In The Garden

Here is an update on the status of my garden.  I am feeling much better from having the flu and being in the hospital with pneumonia (although I was considerably behind while trying to get well, I have on 3 tomato plants left to plant, some plants are way too small for this time period, but they are in the ground).

I have noticed that since I moved the black/red raspberries and the blue berries to the patio there has been considerable growth.  I think next year will be much better since these plants are now getting total sun and they should be able to fruit up.  I am also giving the plants coffee grounds.

The potatoes are already starting to flower.  I would have thought it would have been a few more months before this occurred.  I planted them in March (I need to check the tag to see what the maturity time period is).



Here are the various tomato plants that I have actively growing in the garden.






2 photos above--Lemon Boy (store bought transplants)

 

Jelly Bean Hybrid (grown from seed)

  

Cherokee Purple (from seed, thanks engineeredgarden)

 



2 photos above--1 of 2 of my Roma Burpee plants, 1 is waiting to be planted (from seed).

 

Better Boy Hybrid (from seed)





2 photos above--Roman Candle 1 waiting to be planted (from seed, thanks engineeredgarden)

 

Burpee Sweet Snack Hybrid (from seed)

 

Early Girl Hybrid (from seed).  This plant had some frost damage, but so far it is almost as big as some of the other plants in the garden.

 

Burpee Sweet Hybrid (from seed)





2 photos above--Black Cherry (thanks engineeredgarden)





2 photos above--Bonnie Grape (store bought transplants)

 

Roma (store bought transplants)

 

Yellow Plum (store bought transplants)



2 photos above--Yellow Pear and it is forming tomatoes, since it is an indeterminate, we shall see (store bought transplant).  The last time I grew these were from seed and I got a lot of greenery, but one lonely tomato.



2 photos above--1 of 2 of my Paul Robeson tomato plants, it is starting to form tomatoes (thanks engineeredgarden)



3 photos above--Paul Robeson tomato plants, the 1st tomato plant is starting to form tomatoes, the 3rd is waiting to be planted (thanks engineeredgarden)

Pepper plants, most of the peppers in my garden, which there are tons, have all started to flower and/or produce baby peppers of some sort.



2 photos above--Chocolate Bell Peppers

 

Lilac Bell Pepper



Sweet Banana Pepper

 

Cayenne Pepper

Radishes

I have 3 egg plants in my garden and so far 1 of the 3 are starting to flower. 1 was about to flower, but since I moved it, the plant shock made it drop its flowers. My third plant was being shielded by the cabbage so I moved it and it is still a small plant (it is getting bigger by the day).

My cabbage plants are transplants and I have 4 of them growing.  Not sure if they are to close, so next year, I will try to plant them much further apart.

The green beans are coming along quite well.  I am not seeing the tendrils so not sure how big these plants will get.  I can't wait to try the green beans.  When I grew green beans during my first year of growing, I got enough to make one meal out of them and I was happy.  Hopefully I get more so that I can freeze them.

The peas don't look great, but they are flowering and have already started to form peas.  I love eating them right off the vine.

Cucumbers are starting to produce.  I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE cucumbers.  I accidentally picked up transplants that did not have the tags in there, but I do remember that some were Armenia, lemon, and burpless, will only find out which is which at picking time.  I don't mind.

The 1st photo below are the zucchini plants prior to them being moved into the buckets (2nd photo) as you can see they are very happy.  I have one plant in the bed in photo 1, just in case the buckets don't survive, it is not as big as the ones in the buckets, but it was planted much later.  They are all growing quite nicely.

Flower Beds and Plants

I am happy to see a lot of my plants survived the cold winter we had (however, I still lost a lot).


Gardenia plant is trying to come back.



Not sure what this plant is???



Elephant Ears are starting to return.



Blackfoot Shasta Daisy is showing up for the summer.  They looked a lot better last year.

The cactus that I got through freecycle last year is starting to flower.  I moved it from a shaded spot to an area that would get way more sun.



Tulip, I realize that this area is not right for the tulips, so if it does not survive, I will be planting new bulbs elsewhere.



3 photos above-Hollyhock.  I have had this plant for about 3 years now and it is the first year that it has flowered.  Last year I realized that squash bugs (or similar bugs) were taking it over and I also lost 2 other good size plants to rust.



The Agapanthus is coming back.  Last year and the year before around this time they would have already flowered.  At least the bulbs are still viable.



2 photos above-Earth Kind Roses



Very proud of our work.  We moved the BBQ pit from the patio to out in the yard.  Now have to get another propane tank and clean the grill so that I can use it again.



Hydrangea, I have never done well with these growing in my yard, so I am going to grow in in the house and take cuttings from it to try again.



Peace Lilly, I had lots of these last year, but an infestation of fruit flies had me clear out all my plants.  No matter what I did, I could not get rid of them.  OVER WATERING was the enemy.



I received this plant (although it was a tiny cutting) from a propagation class last year.  It is doing quite well.



Money Tree (Pachira Aquatica)-Picked this up at IKEA last month and I really like the plant.  I have to research care for it.



Dragon Tree (Dracaena Marginata)-Picked this up also at IKEA last month.  I lost my others due to the infestation of fruit flies.



Birdie Stitches Embroidery BOM #3

Little Miss Shabby Birdie Stitches March block.  I decided to spice mine up with throwing in some clover and grass for a St. Patrick's theme.

Happy Mother's Day

I want to thank my husband and daughter for a great Mother's Day.  My husband brought home Kerby Lane Cafe breakfast (my favorite) which contained

• Gingerbread pancakes
• Scrambled Eggs
• Soy Sausage
• Country style potatoes

My daughter baked a pound cake for me and it was quite good.  My husband and daughter worked together to create a fabulous dinner, which was:

• Spinach Lasagna
• Chicken Marsala (first time it was made and my husband did a tremendous job on it)
• Garlic bread

Also, to my total surprise I received gift cards to Starbucks and Joannes.  Well I must say that my crafting and coffee addiction (recenlty acquired coffee additction, considering I could not stand it a few years ago, same thing happened with Chineese food) will be satisfied (as just on Saturday I broke down and purchased me a gift card to Sarbucks as well, go figure 2 gift cards for COFFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE), I will be overwhelmed with

• Venti
• Bold
• Carmel
• Little room for cream

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day, I know that I did.

Also, I picked this weekend to inventory and enter all the books that I have in my mini library into an electronic database http://www.goodreads.com/, turns out I have 559 books.  I like this program so far, as I can have it with me at all times so that when I come across a book that I need and it is on sale, I can purchase it without purchasing a duplicate.

Garden 2011 #2

Update on my garden (04/09-10/11).  A majority of the spinach all set seed so I pulled most of it and found small plants growing underneath so I kept them (I am sure they will set seed as well with the heat).  My potatoes are also forming flowers, I would have thought it would have been much later in the season before it started this.  I moved my raspberries and blueberries to the patio to hopefully get more sun (shall see if that helps them sent more fruit).  I gave up on the soaker hoses because I discovered a lot of the plants were not getting the water from the hoses if it was not directly next to them.  I am mapping out doing my own drip irrigation system for the garden.

Questions:

• My onions seemed to have set seed early than I have experienced before.  I also tried using some of them the other day and some parts were real hard (I was only using the root portion since the stalk was hard), is that normal, should I pull them all and compost them?
• My brussel sprouts still look the same in the video today, should I pull those as well and start again next year.  I am not that familiar with the growing of brussel sprouts, so maybe when it gets this hot they stop forming the sprouts.  Also, last night I noticed a flower starting to form on the top of the plant, would you say it is done for the season?

Thanks and happy gardening.

Seedlings 2011 #3

Update on my seedlings (from 04/08/11 a little behind), which most of them are now happily planted in the garden and I also started some Marigolds (of course it was probably late in the season, but I did it any way.  Lastly started some watermelons and cucumbers.

Update

Well March turned out to be a crazy month for me:

I was ill from the end of February to the beginning of March.  Went to the doctor as was told that I had a respiratory infection, ear infection, nausea, and a bad headache.  I was on medication for a week or so.  I was wondering if this illness would prevent me from going to New York with my daughter and her band over Spring Break (03/14-18/11).  I got a little better and went on the trip.  I started developing another cough on the trip, thought maybe it was just the exhaustion, airplane ride, still getting over illness, different environment and lack of sleep.  I pushed through the trip and when I got home on Friday my cough was worse.  I went to the doctor on that Monday and was told I had the flu, ear infection, nausea, and a bad headache.  I had been battling a 102 temperature since I had gotten home from NY.  On that Thursday I starting having coughing fits and could not catch my breath, so I went to the doctor again.  She told me to go to the hospital as it may have been pneumonia or a pulmonary embolism.  Got to the emergency room (doctor called ahead so the process was real quick) and in about an hour was confirmed my lungs had pneumonia pretty bad (both lungs).  I was told this is what they call "walking pneumonia" and I may have had it for a few weeks and that is why I was not felling well.  I ended up staying in the hospital for a few days and then another week at home recuperating.

I am still not at my norm.  I get tired easily and my gardening has to be broken up into about an hour or 2 at a time.  So with this being planting season, it may take me a while to get through.  My crafting has also slowed down, I just don't have the energy.  Today I was so tired that I took about a 3-4 hour nap and I am still tired.  Normally I don't try to nap on the weekends so that when I do go to bed I can really sleep.

I have to shake this because this is not me.  I know I have been running on fumes for the last few months with work, the trip, etc., but normally I can snap back.  OH well I guess it is age that is starting to tell me that I have to slow down.  However, I will be telling age to take a back seat, I got things to do.  HA HA.

I will be posting pictures of the NY trip, updates on my gardening and quilting projects that I have been working on.  I also got a chance to read some books that I had on the back burner for a while because I found them on CD and during my hospital stay they kept me company.

Hope everything had a good Spring Break, St. Patrick's Day, April Fools, and are enjoying the changing in the weather.