Plants!!

Our garden is taking off! After a few days of much needed rain, we are really starting to see buds, blooms and even some veggies on the vine. Check it out!

All our veggies are grown completely organic, watered by natural rain, and collected and filtered rain water. There is something to be said for growing things the natural way. Here's proof!

 Radishes!

 Sweet peas growing on a trellis

 Lettuce grown in a recycled plastic strawberry container

 Cherry tomatoes

 Big Boy tomatoes

 Strawberries blooming for the THIRD time

 Squash, zucchini, red, yellow and green beans, cucumbers and peppers

Radishes and  onions grown in a recycled wagon.

We are so thrilled to be able to grow our own veggies again. We are also working to cultivate some wild blackberry bushes in the backyard. And, we discovered a mulberry tree, which I have never seen before, but I hear that mulberries make good jelly.

Plants, plants.... and a litter box?

So, all of our plants have been doing extremely well. We have already enjoyed a few sweet ripe strawberries, and a super excited to see all the little baby veggies starting to grow. However, our carrots have just not been doing well, and we finally realized why.

Neighborhood cats (apparently they used to be inside kitties), have been using our square garden planters as litter boxes. Kitty claw marks and obvious signs of doing their business. Needless to say, the carrot-lings didn't stand a chance.

So, we move on. I recycled some clear plastic strawberry containers from our local farmers market and planted lettuce in them. Keeping them in the sun and watered, they are doing great! Much better than when I planted them in open pots.

I'll be posting pictures shortly of all the gardening goings-on, so stay tuned!!

Rain

Listening to the rain today is a nice reminder that our little plants are getting fed. It is truly amazing how much they seem to grow after it rains. We noticed a drastic difference in their color and behavior after it rained versus when we watered it with the water hose, so we have started collecting rain and filtering it to water the plants when it is not raining. Not only has this saved us money, but our plants have consistently showed improvement.

Our beans and peas that we planted in the recycled baby formula cans are doing terrific! They are growing nicely and seem to be well rooted in their little homes.

Yesterday we transplanted the little okra plants into bigger pots that they can mature in. We have about 30 okra plants that we started from seed.

The squash and zucchini are also doing surprisingly well in their pots. This is the first year that we have planted these seeds in pots. They seem to be well rooted and loving the warm environment. The problem is that we have no idea which plants are which, so it will be interesting when they start blooming and producing! We have about 14 of each. 

We tasted the sweetness of our first strawberry of the year last week. That was a nice surprise. There are several more on the vine, and the plants are flowering again too!

I am extremely excited to see how our knockout roses bloom out this year. So far, the older growth on the bottom has started blooming, but there are an amazing number of buds on the upper parts of the bushes. I pruned them back (my first time) and they seem to have responded very well to my tender loving care.

Overall, we are excited to see our yard and garden taking shape. Finally, I am able to keep flowers growing healthily in pots and around the yard. Now, I just need to save money for the cactus garden that I want one day. :) That's a dream for the future bred from living in Texas among the prickly pears.

Ah, new beginnings

Well, today was spent out in the yard with the kids working on our plants, stakes and trellis workings. After a hard rain day before yesterday, our plants literally tripled in size. We are so excited to see bright green leaves and the beginnings of tiny little budlets. Here are a few pictures of what we have started so far.

I was going to use plastic bottles to start the lettuce, but we do not drink sodas, so I didn't have any. Thankfully the local Dollar Tree had vinyl woven baskets that will work great! An inexpensive alternative to recycling plastic.

We used our formula cans to make planters to start our beans and peas. Works so great! And provides a great way to recycle those things!

 I cheated and bought the plants rather than seeds this year. The grower was at my local hardware store and I got them at a really discounted price. Always nice!

 There was this obscure little garden spot next to our back patio that was overgrown with weeds and looked horrible. So, we removed the top layers, planted our herbs in their little biodegradable pots, and then made a rock bed. It looks so great!

 Cucumbers peeking up after the rain

 Beans! I think... those may be peas, it's hard to tell from here.

 We used an old wagon to plant our radishes and onions in. They are doing very well.

Tomatoes and peppers, cucumbers, squash, beans and peas. Yay!

Let the gardening begin!!!!

After an unfortunately long sabbatical from gardening, we have once again set our minds to the task, gotten our hands dirty, and have officially started planting!!!

We determined that we are going to do all of our plants in pots and other containers this year so we do not tear up the yard. We welcome any and all suggestions, ideas, feedback, etc. on how to do this! To start, we have been saving all of our aluminum formula cans from our daughter, and they make lovely, recycled containers for small plants. I will post photos when it's not raining. :)

We have gotten some great ideas from our fellow gardeners, and are looking forward to starting back getting involved in the gardening community, both online and locally.

So far, we have planted squash, zucchini, cucumbers, peas, beans, brussels sprouts, okra, radishes, onions and carrots. We will be adding our herb garden, tomatoes, peppers, and leafy greens once the weather clears up a bit.

If ANYONE has any great ideas about how to make efficient trellises or fixtures, or anything involving recycling water or materials, please don't hesitate to offer that information. We're new to gardening in the city, and would love to hear from you!

Great to see you all again, and I hope that you will continue to follow us as we get our garden growing!

MC

Back in business

Hello all,

As most of you know, I moved to ATL last November. Shortly thereafter I found out I was pregnant which spiraled into a year of absolute hell. After being very sick throughout the pregnancy, then finding out at 30 weeks that I had pre-eclampsia, I delivered a 2 pound miracle.

Now, I'm happy to report that she is home and well after two months in the NICU, and I am getting back to blogging!! I am going to restart my gardening blog as we are about to move into a location where we can do that again!! So exciting!

My new mom blog is http://soapboxbyob.blogspot.com/

I look forward to seeing and communicating with all of you once again!

Seedlings

Well, we planted our seedlings and potato cubes about three weeks ago. The kids got a great thrill out of planting the seeds and continuing to watch them sprout. We were unsure of how well the seeds would grow with minimal light on the deck, so we set about rotating them to different spots on the deck in order to find the best light. Apparently we were successful, and the mixture of stable watering and filtered sunlight was enough to bring about the spouts nice and healthy.

I had a miserable failing however in trying to create my own compost bin. I am sorry to say that it turned out to be a bucket full of briny mess. :) So, we are looking into new ways in which to compost in an apartment setting. If any of my Blotanical or gardening friends have any ideas, I welcome them! 

Right after planting:
Seedlings and potatoes (in the pink bucket)

Week 3: