Gardening fun

[Ninedays9]

I decided to plant some strawberries, a tomato plant, and some flowers. So, yesterday my sister and I went to a nursery to get the plants. Plants, by the way, are expensive!

Out front, there's a little area where the landlady had soil in a decorative tire. So we put a tall grass plant in the middle and flowers in a circle around it. And then there were a bunch of hanging pots the land lady said I could use. So we did flowers in some and strawberries in others. And then in front of the house, there's soil, so we put flowers there. The flowers I am most excited to see grow are the morning glories; we planted them up against the fence since they climb things like that. And then I'm very excited for when the strawberries start to grow.

Besides getting dirty, the only thing that really sucks is.... I think we've got ground bees. There were bees swarming around the front of the house, so we had to wait to plant on the one side. When they left, I started digging, and I dug up an insect that looked a lot like a bee. It didn't fly, but it had wings. While digging, I found a few more. They didn't seem to do anything but crawl around, but I stopped digging over there and didn't plant as much because I was scared I'd hit a nest.

My sister took before and after pictures, so I should have some pictures to post soon!

[SerendipityCrafts]

Diggin in the soil is good for the soul :) A good way to get more flowers/plants is to talk to other gardeners. If you compliment them on their garden, they are most always willing to give you advice and split some of their plants to get you started.

We are just waiting to see what will come up here (what the previous owner has already planted) and then I am going to flower town LOL

No matter what, I am planting raspberry bushes and a grapevine to climb along the fence (and provide some privacy too).

[Ninedays9]

We actually had some very interesting things already growing here... the land lady was the one who lived here last, and I can tell she just loves plants (all the pots, soil in the yard, hanging fixtures in the house).

In the tire, there was this icky, thick plant that we dug up and planted the flowers And then she had something else growing in the front... not sure what it was, but it didn't look very exciting. She pretty much told us we could do whatever we wanted and use her pots.. she didn't give any restrictions, so I hope she doesn't mind (she isn't going to live here again)! In my opinion, the flowers we planted look much better.

[Ninedays9]

My sister and I did a day of gardening at my house. I posted about it in the general chat, and here's the pictures (the posts can be combined here if that's possible).

Here's Gunther eating a pickle from a plate we forgot to throw away (we got it away from him before he actually ate it) and of course, Toby underneith.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/ninedays9/2966_91985025070_566510070_3039619_.jpg


Here's the tire before. We weren't sure what that plant is inside it. That peice of cardboard next to it is actually a school project of some kids that must've blown into our yard.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/ninedays9/2966_91985055070_566510070_3039623_.jpg


Here's along the fence before; the pots are old from last year:
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/ninedays9/2966_91985060070_566510070_3039624_.jpg


After picking up the flowers, we had lunch before planting. I threw chicken skin in the garbage, and Gunther wanted it. I had to take out that bag, and he still wanted to get in the can... and he did. He actually got out all on his own.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/ninedays9/2966_91985070070_566510070_3039626_.jpg


Here is the tire after we planted in it. Only two of the plants have actually flowered so far.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/ninedays9/2966_91985075070_566510070_3039627_.jpg


Here's all the potted plants and then the other ones are ones we hadn't planted yet. The one in the front hadn't been planted in yet; I did that today.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/ninedays9/2966_91985080070_566510070_3039628_.jpg


Close up daisy. We also got a yellow one. I planted them today.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/ninedays9/2966_91985125070_566510070_3039634_.jpg


One of the pots in its hanging spot:
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/ninedays9/2966_91985145070_566510070_3039638_.jpg

To be continued....

[Ninedays9]

The two pots that are now hanging in the back yard.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/ninedays9/2966_91985155070_566510070_3039640_.jpg


Strawberry pot:
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/ninedays9/2966_91985160070_566510070_3039641_.jpg


The fence with all the strawberry pots. There's flower plants beneath them.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn12/ninedays9/2966_91985165070_566510070_3039642_.jpg

I'll be back to post more when the plants start growing more and getting flowers.

[SerendipityCrafts]

(the posts can be combined here if that's possible).

Done :) :) :) :)

[Nekochanpurr]

Oh wow, you got a lot of work done!!!

I'm sorry about the bees, though! I would have freaked. Bees are scary. :(

[mitch]

Wow You've been a busy bee. (No pun intended lol)

Our Garden had no flowers or shrubs in when We moved in. So We only have a few pots We did ourselves. Plus a huge half barrel with Herbs in. It weighs a ton and takes two to lift it. :bbeek: DH moved it from the patio to the lawn with His Digger when He dug up the path. I dread to think what state the lawns in underneath.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w229/mitchymoomoo/garden/DSC03853.jpg

[SerendipityCrafts]

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w229/mitchymoomoo/garden/DSC03853.jpg

Those frog musicians are just too cute!

[Ninedays9]

Those frog musicians are just too cute!

I agree; they are very cute!

[FFC]

Oh I'm jealous! :) So glad you got to get out and plant some garden!

[Ninedays9]

Soo... I missed a day of watering, but I thought it'd be ok because it had rained a lot, and the soil was still very moist earlier in the day. I went to water everything tonight and... a whole side of flowers is wilted! This includes both the daisy plants and then the petunias (I think that's what they are).

The last time I checked, they were all doing very well. Now they looked like someone stepped all over them. The strange thing is, there's a pot right above them with the same petunias planted from the same original containers, and they are flourishing. This pot is about 4 inches above all the rest of them. And all my other plants are doing fine.

Anyone have any ideas on why that could be? I can't help but wonder if the bees have anything to do with it... or maybe the soil over there is different. Fortunately the tomato plant that's also on that side is still doing well. But grrrrrr, I hope they revive themselves!

[Ninedays9]

Well, it appears the flowers have already revived themselves. It's strange because they looked very weak, and now they're standing upright again. Yay!

[SerendipityCrafts]

Normally, we have to wait until our long weekend in May (24th - to be sure there will be no more ground frost) but I couldn't wait any longer. I needed to relieve a little of the gardening bug and so, I picked up 4 flats of pansies and made two hanging baskets and 3 baskets for our deck railing. I also put out the hydrangea bush that DH had bought me and planted the Easter lily that I picked up for the holiday.

I'll pick up some more plants in the next few weeks to fill in here and there, wherever there are bare spots.

DH didn't have enough lawn to mow in the back but he did get to try out his new toy in the front of the house this weekend. Our neighbour thought his reel mower was "cool" which made DH even prouder to have it :rofl:

[Ninedays9]

My flowers revived themselves after the wilting... but the new summer heat here in Minnesota has affected them again. I watered them twice yesterday, and the ones in the soil have wilted anyway. The daisys have completely turned over, and even the hearty tomato plant is getting wilted. I feel like a horrible plant mother. I am hoping with plenty of TLC, they will revive themselves again... I will be very sad if they all die. That's a lot plants! I guess I will have to keep checking the soil to see if it's dry and watering at least twice a day. I think I'll water them all again before I go to work tonight.

On the good side... all the potted ones are still doing well. The strawberry plants look healthy, and so do all the potted flowers. The petunias in the tire are doing fairly well, but I think that's because I had Eddie water them last night. The soil still looked like it had never been watered, today.

I really, really hope my wilted flowers revive themselves!! To all the gardeners out there with healthy plants... send good growing vibes to my flowers, :).

[Whitewater]

Well, out of six baby raspberry plants (in either cane or bush form) I've killed 4, possibly 5 of them, so I know how you feel.

The strawberry plants that I got from Ebay are also dead. What the dog didn't kill, the wind finished. I woke up today to discover empty fiber pots all OVER the yard, and no sign of the plants. Wasn't much of a loss, though, they never really recovered from the transplant shock and between the dog and the weather, it was inevitable. The strawberry plants I picked up from HD seem to be doing ok, at least, they have new growth.

The tomatoes and the peppers, on the other hand, seem to be surviving pretty well and are obviously growing, even to the naked eye. It's too early to tell with the zuke and watermelon seeds. They have only been in the ground a week, maybe less.

The herbs have not yet sprouted, though germination hopefully has already taken place beneath the soil.

So far, still no flowers, of any kind, except for our front yard apple tree, which has a few pretty light pink colored blossoms.

It's a waiting game!


Whitewater

[Ninedays9]

My flowers have mostly revived themselves. The daisys still seem a little ill... I'm not sure if the flowers will ever go back to as beautiful as they were. I wonder if they are the same as other flowers, where if I pluck it, it will grow a new flower??

I am very excited about my tomato plant. It seems to have shot up at least 6 inches recently. I appear to have planted it a little too close to my flowers, though it didn't seem that way at the time. But the really cool thing... the tomato plant has flowers!!! Yay! I excitedly told Eddie that this morning, and he laughed and said, "You don't even like tomatoes." It's true... but it's still exciting. My strawberries also seem to have some new growth, and they look healthy. Yay!

[Whitewater]

Boy, I am so jealous that your tomato plants have flowers before mine do! Kind of like a baby getting their teeth before somebody else's kid, LOL. :)

The recent 2 day heat wave just about killed my Early Girl tomato plant. It's all wilted and looking very unhappy. We'll see if it picks up.

I have a Zombie Strawberry plant. One of the plants in the patch that the dog killed has apparently come back to life and has a straggly little green stem with a poor little green leaf on the end of it. I gave it some special soil around the roots and watered it. We'll see if it can revive completely.

And I now have one watermelon sprout and one zucchini sprout from the seeds I planted. I planted about 2 dozen watermelon seeds, but only 2 zuke seeds, because I know the zukes produce like crazy and are impossible to kill.

Yay sprouts! Wish my tomatoes and strawberries would start to flower, though!


Whitewater

[Ninedays9]

I hope your tomatoes get flowers soon! My tomato plant was looking very wilted during the second day of the heat. I watered everything excessivly when I saw that. Fortunately the tomato also perked back up. It seems to have shot up very quickly, so that could happen for yours.

In other news, my morning glories are finally starting to grow. Yay!!

[Whitewater]

Today I went out to the garden and discovered two more Sugar Baby watermelon sprouts and 4, yes, FOUR zucchini sprouts. 3 more sprouted overnight, in addition to the one I had already.

That means I have SIX zucchini plants. And it's just the two of us! Anybody like zucchini? LOL!!! 'Cause we're going to have extra!

So, today's total is 3 watermelon sprouts, 4 zucchini sprouts, 2 young zuke plants, 1 Early Girl Tomato Plant (which isn't doing so well), 1 generic 'Tomato' plant (by Bonnie), 1 Sweet Banana Pepper Plant, one hot jalapeno plant, 1 sweet jalapeno plant, 2 Ozark Beauty strawberry plants, 1 All-Star strawberry plant, 1 Quinault strawberry plant, 1 Autumn Bliss raspberry plant, and one Zombie Strawberry plant (formerly known as a Honeoye strawberry plant), we hope. It looks to me like the Zombie Strawberry Plant is truly coming back, it's still a bit too early to tell. No herbs yet.

Since we've now had a few nights in a row that have been over 50'F, the veggie garden is growing like gangbusters, particularly the itty-bitty hot jalapeno plant, which actually has some stem now and more than two leaves. Still no flowers on the 'maters or the strawberries, though.


Whitewater (who's about to go plant cantaloupe seeds!)

[Ninedays9]

I should really take some pictures of my flowers now. They've grown a lot.

One thing I've learned is that I will never again plant gerbera daisies. They're pretty, but they don't do well with heat at all. They have to be constantly watered, and even then, they are still are risk of shriveling up or fainting. I had a dead flower on one, and they can't just be plucked like the other flowers... so I snipped it. It looks better that way than having a dead flower, but I'm not sure if I did the right thing.

The petunias and... the smaller ones (I completely forgot what they're called) are doing very well. Petunias are plants made for survival. They're the only ones that haven't shown signs of the heat affecting them.

I still have no flowers on my strawberry plants, and I'm starting to wonder if I will ever. I'll be sad if I get no strawberries because I don't have much faith in my ability to keep the plants alive in doors during the winter so they're around next year. On the other hand, the tomato plant is about 2 and a half feet tall or maybe taller, and it's got rows of flowers going up. The plant has gotten so big, it's overshadowing my poor little flowers that are next to it. At the time of planting, I thought it'd be ok to put flowers there.

If I can find our USB cord, I'll take pictures. :)

[Whitewater]

You're ahead of us with your tomato plants! Both of my plants are just about 18" high. They've both got flowers, though, that will turn into tomatoes (and LOTS of flowers about to bloom. . . ), so I don't know what will happen next, whether they'll continue to grow or not.

To my surprise I discovered that we have a peony in the front of our house! It hasn't bloomed yet. Everything seems to be late in our garden, and I don't know why. Even our dwarf lilac bloomed about three weeks later than the other lilacs around town did!

We have 6 cantaloupe sprouts at last count. The zukes are thriving, the pepper plants are growing slowly but surely, and the watermelon sprouts are finally starting to show their first true leaves (man, those things grow slowly). I'm hoping that the tomato plants will grow taller! At least to two feet, if not taller. It's not that far from 18" to 24".

I have killed more raspberry plants, though. I just don't think raspberries are going to grow in our yard. Oh well. We'll have plenty of cantaloupe and watermelon!!

I sprinkled some pellet form fertilizer around about a week ago, the plants seem to like it. I don't know if it will help them get flowers and fruit/veggies or not, but at least the plants themselves will get more nutrients.

This is my first time doing any of this, so I'm just doing what the books and the internet say to do! We'll see what happens.


Whitewater

[Kfancii]

All of our plants other than the squash seem to be behind schedule here in Texas too! We have tomatos that have just now bloomed and have little green tomatos on them, the okra which grew like crazy last year is barely 6 inches tall. My cukes are not doing anything and the beans and peas barely have any flowers on them at all. Just this week the peppers have bloomed out, so by next week I bet we will have a nice array of peppers. Now, the squash was the last thing planted (from seed no less) and it is going nuts! I bet we have 15 yellow squash that will be ready next week and probably 8-10 zukes. This is from just 1/2 row of each planting! I just wish I liked squash more than I do - of course the only thing that is growing well is my least favorite veggie in the garden! :(

[Whitewater]

I've been told that squash/zucchini are the one plant that it is impossible to kill, that *anybody* can have a successful, thriving crop. Of course, that means that if you have an abundance of squash, you eventually get buried in zukes!

Did you know that August 8th is National Leave Some Zucchini On Your Neighbor's Porch Day? LOL!

Luckily I love zucchini bread and don't mind shredding and freezing the excess zukes so that I can have zucchini bread all winter.

And I happen to have a ton of friends that like fresh veggies but don't garden, so I can give zukes away as much as I want to and still have takers :)

That's good, because we have 6 squash plants growing in our garden, when 2 plants would have produced sufficient for Fiance and myself . . .


Whitewater

[Ninedays9]

Ya know, I have actually never tried zucchini. I don't think we ever had it, growing up.

I'm not a fan at all of tomatoes, so I'll be giving lots of those away when they finally start growing. It's had flowers for at least a week, I think, and the tomatoes haven't started growing. My poor tomato plant is getting all wilted in the heat.

I've been using miracle grow about once a week with my water. I think it's helped my flowers and stuff to grow. I don't think the soil was too great for nutrients and stuff like that (though still better than plain dirt) when I planted the stuff.

I can't wait for the morning glories to start blooming, that is going to look so cool. The vines are getting leaves on them now, yay!

[Whitewater]

You have to look really really carefully to see a baby tomato. Once the yellow blossom shrivels up, there *should* be (if the flower was fertilized) a little round green nub in the middle of what would have been the flower. That green nub is what will grow into a tomato. You have to look really carefully for them, because sometimes the blossoms drop off and they didn't get fertilized at all, or they're male flowers, and they won't have that green nubby thing.

The nub also isn't very visible if you're just looking at the plant. You have to carefully and gently turn what's left of the blossom so that you can see into it, to see the nub.

I have learned all this in the last week! We have 3 baby tomatoes already! Including blossoms, soon-to-be blossoms and baby tomatoes, between the two plants, we have 47 tomatoes-to-be. Yikes. And it's just the beginning of the season!

I'm hoping the peppers will start growing fruit soon, so that they can ripen together and we can make (and freeze) salsa. Gotta do SOMETHING with all these tomatoes!

So far, the tomatoes and the zucchini are doing the best in the garden, hands down.


Whitewater

[Ninedays9]

I may have flowers or the start of flowers on my strawberry plant. Does anyone know what they look like? They're towards the base of the plant, and right now, it looks like a fan of leaves. I saw something that looked like the start of a flower on one of those leaves though, which is why I think those leaf fans are the starts of flowers. Hopefully they are!!

[Whitewater]

Strawberry flowers are small, about the size of a quarter, and white with 4 petals. They are yellow in the center, and it's the center that swells and becomes a strawberry.

What variety of strawberry do you have? Just curious, since I *still* haven't seen any hint of a flower on mine.

On the other hand, I suspect that we'll get flowers and thus baby jalapenos within the next 7 days . . .


Whitewater

[Ninedays9]

I'm not really sure what kind they are. Gertens didn't have the signs up when we went, since I think they'd just started putting that stuff out. I just know the little tag in the soil said "Great for jam!" They're very hearty plants that have gotten pretty big, though.

[Whitewater]

Well, I staked the tallest jalapeno plant (the mild one) and the sweet banana pepper plant today . . .they both have little bumps coming out of them that look like they might be the start of flowers and/or peppers, and since they're still not really able to support a lot of fruit, I staked them, just to be safe. The banana pepper plant is sturdy, but short, probably no more than 8" high, and the TAM jalapeno plant is a good 18" high but weedy and skinny-looking, so I figure they will need the support.

My tomatoes have *taken off* today, and yesterday, because of the rain we've just gotten. They're growing like crazy! New leaves, new branches, new height, new blossoms, and the lil' ol' baby tomatoes on both plants are now about the size of a really big pea. I had to re-stake the Early Girl plant today, as a matter of fact, it grew 4" at least during the recent rain! I admit, I am feeling smug about the fact that as of now, we're going to be the first ones on our block to have tomatoes! And the Generic Tomato Plant is now sturdy enough to support the weight of the tomatoes, something I *never* would have expected this soon. The main 'trunk' of the plant is now about as big around as one of my fingers! And the Early Girl tomato, which was always wilty and runty, now looks like a healthy, happy tomato plant, if still a little light on foliage. I am very relieved about that. It still doesn't have the foliage of the Generic Tomato, but now I have hope that the EG will catch up sooner or later! If they keep growing at this rate, the tomatoes we have won't be *ripe* by the wedding, but they'll be big enough to see without having to look for them, which means I will take pictures. :)

And I have another cantaloupe sprout, for a total of 7. Still just two watermelon sprouts, I suspect that the birds got the rest of the seeds. Lesson to me -- start the seeds inside next year, and set them out when the baby plants are too big for the birds to eat! But the surviving two sprouts are growing, one even has its first true leaves, which will pop out in the next few days, I hope, if there's enough sun and warm temps. The fruit sprouts are the slowest growers in the garden, next to the rosemary bush (which takes top honors!), but I can see daily growth.

The zucchini plants are growing like weeds. If they keep this up, by the time of the wedding we may see our first flowers!

My lavender is growing well, so is the tarragon (which is about to get flowers!) and the dill has finally stopped wilting and started to set new leaves. The rosemary is healthy and happy, though a slow grower.

The strawberry plants still have no flowers. But the Zombie is growing well, and if it can survive the winter, we'll have more of them next year!

And there is new growth on one of the raspberry plants! I saw that yesterday, when the rain finally stopped. Perhaps we'll be able to grow raspberries after all! Though I don't expect a harvest this year. But there are multiple new leaves, so I hope that eventually we'll get a real, healthy bush from this cutting.

OH -- we now have *peonies*!! We inherited them with the house and I didn't pay any attention to them because last year they didn't bloom at all and I didn't know what their foliage looked like. But this year, they're blooming like crazy, even the one in front of the house which hardly gets any sun at all. Huge triple blooms, in a lovely light pink color. It's kind of cool because they're beginning to bloom just about the time our lilac is losing its flowers . . .

I still like gardening. A whole lot. Yes, indeed.


Whitewater

[Ninedays9]

That is very cool about your tomato plants. I still can't tell if we actually have any baby tomatoes yet. I've inspected the flowers, and if there is a baby tomato, it's very tiny. And there is definitely a flower on one of my strawberry plants, so I'm happy about that!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned in my other posts, but there is this icky plant that the landlady must've planted when she lived here... it's like sticks coming out of the ground with thorns on them. It's getting bigger and bigger and is crowding my flowers and the spot where I had the strawberry basket. It's really a bummer... I wish I could kill it, but it's too big and thorny. Yuck!

Gardening is quite fun. I hope some day I'll be able to have potatoes and carrots.

[Whitewater]

Are you sure the plant with thorns isn't a raspberry bush? Wait to see until the fall, it sounds like it might be the canes of last year's raspberries.

I'm jealous that you have a flower on your strawberries! As soon as I can, I'll take some pictures of the life stages of my tomatoes, maybe that will help you figure out where yours are at.

I want to grow carrots too -- but potatoes take up a TON of space, or so I've read.

I might be getting two more pepper plants, from a friend of a friend who ran out of room in her own garden. One's a green bell pepper plant, and the other is an unknown hot pepper plant that she grew from seed, but didn't have a label for! And I might get a Roma tomato plant too, although my friend is eyeing that one. Romas make great sauce and paste!

I still haven't got flowers on my strawberries. I'm starting to think that since everything in my yard is about 2-3 weeks later than the rest of the city, that perhaps *I* will get strawberries in July rather than June :) Right now I'm just happy that the Zombie is thriving and growing leaves like crazy.


Whitewater (who hopes it'll be sunny again tomorrow so that she can take pictures, for the record!)

[Ninedays9]

I looked at the tomato plant again, and there is, indeed little tomatoes on it! I don't think one of the sets of flowers has them yet or will have them... and that's that's set of flowers I kept looking at. The plant just keeps getting bigger. It'll probably be as tall as me someday... it already almost is! It's reaching over into the pot of flowers I have hanging from the stake it's tied to.

I probably also won't have strawberries until July. It's only the one plant that has a flower on it that I can see.

I'm not sure what the thorny bush is, but perhaps you're right. I'll have to look up raspberry bush pictures. It sure is ugly, though, and it just keeps getting bigger. That'd be cool if that's what it was.

[Ninedays9]

Well, there is something going on with the bush. It's got what is either berries or flowers growing on it. It looks like it's going to be berries. The one that is open is bright pink... I'm kinda confused by that. It's kind of hard like a berry, but I've never seen one that was bright pink. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out what it is as it matures...

[Ninedays9]

The strawberries on the one plant are getting bigger, and I noticed there's two more sets of blooms. I was very excited by that, especially since the other two plants aren't flowering at all. I can't wait til the strawberries are actually ready!

And I was all worried that being gone for two days over the weekend would kill the flowers, but there must've been rain or something 'cause they were still ok.

[Whitewater]

Yay for flowers :) And seeing as how it's only two weeks until your wedding, you must have more to think about now than your garden, lol.

As for my plants and flowers, well, we got some kind of fungus thing on the first strawberries, so I got 2 out of 6. Rats. But two more plants are about to have berries and with luck they won't get sick!

Raspberry is thriving, and we just bought two more plants from HD. I wanted plants that I knew the name of -- now I think all three of the raspberries are Heritage red raspberries. Hopefully all three of them will produce berries, if not this season then next! I love raspberries!

The herbs are thriving, I picked some dill for the first time a few days ago and used it with baked salmon. And we have a volunteer dill plant, no idea where it came from.

We have a lot of flowers on our cantaloupe plants and hopefully a cantaloupe here and there. The mild jalapeno and sweet banana pepper plants are growing fruit also. The baby peppers are just about ready to be put into the garden.

As for the tomatoes, they're also producing very well but unfortunately they're -still- green. I'm hoping they'll start to ripen within the next 7 days. Otherwise it'll be time to take them off the vine and ripen them inside. The rare heirloom Valencia tomato that I rescued from the store (which was really sick and puny, close to death) 2 weeks ago is making a fine recovery and in fact is strong enough to start producing flowers. Hopefully we'll get at least one tomato from it (they're cool, they're orange colored!), so that I can save the seeds for next year! It's still stunted, but determined to thrive.

And we've picked the first 3 zukes this past week, and ate two of them. The third is waiting while we decide its fate. Judging by the amount of flowers, we will soon have more zucchini than we can use, so it's good we have friends waiting eagerly for our overflow.

Garden is growing, a little less productive than I was expecting (so far) but next year will be better because we'll have established fruit plants and I'll have experience with the veggie plants. I think, in order to can and preserve stuff, I'll have to have at least twice as many plants as I do now, which is ok, we have the space. I just didn't want to start huge because I didn't know what I was getting into.

And I haven't killed anything yet!


Whitewater (now a Mrs)

[Ninedays9]

Unfortunately I've been a bit slacking in the gardening department and the house cleaning department because I'm distracted by other stuff... but I still at least water once a day. My flowers aren't doing so great because they seem to need water at least twice a day when it's hot. Some of them have died... the ones that weren't in great shape in the first place. It stinks, but at least my tomato and strawberries are doing well. My one strawberry plant is producing flowers like crazy, and another one has flowers on it. The first one has berries, but I'm not sure when I'm supposed to get them. What are they supposed to look like?

[Ninedays9]

We've now had two good tomatoes and two fell off the plant that were no good. We made BLTs a couple nights ago, and Eddie enjoyed one of the tomatoes (I don't like tomatoes). And all three strawberry plants have strawberries on them! Woohoo! I've eaten a few here and there that have turned red. They were excellent. I'm so excited for when all the ones that are on there turn red. They should be turning red closer together than the others have.

My morning glories have started flowering, and I'm very annoyed. They're gorgeous flowers in my favorite color... but they literally last about 2 hours. They bloom and then they almost immediately start closing up and then they shrivel up and fall off. So I don't think I'd grow those again. I think if I am able to have a garden next year, I'll get mostly petunias.