Producing

I have progress to report!  First, 3 blog posts this month marks a record for me.  More importantly, the mesclun greens and arugula were ready to pick last week (and yes, I had to read up on how exactly to pick them).  We have had a few salads and even had enough to take salad to a friend's bar-b-q last weekend!  I guess that if nothing else grows all summer I can be happy that for a few nights we sat down to a salad that we grew ourselves, and we've learned a few lessons for next year.  I will say, these greens keep for much longer in our refrigerator than the ones we get at the store.
Some of the later plants are not yet done growing, though, so we may have more to report, yet!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Pests

So on Monday, the garden looked awesome.
Here is a text I got from the hubs when he watered it Tuesday morning:
"Babe, ur garden is looking good this morning!  Mesclun is huge, broccoli looking better."
When I got home from work Tuesday night, a pest had uprooted almost all of my cucumbers and squash/zucchini.  I was fired up!
Did some reading. I think we may have rabbits (but they didn't get the carrots?)

When I got home today, I checked the back, and the hubs had installed chicken wire around the whole thing to keep out the critters.  What a sweetie.  I hope it works.  Now, I'm back to the drawing board with the different squashes.  At least the darn things didn't get my tomatoes.

Warm Weather Planting

With the last threats of frost gone the last week in April, I planted the warm weather seedlings into the ground.  For TN, the warm planting season includes:
green beans
squash
zucchini
corn
bell pepper
tomatoes
pumpkin
cantaloupe
cucumber

Green Beans Row

Spring plantings: corn, breen beans, squash

Progress on the cold weather planting:  mesclun, carrots, arugula

The cool weather plantings are making some progress, but to be honest, it kind-of looks like a mess.  The carrots instructions were to plant just 2 inches apart, but the greens are getting tangled.  The lettuce is muddy, which is to be expected, but it still makes me a little sick.  Oh well, I think we may get enough for a couple of salads out of it at least.  I think there are another 30 days or so until it's ready to go.

The UT ag extension website has lots of information on what to plant and when specifically for our area, as well as how far apart the rows should be and anticipated yield.  They were a good resource to get started.  When looking this up, many colleges have an extension to their state's recommendations.

Interesting Finds

We have found a lot of interesting items while digging up land for our landscaping and garden projects.

I have no idea what the people who lived here before us were like, but some of the items give some insight.

a spark plug
a spark plug connecter
(I don't know what these things look like-the hubs had to clarify)
lots of glass pieces, and rocks
a huge tree root, about 50 yards from the nearest tree-those suckers can spread out
another spark plug
a concrete wall in the front near the sidewalk-yes, under the dirt and grass
a bullet

The hubs called to police station to see if any interesting unsolved murders happened here long ago.  It turns out, the former occupants were hunters.  A much more likely story, yet far less interesting.

The rain and sun have made for some growth in the garden, and though it's not very pretty, maybe I will take some pictures to post sometime this week.

Landscaping Project

I know what you're thinking: this girl only posted two times, and she's already failed!

Actually, it's just quite boring watching plants grow. Plus, I had over 800 pictures on my camera, and I just got around to downloading them all.

We've been really busy at our house the past few weeks. Several indoor projects-drywall upstairs, new kitchen cabinets, tiling the upstairs bathroom, etc... One of the most fun (maybe because it's easier to learn to plant plants than it is tohang drywall, and because it's done) has been our front yard landscaping. When I was dating Chip, his grass was the greenest on the block. Then, it flooded in Nashville, and our lawnmower was lost in the mess. Two weeks later, we got married, and when we returned from our honeymoon,the yard was a jungle. It's been pretty ugly ever since.

We decided it was time to do something to the outside of the house, so I took pictures, Chip drew out the dimensions of the yard, and we went to the local nursery (this got a lot of people I know excited...wrong nursery, people!)

Bates was great. We sat down with a landscape designer, she drew us a plan, and then we found a guy to direct us to the best of their plant selection. It was a quick and easy process, unlike the actual landscaping. We had a ton of dirt delivered to raise our beds.

We laid out our new plants in the design we wanted, and my mom and dad came and helped us plant them all. It took all day, but we accomplished quite a bit. Here's the finished product!

I think I can even tell you what everything is!

As for my vegetables, they are looking good. The cool weather plants are in the ground, and some have sprouted. The warm weather plants are seedlings now. I'm not done yet!

planting

A couple of weeks ago, we invited my 5-year-old nephew over to help us plant vegetables. His teacher has told my sister-in-law that "he has a real gift for gardening."

We planted the "cold" vegetables, which in TN include: lettuces, spinach, collard greens (I don't so much like these, so the hubs only did a couple of spots), broccoli, carrots, and peas. My nephew was so cute-each item I gave him-he said "oh peas, my favorite!", "carrots! I love carrots!", you get the picture. Here is a picture of the progress...not quite ready for planting into the actual garden spot just yet.

Clearly, the one on the right that is doing well is the one that the hubs planted. My nephew Kyle and I did the one on the left. In our defense, the peas only grow one large stock, while the greens the hubs planted grew tons of sprouts. According to the directions on the planters, we need to pare down the overgrowth, but I'm afraid that I'll pick the wrong pieces out. Hopefully we will get something out of this planting. My money is on the peas (that, for the record, Kyle and I planted).

intro

I cannot keep a plant alive. On one of our first dates, my husband gave me mums to plant in the pots on my front porch. Within a month they were dead. Luckily, the relationship outlasted the mums. To replace the mums, my mom planted ivy in the pots, stating "who can kill ivy?"

I can kill ivy. I even keep two orchid pots in my office, with the brown stems, to remind myself why my husband will never deliver flowers to me at work again:

So, naturally I was surprised when he told me he wanted to plant a garden, and to put me in charge of it. Who can resist the idea of fresh, homegrown tomatoes straight from your own backyard in the summer? I thought it might create some funny moments that I'd want to remember, and I've been interested in starting a blog, so we'll see how it goes! Wish me luck!