Garden Update +
 

Here's some update pix of my garden. It's completely planted now!

1. Tomato end of the garden

2. Tomatoes, squash (right front), eggplant (just above and to the left of the squash), peppers (middle left of pic)

3. strawberry end of the garden. To the right of the strawberries is dill, rosemary, oregano, basil, cilantro, bay leaves, and sage

4. tomato

some more......

1. squash in front, eggplant in back

2. pepper with a bloom ready to pop out, look just below the top leaves to the right of the stem (sorry it's kinda blurry)

3. tomatoes

4. peppers (I've got jalapeno, bell, hot cherry, sweet banana, mild peperocini

This is the + from the title

1. dark green bush to the left of the tree - see bird feeder hanging to right of tree trunk

2. sparrows hiding in that dark green bush - which is really medium green, waiting for me to go back into the house so they can get seed from the feeder

3. The large mean looking bird at the top of the pic is a mean old grackle. Did you see the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds"? If so, this is the kind of bird they used in the movie. They are really mean and I don't like them. They are too big to get on my feeder, but they eat what drops on the ground below.

4. Another little sparrow waiting for me to go in the house.

We usually have some cardinals and robins, but of course, not this morning when I have the camera out.

Your garden is really growing and doing great!!! I bet that you're excited for when you can actually start harvesting it! I used to plant radishes, not because I liked them, but because the grow quickly and you feel a great sense of accomplishment. It looks great!!! Nice pictures of the birdfeeder and birds too. It's so fun to watch the birds. We have ours right outside of our living room windows.

LOL! Diana - you planted radishes because you liked the way they grow! I don't like radishes either!

Everything looks great! I know you are glad to have it done. I could plant my whole backyard in watermelons and be a happy woman, lol!!

LOL!!! We have a friend who has a watermelon truck garden!!! :eek: We have so many watermelons we have to give some away!!! The problem is that they pretty much all come in at about the same time - we have to do a lot of eating!!! :D

That does it!!! I'm spending the summer with you:p

Come on over!!!!! :D But you might want to stop before you get here - our friend lives in Luling! That's where all the watermelons are! LOL!!!

I love watermelon but our soil isn't sandy enough to grow good ones. We have a small town near here and their claim to fame is that they're the "Watermelon Capital of the world"!!! They do grow good melons!!!

Gayle, my husband would eat the radishes but I mostly grew them to have something ready early. Towards the end of the summer we would have meals totally made from the garden and would skip the meat. Yumm!!! It always bugged the kids that we didn't have any meat!!!

I LOVE meals completely from the garden - meat, YUK! when you can have fresh vegetables!!! My FAVE!

Gayle, I have told so many people about your garden! A lot of people want to grown their own veggies, but for whatever reason don't have room, god soil, and so on. I love your garden and it looks great with things growing.

I may go to a get together somewhere close by where they're going to do a workshop on how to begin a veggie garden. I could start one on my deck.
The thing is, I really do not want the bugs and the big birds.

You really should follow the square foot gardening technique. http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ I've had a big garden and this technique is so much easier. If you only make your garden 4 foot wide and then however long you want, you never have to walk in it and you can reach everything. It is so cool - his techniques make so much sense! You could even have a square foot garden on your deck!!!

We have 4 strawberries that are pinkish/red!!! I can't believe it!!!!! We got some garden netting to go over them so the birds won't eat them before we do! LOL!

Gayle, you've got a real green thumb :)
Nothing better than nourishing your family with food you've grown with lots of love :thumbup:

Can't wait to watch your garden bloom!

Gayle, your garden looks amazing!!! Now I feel guilty for not finding the time to put one in. Maybe this fall!!! I can grow brocolli and cauliflower and cabbage and shallots. There are lots of good fall veggies.

I can't wait to do the fall garden!!! I want to do some winter squash - acorn and butternut!!! I'm going to plant tomatoes too in Sept, and see if I can get tomatoes before it freezes.

Having a garden sounds so wonderful. I may have to change my mind though....IF I apply and get hired at Rural King, I'm afraid it will all go to waste. Just have to wait and see I guess. I sure don't want to be swamped with things that need done all summer.

Gayle, do you think it's too late for me to try to do this now? Hubby would probably kill me if I take on anything else though. He was complaining this week that I have way too much to do and don't relax enough.

It might be a bit late for tomatoes, don't know if they'll set on before it gets too hot - but plants are so inexpensive, it's worth it, so I think I'd plant two or three. I saw some the other day at the nursery that were blooming, if you can find them that far along, you will be OK. You can certainly do herbs, squash, eggplant and other things like green beans (if you have room).

I'd go for it! I just love coming home to the garden. I go in the house, change my clothes, and say to the boys (Rex & Rowdy), "Let's go check the tomatoes" and they are out the doggie door before I can get my body turned that direction.

I tried this once and it did work. If you have a lot of green tomatoes when the weather turns cold. Pick them and wrap them individually in newspaper. Lay them in a single layer in a box and put them in a dark place (I kept mine under my bed.) They will slowly turn red. Make sure that you check them often because you'll have some that will spoil. I had fresh tomatoes until Thanksgiving the time that I tried it.

My hair stylist is starting a garden with the veggies hanging upside down????

Knowing her, it will work. I would prefer to do it your way, Gayle. Don't you love it?

Your hairstylist may be talking about the hanging tomatoes. I see them advertised on TV. My uncle says he's going to try them too! We'll see how it works out!

Diana, we used to do that when I was growing up. It worked well!!! Great way to extend the tomato season and same money not having to buy tomatoes out of season. With Mexico so close, our season is longer, but they do get more expensive in the winter time.

I'll have to go to a nursery during lunch this week and see what they have. I don't know that I have time to do the square foot setup, but I have big pots that I grew lettuce in last fall I could put some veggies in. Doesn't cost much to try.

Well...since it snowed here today, and on Sunday, I don't see much of any planting going on on my deck!!!

I think silk plants MIGHT survive.....:)

Judy, when you live in the frozen tundra - WHAT CHA YA EXPECT! :D

You are so right.

I am beginning to think about setting up my deck. I brought the exercise pen out for the dogs, moved the statues over, moved my table that will go in between the lounge chairs, and am looking for a table, chairs and umbrella set.

I also ordered used AstroTurf for the dogs, which I'll put around and inside the expen. It's cool - it's from the Titans, and was used when they played.

Here are some pix of the deck, the front lawn, and the AstroTurf (sideways), which will stay wrapped up on the porch until the sun shines!!!

I can't believe there is snow on the ground where you live, Judy. It just seems so weird. Here I am complaining about the AC in my truck and your dealing with snow!!! Wow!!

I potted my vegetable plants last night. I took a picture, but it was in the dark with a flash. I'll try to do it this weekend when it is daylight.

I know! The snow looks so odd!!! I would love to visit that area - upstate New York, sometime. Gary has no desire to do so, that means I just might have to trek out on my own (or better yet, with a GF!)

Come on up!!! It's really beautiful here. Today it will be 57 degrees too - a heat wave!

It does get hot, but we are 1500 above sea level in town. I'm not much higher, but we are up in the mountains, and that's where snow hangs out.

Gayle, I bought more plants today, and got them potted. Now all together I have:

• Two patio tomatoes, already blooming and since I bought them on Monday have already put on tomatoes. One of the plants came with one tiny tomato already on it.
• 2 eggplants together in one pot, that's how they were growing
• 4 zucchini plants (2 per pot, as they were growing)
• 1 rosemary plant (I love lemon rosemary chicken.)
• 1 sweet basil

I ran out of pots. Rex is going to get his painters to save me a couple of 5 gallon paint buckets because I want to have two pots of yellow straightneck squash. I have some cocozelle squash seeds, but I think it's too late to plant seeds. They have the small yellow squash plants at HEB Plus.

I'm mixing 50/50 potting soil and organic compost. I hope that will be a good medium. The compost is supposed to have beneficial microbes, and I'm going to get the liquid seaweed as you suggested. I didn't call the organic nursery today but will try to call tomorrow if they are open on Good Friday.

Can't wait to see how this all turns out. Since I already had the pots & potting soil and got 4 cuft of compost for the price of 2 cuft, this isn't turning out to cost too much after all. The new plants I bought were from HEB Plus and were much less expensive than the ones from Lowes.

If nothing else, I'm having fun experimenting.

Hey Marilyn! That sounds GREAT!!! I hope it works well. I've never tried growing anything but flowers in containers - but the concept "container garden" has been around for quite a while, so I bet they do great! You may have tomatoes before me!!! Mine has set on a few, but I still have mostly blooms! Keep us posted.

Bought the liquid seaweed this afternoon. Still waiting on the paint buckets. The painter saved them but someone moved them and he couldn't find them. Rex told him to just save some more.

Here is a pic of my garden and some close up's of my tomatoes. I'm anxious to see what happens after a few days of the liquid seaweed. The directions say to use it once per week. I was thinking of twice while the plants are getting started. It's supposed to rain this weekend, so we'll see.

Attachment 5071 Attachment 5072 Attachment 5073

It's nothing like yours, Gayle, but it took very little time to put this together. I need to get some of those cheap clear plastic drip trays to put under the pots. I'm always short on those.

MARILYN! Your garden look GREAT!!! Your tomatoes (fruit) is bigger than mine, especially since a squirrel (I think) bit off the stem with the set on tomatoes!!!

Your little "garden" looks great, Marilyn!!! You'll be picking tomatoes in no time!!! Cool!!

Thank you, Gayle, but I bought my plants a lot farther along than yours were. I was looking at the tomatoes this morning, and there are not new blooms on them, but they do look heathy and like they are growing. Hopefully once they are settled into their new home they will get going.

So sorry to hear about the squirrel episode. We are in such a new neighborhood (about 12 or so years old) that we really don't have squirrels yet. Being new though and on the edge of town, we do have things like armadillos and skunks. LOL

Thank you, Diana. I sure hope I'll be picking tomatoes. We'll see how it goes. I'm doing all I know to do to make it successful, but it's an experiment. I saw people growing tomatoes in smaller containers on roof tops in Germany, but our climate is way different here. Fingers crossed!!!

Rex laughs at me when I tell him I'm going out to check on the "garden". LOL

Everyday when I get home I look at (my) Rex & Rowdy and say, "Let's go check the garden" and they are out the door before I can turn that direction!!! LOL!

I have to carry my Zoe to see the garden since we have no fence. She's too ferrocious for her own good and there are some big dogs in the neighborhood that are loose sometimes, but she enjoys the outing!!

Plants don't need watering, so I spritzed them with liquid seaweed today.

Ladies your garden looks great!

I wish I had a green thumb :( I have enough property about a quarter of an acre. But I don't plant , flowers or veggies.. I should take the time and learn. When I have my hubby plant flowers they soon die , I guess you do have to water and feed.

Gina, you should get your husband to build you a raised bed for flowers or vegetables, and then follow the square foot gardening technique. http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ It is so easy and I know you would be successful, if you uhmmmmmm..... WATER it :D