I took two small tomatoes from the garden today. These tomatoes came from the plant that started my garden this year. It is the volunteer that decided to grow and flourish with no help at all. So today it gave me two small, tough red tomatoes. It has many more small fruit on the vine. They look much more healthy now that they have water and some TLC. I look forward to many more fruit to come.
I love going out to the garden each morning. I don't have much time to do anything more than a quick once over and turn on the water. It is a happy place for me. New growth, great hope of things to come, and continued goals draw me to it. I will spend more time there on Saturday.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Happy plants
So, everybody looks happy today, standing tall, reaching out for the sunshine. The peppers especially are ready to rock and roll. I'm a little concerned about the cucumbers, but so far so good. Most of the weeds are gone from the active part of the garden. There is still lots to be done, but this will do for now.
I added my drip system and tried to hook it to a timer, but the timer needs to go back to the store. It leaks under the water pressure. For now I will set my stove timer to remember to go turn it off after 30 minutes every other morning. I figure if I turn it on when I go out to feed the dogs in the morning, then set the timer, I can go out and turn it off before I go to work.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.
I added my drip system and tried to hook it to a timer, but the timer needs to go back to the store. It leaks under the water pressure. For now I will set my stove timer to remember to go turn it off after 30 minutes every other morning. I figure if I turn it on when I go out to feed the dogs in the morning, then set the timer, I can go out and turn it off before I go to work.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.
Monday, June 11, 2012
All right, so I cheated! I bought plants already started at Home depot. No they are not heirlooms or organic. No, they did not come from a super special nursery. They are probably Monsanto starts or Genetically altered, but this year I do not care even one bit. I was not going to have a garden at all, so the fact that I have something in the ground that may end up on my table is OK with me. At least I know that it grew in my back yard and it will be vine ripened.
This is what I bought and put in the ground today:
3 cucumbers
1 yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
12 green beans
1 butternut squash
1 zuchini
I already have 2 tomato volunteers, nasturtiums,
a bunch of oregano, blackberry vines and raspberry vines
I planted 5 dahlia bulbs (I know that's not what they are called but I can't remember the name)
I plan to add
lavender
chamomile
and mint
So next year I will do it right, but this year, I won't sweat the small stuff.
This is what I bought and put in the ground today:
3 cucumbers
1 yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
12 green beans
1 butternut squash
1 zuchini
I already have 2 tomato volunteers, nasturtiums,
a bunch of oregano, blackberry vines and raspberry vines
I planted 5 dahlia bulbs (I know that's not what they are called but I can't remember the name)
I plan to add
lavender
chamomile
and mint
So next year I will do it right, but this year, I won't sweat the small stuff.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Unintentional Gardening
How can a person garden unintentionally?
Well, the winter has come and gone. June is in full bloom, and I had decided that the garden was going fallow this year. My winter and spring were crazy with children coming and going, the birth of our first grand baby and new business ventures. I took two trips: one in March to see Kai, Seth and Jefri, the other in April to move Sarah back to Oklahoma. All those plans of getting the garden ready for a well planned spring garden had fallen by the wayside. The weeds had taken over in the garden. I had given up hopes of having a garden at all this year.
Then, I started watching the gardens of my friends on facebook. I moaned,"I don't have time this year. I have classes to teach and lessons to plan. I have 40 hours of work each week on top of that. I try to keep up my ministry opportunities and my relationships require more time than I give." I watched other gardens grow and wished, but pushed it to the back of my mind.. One young friend had started a garden. Her cucumbers needed a trellis. "I have a trellis you can have," I volunteered."I'm not going to use it anyway." The unintentional gardening began.
I ventured into the overgrown garden. Trying not to look and be disgusted at the state of things, I battled the 5-foot tall, gargantuan, prickly plants. Weeds grow very well in healthy soil with no water. The trellis, of course, was in the back corner of all the mess. Courageously I fought with the plants to release the trellis and turned to escape. Then, I saw it, one scrawny, starving, thirsty, tomato volunteer in one of the raised beds! I didn't even have tomatoes in that bed last year. "Poor thing," I thought. "too bad I'm not gardening this year."
That evening I told Fred that I had braved the garden gate to get the trellis for Amy. He chimed in, "Oh, did you see the tomatoes?"
"Yes," I mumbled.
"Did you see the red one?" he asked.
"There is fruit on that plant?" I asked in amazement. I hadn't looked closely enough to notice any real growth. I felt guilty enough that the weeds had taken over. I didn't want this plant calling to me in the night.
"There sure is. I saw it through the garden fence and started sprinkling it with water now and then. It has a few that are ripening now."
Dropping what I was doing , I bolted out to the garden. Sure enough, buried under the weeds a branch of the lone tomato plant was bearing fruit. Now, I can shrug my shoulders at a volunteer tomato plant that is amongst the weeds. It is actually a weed itself. Once that plant has fruit, however, the story changes in my mind. I couldn't just leave it strangling and alone if it had babies!
So the digging began. Four hours in the garden yesterday afternoon, saw the tomato plant propped up and properly watered along with another that was discovered in a pot buried by the garden gate. One of the raised beds is cleared and ready for planting with drip system installed. All of the gigantic weeds in the raised bed area are cleared and the dahlias that Seth sent last Mothers' Day are in the ground nearby. I hope they come up. They were pretty sad and withered up.
So, the gardening madness has begun, whether I have time or not. I can't abandon the tomatoes that decided to grow in my plot. They want to be there. They want to give me tomatoes. Certainly I must accommodate them.Today I will break all of my gardening rules and go to Home Depot and buy already started plants to put in the other raised bed, zucchini, green beans, peppers and some herbs. Since it is so late in the season and I am not really gardening anyway, I won't feel bad about it. Next year I will start it the right way in spring before the weeds take over.
Well, the winter has come and gone. June is in full bloom, and I had decided that the garden was going fallow this year. My winter and spring were crazy with children coming and going, the birth of our first grand baby and new business ventures. I took two trips: one in March to see Kai, Seth and Jefri, the other in April to move Sarah back to Oklahoma. All those plans of getting the garden ready for a well planned spring garden had fallen by the wayside. The weeds had taken over in the garden. I had given up hopes of having a garden at all this year.
Then, I started watching the gardens of my friends on facebook. I moaned,"I don't have time this year. I have classes to teach and lessons to plan. I have 40 hours of work each week on top of that. I try to keep up my ministry opportunities and my relationships require more time than I give." I watched other gardens grow and wished, but pushed it to the back of my mind.. One young friend had started a garden. Her cucumbers needed a trellis. "I have a trellis you can have," I volunteered."I'm not going to use it anyway." The unintentional gardening began.
I ventured into the overgrown garden. Trying not to look and be disgusted at the state of things, I battled the 5-foot tall, gargantuan, prickly plants. Weeds grow very well in healthy soil with no water. The trellis, of course, was in the back corner of all the mess. Courageously I fought with the plants to release the trellis and turned to escape. Then, I saw it, one scrawny, starving, thirsty, tomato volunteer in one of the raised beds! I didn't even have tomatoes in that bed last year. "Poor thing," I thought. "too bad I'm not gardening this year."
That evening I told Fred that I had braved the garden gate to get the trellis for Amy. He chimed in, "Oh, did you see the tomatoes?"
"Yes," I mumbled.
"Did you see the red one?" he asked.
"There is fruit on that plant?" I asked in amazement. I hadn't looked closely enough to notice any real growth. I felt guilty enough that the weeds had taken over. I didn't want this plant calling to me in the night.
"There sure is. I saw it through the garden fence and started sprinkling it with water now and then. It has a few that are ripening now."
Dropping what I was doing , I bolted out to the garden. Sure enough, buried under the weeds a branch of the lone tomato plant was bearing fruit. Now, I can shrug my shoulders at a volunteer tomato plant that is amongst the weeds. It is actually a weed itself. Once that plant has fruit, however, the story changes in my mind. I couldn't just leave it strangling and alone if it had babies!
So the digging began. Four hours in the garden yesterday afternoon, saw the tomato plant propped up and properly watered along with another that was discovered in a pot buried by the garden gate. One of the raised beds is cleared and ready for planting with drip system installed. All of the gigantic weeds in the raised bed area are cleared and the dahlias that Seth sent last Mothers' Day are in the ground nearby. I hope they come up. They were pretty sad and withered up.
So, the gardening madness has begun, whether I have time or not. I can't abandon the tomatoes that decided to grow in my plot. They want to be there. They want to give me tomatoes. Certainly I must accommodate them.Today I will break all of my gardening rules and go to Home Depot and buy already started plants to put in the other raised bed, zucchini, green beans, peppers and some herbs. Since it is so late in the season and I am not really gardening anyway, I won't feel bad about it. Next year I will start it the right way in spring before the weeds take over.
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