Summary. Failed Garden.

Well. This year was a total bust. Between it being my very 1st year growing in the ground / sfg'ing.. and the horrible summer we had. I barely had a harvest. My garden looked like a "wild jungle" vs any form a garden. We only had a handful of sunny days and only got to +30 a few times all summer long. I harvested a small bowl full off golfball sized tomatoes, a few cuc's and some carrots that were the size of my pinky finger.

Some things I learned from this year of gardening is...

- Tomatoes take over - grow them in pots. My tomato plants were over 6 feet high, exept I couldn't stake them so the were flopped over covering EVERYTHING else.

-Carrots must be in front. Other plants will shadow them.. no matter what they are.

-1-2 lettuce per square. Not 4.

-Too many kinds of lettuce. Just grow what you will use often.

-1 cucumber plant per square. takes over. Best in a pot as it vines.

- Keep peas away from cuc's and tomatoes. Again get all caught up in eachother

- No spinach. Unless baby small bush type spinach exists.

- Don't grow things you won't use. Waste of money & time & space.

Also, I will not be growing from seed this year ( well only ground things like peas,carrots, lettuce ) Tomatoes, onions, cuc's are all such a pain to grow from seed in my house and cost so much more money.

Ie. 1 5 inch plant at beggining of june ~3$ at local supermarket/box store. Already is grown, is past delicate seedinling stage & can be revived if a little sick looking. Total cost of plant = 3$.
OR seed = 3.99$ a package. 20$ for seedling house. 10$ seedling fertilizer. 10$ for electricity for light being on 20h a day. Time and energy watching seedlings. Trying to time when to start seedlings and time they can be planted. And then they end up dying as soon as transplanted because they were too tiny.

Anyways. Thats my summary. I have no pictures because it was a total mess from july on anyways. All you can do is learn from your mistakes.

I DID LOVE rescuing things. Rescuing vegi plants and flower plants from the evil boxed stores. Will do more of that this year.

horrible weather

Everything is kind of growing. My camera isn't charged. Sorry.
The weather has been so BAD. It's been mostly cool and cloudy with storms at night. Lots of my friend and coworkers have lost ALL of their gardens to hail. I even listened to the local garden radio show and they were talking about how horrible the weather has been for gardening. Can't really explain why.

My tomatoes are insane! they re really tall, and i needed lots of sticks to keep them up.

Lettuce is taking over!! I'm looking up recipes for different types of salads and things to do with all of it ! Same goes for spinach!

Peas just started to flower and make little pods :)

Little tomatoes and cucumbers are around.

All the flowers are alive and well. All my rescues are happy.Only the ice geraniums haven't flowered yet. They needed some major rescuing, but are almost there.

My rosemary isn't a rosemary. I'm sure it's some kind of a weed. But i'm afraid to kill it. I mean it can "think" it's a real plant too. It's contained in a pot.. And I don't have the heart to kill it. So it's the happiest little weed ever.

So long time no... Blog

Sorry! just when things get exciting and start growing.. i stop blogging. Anyways.. It has rained most of the time the last week and a half.. But here is the updates :)





Hanging planters - petunias - Down because the wind was blowing really hard






Box #1 - And i've harvested the lettuce at the front a few times.

Middle part - Strawberries, mint, pansies & marigolds.

My rosemary plant looks weird? I think it looks more like a weed. I hope not.

Middle box. Radishes are invading. But there roots aren't growing yet.. so I thinned them out a bit. :(

Peas need a teepee.

Pots. Basil has recovered very well :)

3rd box. Spinach and lettuce are exploding.

Early girl in the pot.

Potatoes are huge! This is the top peaking over the potato tub!

Baby cucumbers!!

Pretty Petunia!

2 WEEK updates!

I just couldn't help it! I have to post more update pictures.. But REALLY the last 2 weeks.. things have pretty much doubled. I didn't notice it either until I looked at the pictures. Here are the changes.


JUNE 26TH - potatoes


JULY 4TH - POTATOES!

MIDDLE POT SECTION -

Back wood pot - mint

Back green pot - spearmint

Big purple pot - Strawberries

Big wood pot - Pansies

Red pot at front - rescue pansies

June 22nd:

Same pots

( added marigold yesterday!)

July 4th -

FIRST BOX -

Top Row - Tomato, cucumber, tomato

Middle Row - Napoli Carrots

Bottom Row - Curled Simpson, Prizehead, Grand Rapids.

June 22nd -

Same Box

July 4th -

2nd box

Top Row : Sweet 100 Tomato ( grown by burpee ), Cucumbers, Peas

Middle Row : Yaya Carrots

Bottom Row : Chives, Radishes, Onions

June 22nd -

Same Box

July 4th -

3rd box

Top Row : Spinach, Peas, Tomatos.

Middle Row: Yaya Carrots, Napoli Carrots, Peas

Bottom Row : Mesclun mix, Spinach, Iceberg.

Same Box

July 4th -

:D

more RESCUES!

HAHAHA.

So this is my new hobby. Not Gardening, but rescue gardening! So many plants given a half hearted chance at life.. and then given to the hands of teenagers running the "garden" sections of the department/box/hardware/grocery store. Anywho. I REALLY ENJOY comments. Makes me so happy knowing other people are out there saving the rejects / neglected plants out there!

So here's Todays findings:

Petunia hanging basket with a few sad looking purple with white lines. I believe they are called violet stars :)! I LOVE THEM but refused to pay such outrageous prices.. Well I got this sad and mildly diseased plant for 10$ YEY!


And from the same store is this other petunia.. a "plum crystal" version.



SO I combined them. As I thought they would look amazing together ( oh and I found a white petunia in the mix! ) I think with a little love this plant will be AMAZING, and better then any 50$ hanger thoose stores are asking. ( The other petunia plant I rescued is behind it )

OH and according to some websites on the internet Petunia's represent : Resentment, Anger & "Your presence soothes me"


Rescued Marigold. I loved the colors. You can see some of the sick flowers and leaves.. And the pot it was in before I transplanted it.. .Can you sat ROOT BOUND! Sad.
Here is her new home.. Again.. weird meaning of marigold is : Cruelty, Grief & Jealousy. And another site claimed they bring you money! taking care of this girl!

Here is a picture of the little guys who started it all. The Matrix pansies. I bought them because I liked the name Matrix ( like my new car! ) and bought them, not knowing anything about flowers. Well now ..10 varieties of flowers later... here they are happy as can be!

RESCUE BASIL

Here is the basil plant I rescued from my local grocery store today. Actually I was out looking for basil.. as I had a sudden intrest in making homemade / homegrown caprese salad. S0 5 stores later I find this pooooor basil barely hanging on. I didn't take pictures of how I got it.. but it was squished in a can sized pot ... dry as could be and with 75% of the plant dead sticks. Only a few plants could be saved. But I'm sure she will recover. So this is my what? 6th rescue plant? hahaha






Here is some updates of the petunias ( not morning glory.. )
June 12:





June 28th:

See what a little love can do!

Updates and new plants!

June 26. Everything seems to be so happy.

Here is what the potatoes look like in their little tub..
Early girl got some support.

3rd box.

2nd box. The sweet 100 got supported too.

Middle strawberries and squished pansies.

it's turning red!

Rescue pansies got a new box. a window box!

1st box.

THE NEW ARRIVALS! - these are all rescues from my local grocery store.. The are selling little flowers for next to nothing, sadly they are all not looked after well... Plus these are all new to me..

This is a spring aster.. in really bad shape. But I want a bit of a... challenge.

This one is the healthiest of the bunch.. a "burgandy Ice Geranium"

annnnd this is a calibrachoa.. I can't even try to say that.

Here they are in their new pots :)

oh my gosh!

We just had quite the storm with some hail and all the plants did very well! Here are some updates of the garden:



May 19th - Pansies bucket
June 22nd - Pansies bucket!

May 19th Rescue pansies

June 22nd Rescue pansies!

So my roma tomato is .. dying? It isn't growing.. and is hanging on by a thread for the last few weeks.. So I bought a tomato plant incase he doesn't make it. This is a Burpee Early girl plant. Got her for 99cents. She's needs a little love but just got DUMPED on and hailed on 5 minutes after I planted her! And the Roma tomato you ask? well he's behind her. If he does hang on I will get him his own pot.. but if not it's not because I didn't try everything. I couldn't throw him away while he was still alive..We shall see.

Strawberry plant.

Box #3 - Top row from left - Spinach, peas, tomato

Middle row from left - Yaya Carrots, Napoli Carrots, Peas

Bottom row from left - Mesclun mix, Spinach, Iceberg lettuce

Closeup of the peas!

Box #2 - Top from left to right - Burpee Sweet 100 Tomato, Cucumbers, Peas

Middle from left - Yaya carrots

Bottom from left - Chives, Radishes, onions

Middle space pots Top From left to right - Mint, Spearmint

Middle from left to right - Rosemary, Parsley, Pansies

Bottom pot - Strawberries ( big purple pot ) And rescue pansies off pad.

Box #1 - Top from left to right - Jetsetter tomato, Cucumber, Jetsetter tomato

Middle from left to right - Napoli Carrots

Bottom from left to right -Curled simpson lettuce, Prizehead lettuce, Grand rapids lettuce.

:) Everything is doing so well!