Since we bought a house, I've been pretty excited about starting a vegetable garden. However, I have a horrible record for gardening and was sure my efforts would be fruit(or in this case, vegetable)-less. I've killed several basil plants, lots of flowers in my flower boxes, and I think I managed to harvest only 10 cherry tomatoes in my last gardening attempt. But, I think I'm ready to go public on this (for my 1-2 loyal blog readers). My garden seems to be working. It's producing veggies and even flowers that I planted from seed!
Also, I'm obsessed. B often catches me sitting on the deck and just staring at the garden, I tend to run out and check the garden in the mornings, and I even caught myself flipping through old pictures on my phone and passing quickly over Baby-Catherine pictures while stopping and zooming in on previous garden pictures. Yes, I did that. I even ordered seeds to plant in the fall that grow through the winter and help replenish the nutrients in your garden--it's called Green Manure!
Ok, so here's a little glimpse of what's going on in our back yard these days. If gardening bores you, stop reading now.
So, this is what our vegetable garden looked like when we moved in last summer. It was full of sunflowers and weeds.
Here's the guys beginning the big task of tilling, digging, and adding compost to the garden last fall.
Even after removing tons in the fall, here's all the weeks coming up this spring
And a deer that decided to come and feast on those tulips. Fun and exciting then, not so much anymore.
We went through every square foot of the garden and sifted the dirt to remove all the old bulbs and removed all the weeds. I say that WE did it, but the majority of the work was done by B--thanks, hon.
Finally, at the end of May, we were ready to plant. I started with tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, marigolds, basil, dill, and rosemary plants and started lettuce, spinach, carrot, cabbage, and peas from seed.
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| May 26, 2014 |
Here we are a month later. I added summer squash, a watermelon plant, B scored some horseradish from a friend at work, and I planted some zinnia seeds between the marigolds. Oh, and I planted a few pumpkin seeds and bush beans. Sadly, the bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and marigolds got attacked by deer while we were away camping and have spent the last several weeks recovering. I also scattered some petunias to attract bees and make things look more colorful while everything was so tiny.
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| June 26, 2014 |
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| June 26, 2014 |
And, about 2 weeks later. Um, did not realize how large summer squash plants get!
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| July 12, 2014 |
First harvest of peas on July 17, 2014. These should've been planted in march instead of June, so we will get very few peas...however, I read that I can try for a fall crop!
Sides with dinner on July 20th--ok, looks like we may actually get some vegetables from this vegetable garden after all!
Garden pictures from today, July 24th:
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| My first flower ever grown from seed that actually bloomed. |
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| July 24, 2014 |
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| Our first tomatoes are turning red finally! |
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| After recovering from the deer, new bell peppers are growing! |
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| I think I'm gonna have too many summer squash/yellow zucchini. |
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| The bush beans are starting to produce! |
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| I haven't bought lettuce in a long time. |
Ok people, now that I've shared all this, let's pray I haven't jinxed myself! And, to warn you, I think now that I've introduced you to my garden and my new obsession, you'll be getting more updates on what's growing and being harvested than you want.
For those who just check out the blog to see the offspring, here you go:
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| 4th of July |
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| Happy 5 months old, Catherine! Andrew took this picture! |
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| New Train at the zoo! |
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| New Africa exhibit is done at the zoo! |
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| Little lady modeling her newly-fitting skirt. |
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| Hanging out outside. |
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| Catherine now rolls across the room! Here we go again! |
