My tomatillo plant

It's starting to smell wonderfully tomatillo-like! I love this huge, sprawling thing! It's had the most beautiful flowers. I thought one of the branches had broken in a tropical storm, but it's kept on growing.

Update

Oh, my. I was hoping I had blogged when I had planted my radishes and carrots, but I guess I forgot. Anyway, I planted one round of those, and the radishes are getting big.

I planted a second round a couple of days ago.

Yellow onion sets went in yesterday.

My lettuces are growing beautifully. Sowed some more seed the other day. I'm hoping to keep us in greens for most of the winter.

Peppers almost ready to harvest! They are gorgeous!

Planted 2 crape myrtles, which I hope will make a nice hedge someday from the neighbor's porch. If they don't die. They came in containers, and I waited a week or 2? to plant them.

Front garden looks pretty except for some bare patches. Well, the one side. The other side looks awful.

Pansies and snapdragons are hard to start from seeds, but of the 2, the pansies are easier.

Started some ornamental cacti from seed.

Growing some ornamental kale for front garden too.

I think I have one califlower plant and one cabbage plant growing, but it might be 2 califlowers or 2 cabbages. I have no idea. Will try again on those in the spring! I am really excited about putting in some additional beds.

Tomatillo plant is HUGE, sprawling, and starting to smell wonderful. We are going to have TONS of tomatillos, I think!

fall plantings

Beans are gone, Howden pumpkin pulled up (was dying). Harvested miniature pumpkins, but they have bad spots.

Fall plantings in. Starting seedlings of cabbage, califlower, lettuse mostly failed. Direct sowed everything. Hoping for best.

Excited about peppers!

Front garden has huge bare spots. Cosmos seedlings spotted.

Backyard cosmos (double click) very pretty.

Zinnias planted in front of son's playhouse blooming. Planted "fence" of snapdragons behind playhouse.

Started new compost pile about a week ago. Going to let old one sit and rot.

update

I noticed some of the annuals I planted (sunflower, cosmos) have gone ahead and bloomed, even though they didn't reach near their expected height. I guess this is normal.

The beans just keep on producing, which is surprising since they are bush beans. I am thinking they might be getting spent though.

Most of my veggies and flowers are doing well.

On the difficult side of my front flower garden, I dug up the grass today that had crept in and pulled out the dead and dying plants. I have started snapdragons that will go there, as well as in the bed on the other side. The white marigolds seem to be dying off already. It felt very good to pull out all the dead stuff and leave the place looking neat if not a bit bare, and cart it all away in my wheelbarrel. I also clipped off dozens and dozens and dozens of cosmos blooms that were spent.

I enjoy being outdoors and digging and clipping and planting and weeding so much. Makes me glad to be alive.

I've filled the compost bin again. I wonder if it will go down on its own, or if I should turn it again next weekend. It was such good exercise that I might have to. Very satisfying.

Everything Update

Front Yard:

• The driveway side had some plants die. I let it go too long with out water, and there was no rain for a couple of weeks(?). There are still a few cosmos (not blooming), but I'm not sure if the sunflowers will make it. There is one brave zinnia and a marigold. The seedums continue to do okay, and the grass that crept in thrives. I really must do something about that.
  
• The less-hot side is doing great, with the cosmos thriving, the zinnias thriving, and the white marigolds really did turn out pretty, even if I decided they were dumb after I planted them. The dwarf sunflowers are lovely too--I will plant them again for sure!
  
• I am going to plant some snapdragons on the dead side and keep them watered!
  
• I learned that cosmos may thrive on neglect, but it does have a breaking point!

Front containers:

• Sage has grown a funny collapsed shape but it otherwise thriving. I moved the container to help it grow better.
  
• Peppermint doing fine. Mexican lavendar growing very slowly. Basil fine. Son (age 4) likes to eat leaves but has learned to ask permission.
  

Backyard:

• Blueberry plant in container thriving.
  
• Marigold in container died. Used container for indoor potted palm.
  
• Only one blueberry bush in yard still alive. Think I know where I went wrong. Better luck next year.
• Decided to start some tomato seeds to grow in containers. Hybrid determinate small plants. Will give it my best shot and bring them inside at night if we have a frost. Hoping we can at least have some fried green tomatoes! (Incidentally, husband bought some heirloom tomatoes at Trader Joe's--tasted divine. Next year!)
• Beans: see previous post!
• Squash doing pretty well. Have 2 big squashes that are growing. It's still flowering, but I don't think it liked that hot dry spell. Thank goodness this summer is milder and wetter than last year!
• Pumpkins doing great and flowering. There is one pumpkin already on one of my miniature pumpkin plants.
  
• Gourds--doing okay. Next year I will give them their own bed and take better care of them.
  
• Tomatillo plant! One of the many tomatillo seeds I tried to plant emerged. For a while I couldn't figure out what the plant was, but I let it grow since it looked like some sort of vegetable. It is flowering, and I think we will have some delicous tomatillos before too long!
  
• Basil--planted 4 basil plants for my 4-year-old basil eater. (Started the seeds indoors of course). Hoping we can get a pesto sauce out of them too!
  
• I have 2 red cabbage seeds started and 2 califlowers started to plant outside in, oh, 3 or 4 weeks.
  
• My yellow bell peppers are doing pretty well. Some of the leaves did get eaten, but they are growing into their cages.
  
• I also am trying to start some chives for my front herb container garden, but they have not emerged. It's weird because I thought chives would be so easy.
  
• I have plans to grow carrots, lettuce, and radishes as well this fall.
  
• My sunflowers have grown wonderfully! The Russian Mammoths especially. And I like the white and red sunflowers that bloom over and over. However, deshelling the mammoth seeds has been boring. I think I am going to use them to feed birds instead.
  
• I've had a few zinnias bloom, although I just sort of let grass grow around them.
  
• I did start a "flower garden" behind my beds against the fence. I am growing more sunflowers, some cosmos "double click," and some tall zinnias.
  

Houseplants

• doing fine; houseplants are easy

Other:

• My son planted a tiny garden of 6 zinnias in front of his new playhouse.
  
• We are going to plant tall snapdragons behind his playhouse to make a fence. (He has a trapdoor that leads into his backyard.) He has a very cute plastic playhouse.
  

Thoughts:

• I like easy-care flowers, vegetables, and herbs!
• I have really been enjoying the bees, butterflies, and dragonflies that are attracted to my flowers. I keep thinking I hear hummingbirds, but I haven't seen any yet.

green beans

We have had 3 meals with generous portions of homegrown green beans now, and one meal with small portions. I am so happy with this crop! I grew "bean festina" from Park Seeds. I highly recommend this variety!

We had bunnies in the yard, but they did not eat the crop. I suspect it's because of all the clover in our backyard. Supposedly, the bunnies prefer it to anything. But who knows?

The 4 bean plans I have been harvesting from have many more flowers, and then I planted MORE of these beans on the other bed of the garden because the first ones were growing so well. I hope for many more meals of delicous green beans!

compost update

Turned the compost yesterday--a big accomplishment! There were a lot of bugs, but not too scary. I wouldn't have wanted to do it with a baby on my back. It was hard work, and it made me sore. I think it took me maybe an hour or two. I enjoyed the work so much that I lost track of time.

I didn't see much that looked like real compost. Saw some coffee-ground like stuff, but it probably actually was coffee grounds! Anyway, nothing stunk, so that was good. Also, nothing on the bottom third was really recognizable as food, except for a few corncobs.

The reason I turned it was that I had added a lot of kitchen scraps within the past month, and they weren't buried enough and were attracting some flies. I really just needed to turn it and mix everything up. So, now, the freshest stuff is on the bottom and the older stuff is on the top, and it will be much easier to bury fresh scraps well.

I also felt that the bin was getting far too dry. So I added water from the hose at several times while I was shoveling contents back into the bin. I will add more water in the future.

I think at some point I will just stop feeding that bin and leave it to rot for a year--maybe September 21st, the beginning of fall. And start a new hoop bin to add fresh scraps. Athough my compost does get quite warm, I do not think I am making truly "hot" compost since I add stuff so gradually, and my bin may not be big enough.

harvest!

Harvested lots of delicious green beans (Bean Festina). They grew beautifully and were so tasty. I have never had green beans so fresh. There are still many more to come. I am so excited! I honestly didn't expect to harvest much this year at all. And I've been so caught up in the EXPERIENCE of gardening that I haven't thought too much about what the results would bring. I've got squashes that have fruited, and several of my plants have flowers, including a surprise tomatillo that I thought wasn't going to grow.

the cosmos

We had our first cosmos flower bloom a few days ago! It is orange. It has been the only bloom in the garden for several days, but more are on their way. My cosmos has grown huge and very bushy. The foliage is pretty, and it has been very cool to grow such big plants from such tiny seeds.

I read this article on cosmos and could not help but smile at the "tough love" treatment that cosmos requires. I certainly have given it that. I did sprinkle a little fertilizer at some point, but the soil in the front garden is pretty terrible. I have watered quite sparingly. And cosmos is rewarding me for my negligence. I ran across a message board where more careful gardeners were complaining about the poorly growing cosmos--it didn't like their water and fertilizer!

I think I will continue to find plants that grow with no effort.

What's working, what isnt'

Some of my plants are flourishing; others are dead.

What's working:

• Sunflowers! My multiple species of sunflowers (planted over several weeks for a long period of blooming) are growing tall and beautiful, and I love them.
• Cosmos! It is growing tall too, out in the front. I love it too. I am looking forward to seeing it bloom.
  
• Zinnias. They are coming up strong.
  
• My bean plants are mostly doing okay. They seem to need a lot of water to keep from looking wilty in the hot sun.
  
• My ornamental gourds are doing well too.
  
• My winter squash plant looks fine. Another one I planted died.
• Blueberry bushes are growing in great. I bought one small one in a container and 3 bareroot.
• Nearly all my houseplants are doing great, both the 3 I bought at the store, and the ones I am growing from seed (pink polka dot plant, coleus).
  
• My sage and peppermint plant that I intend to live on the front porch are growing nicely in the kitchen windowsill for now.
  

What's not:

• I got my strawberry crowns and planted them the day before we had a heat wave, and it got up suddenly to 100 degrees. I decided I didn't want to grow them anyway. Too much trouble with the runners and the maintenance, and it's not that hard to get good stawberries.
• My tomatoes died. I just think I started them too late in the season. Will try again next year.
• Couldn't get my ponytail palm seeds to germinate. I'm going to try again using the wet paper towel method.
  

As yet to be determined:

• Bell pepper plants
• Raspberries
• Pumpkins
  

What I've Learned:

• I need to start earlier, which I knew to begin with, but we moved into this place around the beginning of April, and I wasn't able to start gardening right away.
  
• Starting tiny seeds takes special care.
• I love easy care, large plants.
• Houseplants are easier for me that outdoor plants. (But I already had experience in them.)
• Sow seeds very heavily. Thinning is easy.
• Seed catalogs may not always be accurate.

bean plant murdered

I think some birds killed the single green bean plant that I put out in our new raised beds. All its leaves are gone.

I am thinking of using both raised beds for the 25 strawberry plants I have coming. I will grow the rest in containers, and the squash and pumpkins in mounds on the lawn, and the gourds on the fence. I might grow beans on the fence opposite from my flower garden side. I am a bit sad about the dead one.

My blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries are scheduled to arrive on Friday. What a delicious harvest I will have... Next year... If the birds don't eat them all...

My flowers seem to be growing well. I still have more to plant. I am so interested to see what it all looks like in bloom. I am considering snapdragons for late fall/early winter.

I have put my 2 little pink polka dot plant sprouts in large coffee mugs. I put aquarium gravel in the bottom of the mugs for drainage. I duct taped the mugs to the windowsill so that our insane mug spiller cat cannot kill the pink polka dots. The sage sprout is growing well.

I have planted my 2 sprouted "container choice" tomatoes in pots as well.

weeds from plants?

Some of the little seedlings I see growing in our front garden I am pretty sure are weeds, but they also look like they might be pretty plants... I am not sure what to do. I guess I will just let some of them grow until I am sure. I am getting very, very impatient for my flowers to grow and bloom, but it will probably be another month before I see any flowers.

Update

In the front beds, the cosmos continues to grow and appears to be thriving. The dwarf sunflowers are also coming up, as are some of the marigolds. Grass is growing back like mad, so I am weeding like mad! I am not seeing any chives or alyssum, and I've decided to order some canna lillies to fill in some of the blank spots and possibly plant seedum at the border to ward of the grass.

We planted radishes in 2 large containers on the front porch. They have sprouted! I am hoping that soon we can have a delicious radish salad to celebrate our harvest. I hope to grow some more radishes in the fall, as well as carrots.

Hope to get our raised beds in this weekend. Decided to buy potting soil rather than the cheaper topsoil. I don't have any compost yet, and I really want my plants to grow well.

My container blueberry bush came and looks adorable on our porch. It is very small.

I have plans to order blueberry and raspberry bushes and strawberry plants. (Our family loves berries--with whipped cream, they are a tasty Atkins-friendly treat.) I do want to test our soil's pH. The blueberries need acid. I may order a grape vine too. Many of these fruit plants seem to need years to reach their peak, so I feel some pressure to go ahead and put them in.

We've gotten started with our compost bin--hurray! We bought a hoop compost bin.

We have started some more seedlings in a little seed starter. Some of my seeds were so tiny that they needed bottom watering, including coleus and pink polka dot plant, good houseplants. We've got tomatoes growing that I intend to grow in containers. My ponytail palms did not sprout in a regular pot, so I am hoping I'll have more success this way. I really love growing things from seed.

Our birdhouse gourd plants have been started as well! That's what everyone will be getting for Christmas!

Our only problem is that the container dill keeps dying. I think I have been taking the seedlings outside too soon or something. I'm doing to try again and put it in a more sheltered location, I think.

IA seems to be really liking watching the plants grow. He likes to visit the sunflowers and cosmos and talk to them. He talks to all the plants. They are his "plant friends."

A little weeding, more planning

Cosmos seedling

Weeded the garden today. The seedlings seem to be doing well, and there are more of them. I haven't seen any alyssum seedlings yet, but it's a little too early. I am hoping that grows well and will fight off the grass. Our fence posts were put in yesterday, and we should have a back fence next week I think! Then I can get started on our back gardens. I can't wait to plant some vegetables. I am trying to find a good deal on some soil for my raised beds.

One funny thing--one of the fence guys mentioned to my husband that our soil was pure concrete, and he was amazed that grass grows here! That's certainly how it seemed to me. You can see our lovely "concrete" soil in the picture above.

I have also ordered some "hoop-type" compost bins. We have a bunch of water-damaged cardboard that I'm planning on composting, so one of the bins will just be to contain that, until we can use it all. This fall, I'll use the extra bin to hold leaves for composting. I will gradually bury our food wastes with the cardboard and leaves.

I just keep ordering seeds... It will be interesting to see what I manage to grow this year!

Sprouts appear

So, I planted up the one small bed in our front yard, leaving the larger bed for later. Right after I planted the first bed, we had 3 days of thunderstorms. The lovely soil which I had turned and mixed with a potting soil looked like concrete when it was all dried out. I decided that:

A) The seeds had probably washed away.
B) I hadn't planted enough of them anyway (probably true).
C) Plants can't grow in concrete.

But, you know, despite all of these problems, I have sprouts! I think my cosmos, dwarf sunflowers, and marigolds have all sprouted. The cosmos seems to be doing the best. Anyway, I planted more seeds in the other bed and beefed up the other side a bit too. I decided to forget about the blue star flowers and planted white alyssum instead. I also threw in some chives because I know how hardy they are and tossed in some shasta daisies as well. I decided it would be better to thin the garden than to not have enough plants.

The plants I am growing are really, really easy plants (marigolds are practically weeds!!). They should be "fool proof." We shall see... I feel like it is a bit late in the season to be starting plants from seed, but we only moved in a little over a month ago.

My son was excited about the sprouts, but the container plants are really more appealling for him. I killed our dill sprout, and he was sad about that today. Oh, well, we will try again.

In other news, my husband got the lumber for the 2 raised beds he is making for me (8ft by 4 ft by 8 inches high). I had originally planned on 5 of these babies. but the realization of the expense and upkeep required caused me to decided that I could get by with 2 beds just fine.

So, far I want to grow in my raised beds:

• miniature pumpkins
• green beans
• corn
• chives

I'll probably think of some more things too. I think I will probably not get started for another couple of weeks. I still have not figured out where the soil for these beds should come from or how much it will cost.

Also, there are several bunnies that visit the yard who will probably dig under our new fence and eat a lot of my veggies. May have to look for some creative ideas there. I am too much of a city girl to consider harming the bunnies.

Our root viewer

An additional project we have going is the Root Viewer. The neat thing about it is that you can see root vegetables, like carrots, radishes, or celery growing through the clear plastic tubes. We are growing carrots, but we may try another vegetable when they are finished.

We tried it before when IA was 2 or 3, but all the dirt got, uh, dumped out. Project is going much better now that he is 4. Our carrots have sprouted, and we're both very excited about it.

Our Outdoor container plants

And our OTHER project includes the container plants that I am growing for our patio. I have planted seeds for:

• Marigolds (because they are easy. They sprouted almost immediately, delighting my 4-year-old.)
• Dill
• Shasta daisies
• Chives

Some of them I will also be growing outdoors, but I thought it would be more exciting for my son to see them growing more "upclose." I have plans for more but have not quite decided yet.

Our Outdoor Plants

So far, I have part of our front garden planted. I am growing:

• Cosmos (yellow, orange, red)
• Dwarf sunflowers
• White marigolds
• Blue stars (if they come up)

I also mixed in some dill. But then we had thunderstorms, so I'm not sure if the seeds washed away? I'll be interested to see if any come up, and in the meantime, I'm going to try and get the other side of the garden planted. I may substitute lavender for the blue stars.

We have also started indoors for planting outdoors 2 different kinds of giant sunflowers.

• Sunflower giant sungold
• Sunflower giganteus

The sunflower seeds have sprouted! I can't wait to plant them outdoors, although I really want our fence to be built before I do. Hurry up, fence company.

A Beginning Indoors

The beautiful mid-Atlantic spring and moving into our new home has inspired me to garden indoors and out. I am fairly inexperienced at gardening. I used to "help" my parents a little when I was a preteen, in their very low-maintenance, easy care kind of flower garden. I tried to grow vegetables once, but sort of forgot about them. As a college student and in my early marriage, I grew houseplants. My beloved cat (who has since died) destroyed them, but I was able to keep several on my patio in San Diego.

My two current cats do not seem interested in destroying plants, so I can have houseplants again. I am very careful to choose plants which are safe for both children and cats. Unfortunately, this does limit my selection somewhat.

My indoor plants so far include:

• Spider plant
• Parlor palm
• Aluminum plant

All 3 are rather small. I like to buy them small both because they are cheaper than way and because I like to watch them grow from a tiny baby plant into a big plant.

I also purchased seeds to grow:

• pink polka dot plant
• ponytail palm
• coleus mix

I hope to have a very nice variety--plants are my preferred mode of interior decorating.