My Garden! May 2011

Roma Tomatoes

I got the seeds from Roma Tomatoes I bought at the store. I did the same thing with the Bell peppers down below. You don't always have to buy your seeds!



Green Bell Peppers

Broccoli And Swiss Chard In The Raised Garden

The plastic bottle in the picture is a type of irrigation I use when I am not in town for a few days. You can save you milk jugs and poke tiny holes on the sides to make it a time - released watering system. It will work up to 3 - 7 days of watering depending on the size of the jugs. I have four 1/2 gallon jugs in my raised garden. It works up to 3 days.

Cauliflower, Swiss Chard, And Basil

Natural Insecticide For Plants Recipe

                                           Image Credits:

                                          dezinerfolio.com

 Natural Insecticide for Plants Recipe

Ingredients:

1 quart of warm water                                                  

2 tb or organic liquid dish soap

1 large re-used spray bottle

 

Directions:

1. Warm up a quart of water on the stove or microwave. Pour the warm water inside the spray, then add the organic liquid dish soap. Shake it up and it is ready to use!

                                                                                                               I had a big problem with tomato worms attacking my bell pepper plants and I did not want to use any thing harmful to the plant or myself. This homemade insecticide took care of the problem!                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                    

My Garden! At My Grandmother's House: End Of June 2010

Straight Early Yellow Squash
My first baby squash! I am so excited. Finally, I have graduated to growing vegetables in the ground.

              Here are some more pictures of my other squash plants!

My Garden! June 2010

Cherry tomatos
I grew these in my garden in my patio!

Butternut Squash
I have now decided to move on from the container to growing a vegetable garden in the ground. Since I do not have room in my back patio, I dug up a bed at my Grandma's house.

It was a lot of hard work digging out all the weeds and grass, but seeing how well the squash plants I have planted are growing is the best reward.

In addition, this garden will get my Grandmother out of the house instead of gossiping on the phone all day! Ha ha ha.

Straightneck Early Yellow Squash

Early White Bush Scallop Squash

Black Beauty Zucchini

Nasturtium
This is actually an edible flower. I planted several of these at my Grandma's house. They produce yellow-orange flowers and the leaves have a peppery taste. The seeds can be pickled when they are still green as a substitute for capers. Great addition to salads!

They also have antiseptic and antibacterial properties. An infusion is often used for upper respiratory track and urinary infections.

My Garden!: The month of March.

Roma Tomatoes
These tomatoes came to be because I did not make sure to clean out the seeds out of the tomato scraps. I can not complain though, these Roma's are starting to look really good. The were a breeze to grow. To keep the white flies away, I planted 2 garlic cloves with each Roma tomato plant.

Basil
I have had this basil for a few years. It is a hybrid between sweet basil and purple ruffles basil. It as green leaves, but blooms purple flowers. Very strong and aromatic!

 Broccoli
This is my last broccoli flower head. Before, I had planted many seedlings close together, but then I read that they need a lot of room, like tomatoes. I can not wait until their next growing season, so I can have large flower heads and a larger bounty!

Right next to the broccoli, is a cauliflower plant. Obviously, I mixed up the seedlings due to not labeling the pots!

Cabbage
My cabbage's flower head is starting to form. I also planted garlic nearby to repel cabbage bugs. Which includes:

• cabbage looper, cabbage maggots, & cabbageworms

Bell Peppers
I am not to sure what color the bell pepper will be. I had saved some seeds of all the colors, but I do not know which ones colors had survived. Pretty fun not to know, it is like a surprise!

Mammoth Sunflower Seedlings
I am just barely starting them out. I also have some other seedlings of red sun sunflower.

My Garden! Febuary's Pictures!

Broccoli plants
My second broccoli plant has sprouted it's flower head! The more I read books and jot down things in my journal, the better I become at gardening.

I know that next time, I will plant 1 broccoli plant in each square foot or large pot. They need a lot of room. Since, mine are close together, the flower heads are going to be small. Which is ok, because this is a learning process.

Here is the second flower head up close. Gardening is hard, but it is so much fun to do. Especially, when you reap the benefits or producting your own food.

Here is the 1st flower head that sprouted. I have already harvested this one and put it in the freezer. 

Chamomile

In my earlier post, I thought that this was either oregano or thyme. However, I really starting to believe that these plants are Chamomile.

If they are, I planted these back in September of last year. I have no idea why they took so long to sprout. I had thought the seeds were probably no good.

This is great news, because Chamomile has great medicinal properties!

Cabbage

My largest cabbage is starting to sprout its flower head. I had some pest attack the outer leaves, but sprinkling some Cat's Claw around it did the trick.

Bell Peppers

I need to split these guys up, because like tomatos, they like room. I got the seeds from the actual bell pepper bought at the store.

Cauliflower

These are my cauliflower plants. Like the broccoli, they need to be planted with a lot of space. My yeild will be small, but it is my 1st time and watching them grow is great!

Marigold

My marigold has also sprouted a flower head.

My Garden!

Marigold

Here some pictures of my garden as of January 31, 2010. Above is my marigold. Can not wait until it blooms!

Fuji Apple Seedlings

These are my Fuji apple seedlings. It is funny how I got them. When you start reading gardening books, they warn you to take out all the seeds out of fruits or veggies you are going to put in the compost. Well, I did not pull out the apple seeds. So, out of the many that have sprung up in my garden, I decided to keep three and see how they grow. To avoid unwanted seedlings, make sure to take out the seeds!

Broccoli

These are two broccoli plants I have in my raised garden. One of them have a flower head already coming out. Below is my compost.

Flower Head of Broccoli

I am so excited, this is my first broccoli flower head. Making a journal really made the difference in my gardening. In addition, reading the All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! book and other gardening books.

Here is my compost. Every since I read the All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! I found out that I had been doing my compost wrong all along. So, I took it out of the container I had it in and now turn it in a corner of a fence. I turn it every day to have it ready in two weeks.

Cauliflower

Also in the raised garden, I have two cauliflower plants. They have not yet sprouted a flower head, but I will make sure to take a lot of pictures of the progress in my garden.

Garlic

These garlic plants will be done once the leaves turn yellow.

Cabbage

Thyme

My Garden!

    This is my semi - homemade greenhouse. I bought the shelves at Wal-Mart for about $20 and just simply wrapped it with left over plastic I had from plastic bags and some tape to secure it.

    I am experimenting with starting seedlings in regular potting soil or in vermiculite. So far, I planted cabbage, leeks, nicotiana, calendula, crooked neck yellow squash, and Texas yellow grano onion in the vermiculite. The cabbage and the onions sprouted in just 5 days. The leeks and squash took about 8 days.

    I planted some dill, banana and jalapeno peppers in potting soil on January 6th. Only 1 dill seedling has sprouted and it took 2 weeks. I am still waiting for the rest to sprout. I got the vermiculite idea from the "All New Square Foot Gardening," by: Mel Bartholomew.

    This is a picture of the second shelf containing the squash, avocado, cabbage, and oregano seedlings.
The oregano seedling was actually found growing next to my only dill sprout. I think it was a seed that did not sprout last growing season.

    To make more room for my plants, I decided to make an earth box. I found directions on the internet. If you have power tools, this can be an easy weekend task to take up. I made mine out of a storage box, yogurt containers, plastic ties. The tools I used were a hand power saw, hand saw, a drill, and a vise. This is what it looks like below.

    According to the directions, you need to use potting mix and not potting soil. I made the mistake of putting potting soil in the earth box yesterday. So, I will just shovel it out and put in the recommended mix. The potting mix itself was somewhat expensive. 2 1 cubic foot bags were about $7.00 each. It is a mixture of peat moss, compost, perlite, and dolomite. The instructions provide a mix you can make for yourself in the question and answer part. I am thinking about planting some All Star strawberry plants in my earth box. I should be able to grow 10 of them in this self-watering container.

I will make sure to talk about my garden at least once a week. I have also made a journal for my garden this season and it is making a difference. If you do not want to make you own earth box, you can just click on the links below. Every thing just takes time and patience!

Square Foot Gardening by: Mel Bartholomew

   I have had a green thumb every since I was a child, but just with ornamental plants. Then, I moved on to growing herbs. Those required some attention, but it was until I tried my hand at vegetables, I really began to understand I needed to educate myself in gardening techniques.

   I had heard of Square Foot Gardening techniques from the Garden Girl, Patti Moreno ( bottom right ). From her website, I learned how to make my raised garden, but it was until I had finally bought Mr. Bartholomew's book began to understand my mistakes.

    The "All New Square Foot Gardening," book helped me with my composting, separating plants, spacing plants, starting seedlings in vermiculite, and mixing the perfect soil for gardening. I had tried to grow vegetables for 2 seasons with little success.  I am very exited to see what differences in production I will see with these new techniques. 

    Mel Bartholomew's book is very readable and easy. It will not bore you out. It is actually very interesting and I really enjoyed reading this book. It only took me about 12 days to go through it.  

If you want to get into gardening, this is book can teach you the easy way to make it happen without a lot of hard, back breaking work! I highly recommend it, click on the link below!

by Mr. Mel Bartholomew (Author) All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! (Paperback)

Composting

Last week, I prepared my raised bed for compost. Since it had rained really well last week, the material in my compost was well broken down.

I aired out the soil by turning it and weeding out all the plants and weeds I do not want in the bed.

Last growing season, my garden did not produce well because my mind was not totally into it. However, now I am writing down all my information in a journal to keep better track and create a food producing garden.


Making a journal is very important because all the different plants' needs are not the same. Just like your body, you need a journal to know what is working and what is not.

Here is my compost. I know it is gross looking, but it is the most natural fertilizer you can give to your garden. Plus, it eliminates vegetable, weeds, dead plants, and paper materials from your trash.





This is my raised bed fully composted. All I did was spread the compost over the top of the soil and water. Watering adds the nutrients to the soil faster and prepares the soil for the new planting season.