potatoes.  Every time they pop through the dirt, you have to bury them again.  I've buried them more than five times now.
The square in the 2nd column in the front are my green onion.
The two squares in the back are my peas.  My peas need to grow on a trellis.

Garden 2 from a distance.  You can see the trellis my husband made.  I plan to hang the net soon.
My sister is a brat if anyone was wondering.

Close up of my peas 

Two of my peas didn't come up.  I think squirrels got to them.  The fastest way to get you plants up is to germinate them inside.  I'm soaking my peas in a cup for about an hour.

Then you roll in a wet newspaper and in three days, you have germinated seeds.
I was going to take a picture showing my sprouted seeds before I planted them but I didn't.

April 28th - Starting the Hardening off Process

I'm about to move my tomatillo from my 16 ounce solo cup to a Starbucks 24 ounce cup.  The tomatillos are growing pretty tall so I wanted to bury them a little bit deeper.

Look at those roots!  I have no idea if they look good or bad.  It looks good to me but someone who knows better might say it's root bound.

I put some dirt in the bottom of the cup in case the roots needed more room and I buried a little bit of the stem.  See the difference...yeah, I know, not much.  At least it's in a designer cup now instead of a party cup.  I like that I can see the roots.  I'm wondering if it's bad to have the roots exposed to light.
I wonder too much.

About 20 minutes in the sun, my plants start to wilt.  They are not enjoying moving out of their cozy environment into the outside world.