Growing Green Thumbs

Combining Blogs

2009-08-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

I have decided to continue my garden blogging on my personal site Boys Rule My Life. All of my gardening posts are labeled as such for easy searching over there. Please stop by and say hi sometime! :)

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2009-05-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

An Update of how the container garden is coming along...

I finally got the second tray of seedlings in pots.

The tray consisted of herbs, melons, a jalapeno plant, cucumber, broccoli, and cauliflower (6 of each). Almost all of the herbs sprouted well in the tray, but only 1 of of the watermelon and 3 of the cantelope sprouted. The broccoli and cauliflower did ok, but I was told it was too late in the season to bother planting them, so they got chunked. :(

The day after I transferred everything to pots, I completely lost the parsley, cucumbers, and thyme. I lost all but one of the cilantro and pepper plants. I don't know if I disrupted the roots too much or if the massive amount of rain we've been getting just drowned them. Either way, I was disappointed.

Since then, I have lost the watermelon plant (the leaves were broken off either by the wind and rain or three little boys... idk which.) I also lost a cucumber and cantelope by the same means.

However, from my original tray of seedlings, I have a cucumber plant thriving that actually produced a blossom for me yesterday!!! Excitement!

After walking around the yard a little bit more, I noticed several watermelon plants that are doing pretty well. They must have planted themselves from the seeds that got thrown into the compost because here is one where the compost pile used to be located:

One in the current compost:

And another one right outside the where the compost is now:

I'm having good luck with the carrots I planted straight into containers instead of starting as seedlings.

After the excitement over last year's carrot harvest, I knew we'd need more this year!

And since these guys were doing so well, I went ahead and replanted the parsley, cilantro, basil, and thyme directly into their respective containers that I had lost them in. Hopefully I see some improvement in them if they don't need to be transferred.

Lillies

2009-05-28T06:29:00.000-07:00

Just in case you'd like to see what else I have growing in my backyard, this is a shot of one of three garden boxes around my trees. The lillies are doing beautifully! Some were already planted when we moved in three years ago, others were planted as bulbs last year.

Although, I thought I planted other colors besides pink... maybe those squirrels got to the other bulbs? Oh, well... they still are pretty!

Apple Tree

2009-05-28T06:17:00.000-07:00

When we moved into our home, there was a tree in the back yard that we thought was a crab apple tree because the apples were so small and tart. Well, last year we were blessed with nice sized, plump, tart apples! Jeff and the kids (and the dogs) ate them straight; I cooked with them!

I tried to store them, but they didn't keep long in the freezer at all. Hopefully I'll find a better solution to storing them this year. The apples are still small right now, but they are coming along!

The picture below is hi-resolution so you can click on it to see the apples better, if you like. I realize they are hard to see as the leaves and apples are the same colors.

Maybe I should sell the extras as "organic baking apples"! LOL!

More Seedlings! AHHHHH!

2009-05-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

What was I thinking planting more??? :)

We've Got Beans!

2009-05-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

One week after planting, those flowers turned into beans! Who'da thunk? :)

Container Garden

2009-05-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

We started composting last year for this year's garden. Although the compost has done really well (thanks to Jeff), we have decided to use bagged dirt this year for a couple of reasons. I suppose the biggest reason being that I got an "itch" to plant and the compost needed a little more work before I could start.

We've also opted for a container garden this year since we're moving. I was a little scared of the cost of containers because pots are expensive! However, I started noticing all these black plastic pots being put on the side of the road from people who had planted trees and shrubs. These were the perfect size!! And you can't get much better than FREE!! (And you know I'm not against picking things up off the side of the road!)

All these black pots were picked up for free within a week... too bad I had already purchased 9 terracotta colored ones (they'll get used though!).

Nathan, Witt, and I got to work this morning.

Here is one set our seedlings right before transferring into containers:

The beans were already flowering!

The final result:

Planting Seeds

2009-03-09T05:28:00.000-07:00

We finally got around to planting some seeds (about 3 weeks later than I wanted to), but I don't think we'll be getting any more surprise snow... so I think it may be good that we waited. :)

I had some Lowe's returns to do for Jeff one day and I spent the return money on three ecofriendly seed starting kits. Basically, unwrap the package, add water and seeds, put on the germination cover and wait. Easy peasy for first timers like us!

We didn't do heirloom or organic seeds this year. I just want to take this to be a learning experience and if we end up with a harvest that'll just be icing on the cake!

Will even got some handwriting practice! :)

So far we have only used two of the kits. We'll plant the third one later to stagger the planting and *hopefully* the harvesting. From left to right we have: 2 rows of green beans, 1 row of limas, 2 rows of cucumbers, 1 row of cantelope, 1 row spinach, 1 row onion, 1 row dill, and 1 row green pepper.

And now we wait...

Choosing Vegetables to Plant

2009-01-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

I know it's been forever since my last post, but the pile went cold and there really wasn't much to share in the winter months. We have started using our first compost bin again to get a second pile started, though.

Right now we are deciding what to we want to plant this spring. Here are my initial thoughts although I don't know that we'll have room for everything. :(

jalapenos
broccoli
cauliflower
black eyed peas
lima beans
green beans
spinach
tomatoes
cucumbers
carrots
herbs
onions?
potatoes?
garlic?

We are not going to plant yellow squash or okra because we are always given more than we can handle by friends and family. Might as well use the space for something else!

Are we missing anything? Do you think this is a bit much for a first year? I think I might be intimidating myself. :)

Turning the Pile Vlog

2008-08-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

Jeff opens the gate and empties the bin to help turn it. Then he puts it back in:

Compost Tools

2008-08-14T08:14:00.000-07:00

We found that we don't need anything special to tend to the compost pile; standard yard tools work well.

A pitch fork and shovel for turning the pile ~

I'm not exactly sure what this tool is called (a spade?), but Jeff had it on hand in the shop and it works great for chopping up large amounts of food in a 5 gallon bucket ( a food processor would work for smaller amounts of food) ~
(It's not necessary to chop the food up into small pieces, but it does speed up the decomposition process.)

A watering can to keep the pile moist~

I love that we were able to use things we already had on hand!

Our Second Compost Bin

2008-08-13T08:17:00.001-07:00

It took about two months for us to outgrow our first compost bin. We weren't anticipating the phenomenal number of apples our tree produced! This was the first time in three years that it gave good apples, so needless to say, we have a compost pile full of rotting apples.

When we saw that the first bin was filled to the rim, we decided to try the popular pallet idea. We loaded up the kids and drove around town to the garbage areas of local grocery and home improvement stores. We saw several stacked, but figured they were being recycled for future use.

There were a few next to a dumpster that looked like they were in good condition, so Jeff hopped out with Nathan and asked if we could take them. Turns out that the store earns $5 per pallet, so no, we couldn't have them. Bummer.

Then we traveled to the back of our mall and found 4 next to a dumpster. Jeff went in and they said we could have them! Woo Hoo! Free compost bin here we come!

Jeff's really handy and had this put together in what seemed like no time at all:

Three sides are fixed and the fourth is like a door that he keeps tied with the rope.

We have had some smelly days and the flies do like the pile, so Jeff put out a fly trap using my shepherd's hook!

And some fly paper right down to the center of the pile:

Now, the compost is supposed to stay damp like a sponge, but if it doesn't you'll probably end up with some mushrooms like we did! No biggie, though, just turn the pile and add some water.

Our First Compost Bin

2008-08-13T07:46:00.000-07:00

Our first compost bin turned into a family project. Here's the original post (June 2008) from Becky's personal blog Boys Rule My Life:

This week's Unplugged Project is "Plastic". I really didn't think we were going to get a chance to work it in this week, until I walked outside and saw this:

We are turning this 45 gallon plastic garbage bin into a composting bin. I got the bin idea from here and learned more about composting here.

For more Unplugged Projects, head on over to Unplug Your Kids.

Growing Green Thumbs

2008-08-09T13:28:00.000-07:00

Jeff and I have decided to plant a garden in the spring of 2009. Join us on our journey as we learn about composting, planting, vegetables, bugs, and whatever else comes our way!

Here is some background information on our gardening skills:

BECKY
I grew up in the suburbs living in 8 different states. The earliest gardening experience I remember was pulling weeds in our flower gardens in Texas around the age of 8. Other than that, I don't remember dealing with any type of seed, flower, or dirt. Our vegetables came from a can or the grocery store (not that that is bad, that's just the way it was). We ate well and we ate *mostly* healthily.

It wasn't until Jeff and I married that I really found a love for planting flowers. I had a small flower garden in middle Georgia where I planted seeds, bulbs, grown plants, annuals, perennials, anything I found to be pretty. However, we had many water restrictions given by the city during this time and with my concern for conserving water, many of my plants died. I love to plant them, but am not so great at taking care of them. :( Same goes for indoor plants... I am currently down to two but have killed at least 10.

Hopefully we'll have better luck with vegetables! My oldest son, Will (5), and I successfully grew about a dozen small carrots this year. We grew them more as an experiment in container gardening and for something fun to do, but they grew and we ate 'em! :)

To wrap up my gardening experience: I'm a work in progress starting at square 1. :)

JEFF

(I'll let Jeff update later, but here's what I know...)

Jeff grew up on a farm. They raised chickens and cows. They have land for growing hay. His grandparents have a nice sized vegetable garden that produces corn, peas, watermelon, squash, okra, tomatoes, and others each year (and still). I'm sure most of the vegetables they ate were home grown and home canned. However, I don't think Jeff did much of the planting, harvesting, or canning. I believe most of his efforts on the farm was more along the lines of tending to the cows, fixing fences, and other "manly" things. :)

In the end, I think we're both starting at square 1 with no green in our thumbs.

What shade of green are yours?