The Summer Garden Emerges

 Today was the first official day of my summer vacation.  I got started late, due to sleeping in a little, but I am behind on some things in the veggie garden...so I had to get out there and get stuff done while my son was at his grandma's house. Unfortunately, the high today was supposed to be almost 96 degrees plus humidity.  There was no helping that though, so I coated myself in sunblock and stepped out into the sauna. 

It's been a while since I did an update on my veggie garden.  Things are going much better this year, due to the fact that I'm not doing any garden monopolizing pumpkins this year.  This is the first section of my garden I worked on this year...I have broccoli that should be ready soon, chard, peas on trellises, onions, a few cabbages, and you can see the rhubarb off to the side there.  There is also kohlrabi and there were radishes hiding behind the broccoli. 

This is a pulled back view of the same end of the garden.  That monster thing you see in the middle is one of my horseradish plants, sunk in a pot in the ground.  They love the sun and get huge.  You can also see that my son has been out in the garden with his tonka trucks.  He loves all the dirt piles I make.  From this view you can see trellises I've set up for beans, and my egyptian walking onions. 

Besides more of my son's tonka toys, this picture shows the biggest tomato I have so far...one of only two tomatoes I have so far.  It is on the white beauty tomato plant. 

Here is the asparagus forest.  Yes, I do have a folding chair out in my garden.  When it is not blistering hot, I find it very soothing to go out there and sit and look at everything growing.  Of course in another month, there might not be room for my chair, but I am enjoying it for the time being.  I can't wait for my asparagus to be ready.  I am only on year two with mine...so I will be able to take a little bit next year, but not really a lot until the year after that. 

This is a view in the same direction, but even further out.  This is a good shot of my newly mulched tomato plants.  I don't have the cages and trellises set up yet though.  Mulching the plants with straw was one of the things I got done today.  I mulched them with grass clippings last year, but the grass clippings decomposed when the tomatoes were big, but then I couldn't get under them by then.  It is supposed to rain a lot later this week, I figure that will be a good time to put the tomato supports in.  The ground is much too dry and hard right now.  I tried to put a few in today, and I was having a hard time.  It will be much easier after a good rain.

This shot is from the same spot I was standing in the last picture, except I turned to the right.  These are some of my onion beds...with neat little paths around them.  You can also see my garlic standing tall along the fence line in the back.  Today I planted marigolds and alyssum around the garden to help draw in more beneficial insects.  I also used my shuffle hoe and cleared the weeds from the pathways. 

This is a close up of one of my bean trellises.  I love these things.  I bought them for like six bucks at Menards.  The poles are already attached to each other with little flexpin things.  It folds up and spreads out in a snap.  Very convenient to store, and I don't have to do all the tying.  They don't blow over, either.  I think this trellis is planted with black-eyed peas. 

I spun around and faced the other direction, and this is the potato end of the garden.  Today, I took a hoe and filled in the trenches around the potato plants, and mounded the dirt around them a little.  I will wait a few more weeks, and mound the dirt up higher one more time. 

On this side, facing back towards the garage, you can see my pepper plants about halfway back.  There are also leeks, some doing well, and some doing pathetic.  Lol.  My radishes are ready to start pulling here, mixed in with a long line of carrots.  You can see the garlic in this shot as well, and more bean and melon trellises.  I planted the melons under the trellises close to the tree.  I figure if they go all crazy they can just use the tree as a trellis and climb up it.  I'm okay with that. 

Going farther in the same direction, back towards the garage, this is where my corn is going to be.  A few baby corn plants have sprouted.  I imagine the rest will catch up after the good rain we get this week.  You can also see my lettuce, bok choi, tomatillas, and spinach in the cage in the back of this shot. 

So far, I am really pleased at how everything is set up this year.  It is much more organized than last year, and I think it will be easier to keep ahead of the weeds.  If that's possible.  I'm still trying to decide where to put my cucumbers...that is the next thing on my list, but I will work on that later.  How are things going in your summer veggie garden? 

Why I Spent 30 Dollars on Candy (& I Don't Like Tootsie Rolls)

I almost forgot to post this...I had it all written out...but I am not in the habit of posting daily...but I remembered before I went to bed.

The firebird

This weekend we got to be in a parade for Story City's Scandinavian Days.  We took both cars, the old police car and the firebird.  The firebird is his pride and joy...I have to admit, it's a pretty cool car. 

DH getting things ready

My guy and my stepson took a while to get things ready to go...getting all the electronic stuff ready.  We are part of a nationwide police car club.  Of course, he is ALWAYS late, so we arrived at the last minute.  Then they are hurrying so the parade doesn't start without them.

I ended up buying almost 30 dollars worth of candy.  If I let my guy do it, he'd buy 2 bags of tootsie rolls and call it good.  I hate plain chewy candies.  I know some people like them, but they are just not my cup of tea.  I want the good stuff, real chocolate, suckers, peanut butter...etc.  That is why I end up spending a lot of money of 4 gigantic bags of sweets...and the kids and I have something good to throw.  You might wonder why I care, since I am not eating much of it.   Well, kids remember who throws the good candy.  My friend Nicole says she still remembers which fire department threw the best stuff in parades when she was growing up.  I guess I like to give it that extra little bit.  Also, when your kid brings home a bag of candy they got when they went to a parade...they don't end up eating a  lot of it.  Who does?  Usually the mom...and she deserves the good stuff. 

My stepson helping out

Anyways, I thought I had a post from last year when we did this, but I guess not.  My stepson has grown so much since this time last year.  He is actually big enough and responsible enough to help put things together now.  Unfortunately, his teenage attitude is growing along with his physical self.  LOL.

The 'boyz'

He is a good kid, but having a teenager makes me understand why some animals eat their young!

Hot and Sweaty!

They like to make weird faces, but this is the best of the pictures I took.  At least they all have their eyes open in this one.  We had a great day...after the parade we went to a car show, did some shopping, ate some grilled food, went to the outlet mall, and had pizza at this restaurant called 'Pickles'.  We got home late and we were all tired, dirty, but happy. 

It is one of those things we do that I know the kids will always remember, especially since we seem to be doing it every year.  What kind of traditions are you making?

My Summer Blogging Challenge...(and what I did today)

I love posting on my blog...but sometimes during the school year, I get sooooo busy.  I really would like to spend more time on it, so I decided to challenge myself.  I am going to try to do a blog post every single day of my summer vacation...school end to school begin.  I told a few of my friends about my idea and they raised their eyebrows at me.  I know they were thinking, "You?  No way..."  Granted, it is a big task, even for some more seasoned or professional bloggers than I am.  But to be sure, it won't always be a long post with several pictures.  Some days it may be one picture.  Or maybe text with no pictures at all, telling about my day.  Some days it might be about gardening...some days about cooking...and some days it might be about my kids.  Some days it might even be about the silly mundane thing I did that day.  Like today.

My Purple Plastic Purse

Today, I switched purses.  Now guys, I can hear you groaning and checking out already, but bear with me, this is kind of funny and I'll make it quick.  This is my old purse, which I love, but someone referred to it as a 'suitcase' the other day.  I was a little offended, but when I saw a 'new to me' green purse at a consignment store this weekend, I took it as a sign.  I do get tired of hauling this big purple thing around when I'm shopping or doing fun things in the summer.  The only reason I need such a big purse is that I spend the majority of my days almost an hour from my house.  And I'm a little girl scout, I like to be prepared. 

My new (earth tones) green purse for summer

But now that the school year is over, and I will be spending most of my time at home, or out doing things with the family, I decided to ditch some of the extra baggage...sort of. 

All the stuff that was left over after I put the essentials in my new purse

After I painfully decided what things were essential and would fit in the little green purse, this is what is left over.  Ladies, note the Haut Totes zipper pouch with my cosmetics and such.  Yes, I discovered I had two entire bottles of Ibuprofen in my purse. 

Pens and pencils that were in my purple purse

I'm a little embarrassed to show you how many pens and pencils I found in the purple bag.  This is after I took out 4 or 5 of my favorites to put in the green bag.  Can you tell I'm afraid of being without a writing utensil?

Haut Totes bag to hold all the extra stuff I'm afraid to leave at home but that won't fit in my new purse

I couldn't quite bring myself to leave all the extra stuff at home.  What if I'm at the butterfly gardens and I decide I need a yellow highlighter?  What if I'm at Walmart at 2 AM one night in July and the florescent lights give me a headache?  (I guess I could just buy some if I was at Walmart).  But you get my point...I was afraid of needing some of this.  So I put it in my Haut Totes bag, and it will come with me in my little blue van all summer.  But I can leave it in the car, and not drag it with me.  I feel this was a nice compromise.  My right shoulder will thank me later.

I hope you will join me on my blogging journey this summer.  I expect somewhere I will miss a day, but I am striving for as close to 100% as possible.  I would love it if you were there with me...reading and commenting.  Thanks!

SeedGrow....Back, Back, Back Again!

Great news to all that were a fan of the seedgrow posts last year! They are back, and I get to review not one, but three different kinds of seeds. Renees Garden has been kind enough to provide the seeds free to me to grow and review.

The first seed I am trying out is Container Lettuce Garden Babies Butterhead.  For ease of my fingers, I will call it Garden Babies, or Garden Babies Lettuce for short.  I planted two long planter boxes with the Garden Babies seeds.  Some have germinated and are on the way to becoming cute little lettuce butterballs. You can see mine above.  Yes, I know my soil is a little dry.  It is going to rain tonight, so I didn't want to use the hose water if nature will take care of it for me in a few hours.  Evidently my compost has a few weed seeds in it...a post to come on that later.  But they are small and easily pulled out. 

This picture was provided by Renee's Garden to show what the lettuce can look like when it is mature.  I think they are so compact and adorable!  The packet says "These cute, perfectly formed little butterhead rosettes have softly folded leaves, a lovely buttery texture and out-standing sweet taste"  The packet also says it is slow to bolt and heat tolerant.  I am getting hungry just thinking about eating these tasty little lettuces. 

Pay no attention to my little weeds...I wait until they are just a little bigger so I can grab them out easily. 

The next seed I am reviewing is called Large-Leaf Container Basil Italian Cameo.  I think I will call it Cameo Basil for short.  I just sowed the seeds in here, so there is nothing to see yet.  They will be sharing the pot with a sweet potato vine.  I am collecting basils this year, so I am curious to see how this one stacks up.

This is the Renees Garden picture of the Cameo Basil.  The packet states that Cameo was created by crossing Genovese basil with a dwarf basil.  That is why it looked familiar!  The pot I am putting it in is right on my back patio...so it will be easy to go out and snip some when I am cooking.  The green leaves will look great with the purple sweet potato vine.  

Lastly, I am growing and reviewing Butterfly Flowers Summer Splash Marigolds.  I will probably call them Summer Splash.  I love marigolds, they are just so cheerful and easy to grow.  They also do so much to attract beneficial insects and keep pests down naturally.  The packet states that this particular marigold blooms longer than any they've ever seen, and you don't have to remove the spent blossoms.  I might remove them anyways, just to keep the plants looking tidy.  I planted the seeds in my wagon planter on the back patio.  I seem to be having some trouble with getting these to germinate.  The seeds probably dried out, I have been busy and we had some hot winds the other day.  However, these plants need room to spread out, so I think I can transplant some around and end up with plenty of flowers.

This is the provided picture of the Summer Splash Marigolds.  Whoo-whee!  If this is how big they get, I better spread mine out more.  I can't wait to see how they look all together in my planter.

I am so excited to be doing this again, and I can't wait to see how everything grows this season.  I will be back in future posts to talk about all the fun things I will be doing with these plants as they grow.  Hope you see you here.  Again... I'm growing with the SeedGROW project. Thanks to Renee's Garden for the free seeds.

I Can Already Taste the Salsa: Potting Up the Tomatoes

It actually wasn't raining this weekend!  I took advantage of the nice, dry, but windy weather to pot up my tomato seedlings.  My potting table is one that belonged to my guy's grandmother.  I believe it was made by his grandfather.  I thoroughly enjoyed taking my little tomato seed 'pucks' that I tried out this year and dropping them into the bigger containers.  It was very easy and convenient.  You can see in my picture that I had a LOT of tomato seedlings in this tray.  The tray came with 12 rows of 6 little soil pucks.  I planted them all in tomatoes and they did great.  Whenever I buy something from a greenhouse and it comes in one of those little 3 or 4-inch pots, I save them.  They make great containers for moving the seedlings up and giving them more room for their roots to spread out. 

As I potted them up, I put them into rows on the patio, and my stepdaughter gave them a drink.  This was their first day outside in real sunlight.  It was very breezy, so they got sunlight and movement.  The breeze stimulates the seedlings to grow more sturdy and stocky, and then they will be better acclimated to conditions outside.   When I pot the seedlings up, I also bury them just a little deeper then they were before.  When I plant them out in the garden, I will again plant them where the lowest part of the stem is below the soil.  Roots will grow out from that part of the stem and make the plant stronger. 

This is the final class picture.  69 tomato plants!  12 different varieties.  The fun part now is carrying these things in and out of my basement for the next few weeks.  It makes me want a greenhouse, NOW.  But sigh, for now, I will get extra cardio going up and down the stairs.  These seeds are actually ALL heirlooms this year too.  I will have future posts talking about what varieties I chose to grow and why.  Until then...are you growing tomatoes from seed this year?