Nuts and Bolts

My Mistake

There hasn't been much to report on in a while. Things just keep getting bigger and bigger. I'm really enjoying watching my plants grow so successfully--much better than I had expected for a first attempt. I guess the soil here is forgiving.

It turns out that the butternut plant that was growing so fast last month is actually a sunflower! It's nearly as tall as me now (about 5 feet) and I think I can see the beginnings of a flower peeking through.


However, I do have a lovely baby butternut squash peeking out from between the leaves lying along the ground of an actual butternut plant, as well.

Tall Lettuce??

I also learned about bolting this week. Apparently once some plants believe they have reached maturity, they grow really tall and fast so they can spread their seeds. The cilantro started growing upward really fast with tiny leaves and then sprouted tiny white flowers. But I'm going to leave it be so I can harvest the seeds for corriander. (Mmm.. chai tea... :) )

My lettuce is also really tall! I just thought it was something the variety did, but my taste buds disagree. Last night I made a beautiful salad with the leaves from my 3' tall lettuce plants and it was so bitter we couldn't eat it. *sigh* I read that it has something to do with the hormones the plants release when they bolt. I may try planting some more. There seems to be a debate on some of the forums I checked about whether you can actually grow good lettuce during the summer heat or not. Let's see what happens, shall we?

Big Ol' Butternut

He's So Happy!

Remember that little plant in the foreground of my post a couple of weeks back? Check it out now!! I can't believe how fast things are growing now that the weather has heated up!

I've already been picking leaf lettuce and cilantro. Now I'm keeping an eye out for flowers on my tomatoes. :)

To Weed or Not To Weed

What Is This???

So I suddenly noticed this plant a couple of days ago. Somehow I didn't see it until it was as big as my tomato plant (maybe 15"). I've pondered it for a while and can't imagine it growing any of the vegetables that I planted, so I finally bit the bullet and chopped it down.

I always thought that you were supposed to pull up weeds by the roots, but after reading around the Internet a little bit trying to figure out what this plant was, I read that if they're near plants you want to keep, you're better off cutting it off at ground level a few times until it dies. That prevents damaging the root system of the neighboring plants.

So hopefully this wasn't my sunflowers or my peppers. I haven't seen any sign of those yet. But I really doubt it.

It's ALIIIIVE!!

*Heavenly Choir* Ahhhhh!

Look how beautiful they are! :D Ok, the garden is still pretty ugly, but it's got plants growing in it now! And they're even mostly not weeds!

I'm able to recognize tomatoes, butternut squash, lettuce, corn, cilantro, and some flowers (alyssum) that I planted around the edges that are supposed to deter pests. (Or maybe they attract bugs that eat pests. I can't remember for sure. I just know they're good!) There are lots more tiny sprouts peeking out, too.

I expect some of the plants are going to crowd each other out since they are really close together, but I am pleasantly surprised how well it's going so far for how little work I put into this. I ignored it for about a week while recovering from a nasty bug I caught at work, and it didn't seem to mind. Now I'm going out every couple of days to pull up tufts of grass and clover that keep trying to reassert themselves.

Now I just need to figure out how to tell when I should pick that cilantro and lettuce...

Blue Beans

It's So Sad...

I think I spoke too soon about the green beans being the ones to outlast everything else. I went out there to find one plant completely gone and the other looking like this!

Then last night I had a dream that I caught our neighbor's (nonexistent) bunny nibbling my veggies. I got to pet it. :3

I did see a few tiny sprouts nudging their heads up through the soil, though. There is still hope!! (Assuming they are not weeds, of course.)

The Ugliest Garden

Gotta Start Somewhere:

So, here it is! The beginning of my experimental garden (plus a bonus compost heap!). Haha, not much to look at, huh?

I wanted to get the few seedlings that survived the move into the ground as soon as possible. So a couple of days after we moved in, I busted out the shovel. I dug up a small section of grass, mixed in several pounds of used coffee grounds, and stuck two greenbean plants, a couple of butternut squash plants, and a couple of pepper plants into the ground. Then a few days later I stuck a bunch more seeds in in random places. lol! I'm hoping it will be like one of those square foot gardens, only much less organized.

I wanted to mix the dirt up better and make it all pretty with even rows, but... it turns out dirt is heavy. I got lazy after about an hour of digging and stirring.

I think if nothing else surives, the green beans will. They seemed to flourish through a 5 hour ride in the car, a week in an overly air conditioned hotel room, and a few days more on a concrete slab in the backyard.

Sweet, Sweet Lemons

A Sour Surprise:

So we're finally moved in to the new place and I have an internet connection again! Woohoo!

One bonus we got was a lemon tree in the backyard loaded with ripe fruit! Our neighbor says they aren't lemons, but I think they might be Meyer lemons. We picked all of the ones we could reach and I spent three days juicing them and freezing the juice. I think I must have mutilated 400-500 lemons in all. Lemonade all summer, baby!

Here's a picture of the last batch. There are more on the tree... but I think I'm over it. haha.

I Gots Babies!

Here They Come:


Look how many baby plants I have already! I can't believe how fast those green beans are growing. They're already 5" tall!

And the butternut squash seedlings are cracking me up. I thought the peppers were starting to come up, but when I looked more closely, I saw that the roots from the butternuts were sneaking over to steal territory from the peppers! XD

I sure hope I can get these guys in the ground soon. I didn't expect them to grow so quickly!

It's Time To Start

A Little Background:

I've wanted a vegetable garden for about as long as I can remember. I know--that may not be entirely normal for a kid, but there you have it. I recall planting carrots in my mom's flower box and daydreaming about tearing up some of the landscaping in the backyard for tomatoes. Yet I never quite had the space or knowledge (or guts) to really get started on a full-fledged garden.

I've had a few sad little potted tomato plants over the past couple years, and killed an attempted herb garden, but that's as far as I've gotten. Well, I'm about to move into a new place with a yard, and it's the perfect season to plant!

I have next to no idea what I'm doing, but the overabundance of gardening knowledge out there just overwhelms me. So instead of freezing up, I'm going to do it my own way through trial and error. This blog will help me keep track of what works and (probably more often) what doesn't.

The Beginning:

Yesterday I bought about $20 worth of vegetable, herb, and flower seeds. We'll be moving in two weeks, so I'm going to get the seedlings going so they'll be ready to plant once we're settled in. I'm going to reuse some of the potting soil from my failed tomatoes and herbs and use cut off soda bottles to start things out on the cheap.

Wish me luck! :)