New Look

I put in the bricks along the fence part of our garden last night. I feel better about it now. There were already weeds/grass coming from the neighbors yard. I had to do it by hand, I thought I could use a hoe or some kind of tool, but I disturbed less by hand. The only things I disturbed was the garlic cloves we planted on Saturday (I put them back and they had no growth yet) and some lettuce along the back of the garden. The lettuce will most likely dry once it gets hot, so that isn't a big loss and we have more lettuce in other places.

I also went to Mike's Garden Center yesterday and bought some mint. I was overly excited and the plant guy looked at me strangely, but I'd been looking for mint or mint seeds for a month now. I planted that in our tomato baskets.

Now, it's just sit and wait. We don't have any blooms yet, so no veggies soon, but you just wait!

Day 8

Our garden at day 8 is amazing. The bean sprouts seem to have come up over night (left side of garden) and really started growing. It's been pretty rainy so we haven't been watering at all. Sunday morning I went out and we had a ton of mushrooms sprouting up. They were gone this morning so that is hope that nothing under the dirt is routing away from all the rain (this can really happen with Squash)

Also, Saturday we planted Cucumbers, Jalapenos and Garlic in the side garden. (I didn't get pictures of these for some reason.) We put a few garlic cloves in the new garden near the back to keep pests from our neighbors yard. Hopefully, the garlic won't make too many things taste like garlic, but Robert would like that. (We don't worry about Vampires in our house, because Robert LOVES garlic.) I have to get some kind of fencing stuff to keep the dogs (Diego) from trampling my plants. (That's his personal walk through)

I also planted more basil in the top of the tomato plants. We are going to have LOTS of basil this year.

Overall, Pretty exciting!! We are going to clip some of the basil and parsley and put it in the fridge for kitchen use and then see how well it grows back. The parsley has taken off and looks really good.

This weeks project is to get the dirt away from the fence so the fence doesn't rout. We have lots of bricks left over from when our house was built. I'm going to try my best to not disturb anything and pull the dirt back and put the bricks in. Why didn't we think of this before...Hum...

Bugs

We have pests eating our leaves already
....HUM....So, I found a recipe for a soap/pepper mixture that says it will keep a variety of pests away.

Mix one teaspoon of liquid dishwashing detergent with one cup of vegetable oil. Shake vigorously to emulsify and add to a quart of tap water.

Steep three tablespoons of dry, crushed hot pepper in 1/2 cup hot water (covered) for half an hour. Strain out the particles of peppers, and then mix solution with the liquid detergent formula. Good for a number of insects on both indoor and outdoor plants.

Use at 10-day intervals as an all-purpose spray.

Note: Test on a single plant first, because it may cause tip burn.

Note: Apply to plants outdoors. Do not use on windy days. Avoid breathing fumes, which can be irritating to nose and eyes. You can substitute hot Tabasco sauce or Louisiana hot sauce for hot pepper.

I'll give this a couple of days and maybe go out and get some diatomaceous earth to put around the garden and on any pests we see.

Strawberries

Well, we have 1 strawberry growing. This plant was saved from last year in the garage during the winter and didn't produce much last year. Currently, it has 2 Strawberries on it! Maybe we will have enough for a smoothie this year. :)

NOTE: Shortly after taking this picture a toddler ran over and picked the Strawberry and tried to eat it. So, now 1 very small Strawberry right now.

Sprouts

Things are sprouting up already!!


These are the indoor seeds we started on Tuesday. After 3 days they are already sprouting. It's Thyme and Tarragon. We have to wait another couple of days before we put them outside.



The little sprouts in front of the sign is, you guessed it, Lettuce. The bigger green behind the sign is basil. Lettuce is supposed to be a cooler weather plant, so it might die away in a couple of months. These were planted last weekend (Saturday)

Then we have Bean Sprouts!! These were planted last weekend (Saturday) I told Robert this morning, "What if we got magic beans and we have bean stalks that go into the sky...?" He asked me another question about pesticides or something, not even excited about going to meet giants in the sky.

Nothing we can eat yet, but we are working on it!! I'm sooooo excited!

Bird Feeders

In honor of Earth Week...

Sunday afternoon Aiden and I made some bird feeders out of milk and apple juice cartons. I would personally suggest the milk carton over apple juice carton, because the apple juice carton was almost impossible to cut through.

We made one for us and then one for our neighbors across the street. I spray painted their's blue and then wanted Aiden to paint some stuff on it with other paint colors, but he wanted to take it over. So that's what we did.

It really wasn't hard to do.

• take a milk carton - clean it out (leave the cap on to help keep water out when it rains)
• cut out 2 holes about fist size - I used an exacto knife
• punch a couple of holes in the bottom (helps water build up in the bottom) - I used a small screw driver
• punch two holes in the top of the carton, place wire or twine in holes to hang the bird feeder - I used covered wire.
• make holes for twigs under the fist size holes
• paint (if you want to)
• shove twigs in the holes - this was probably the hardest part, trying to get the hole small enough so the twigs would stick straight out, otherwise the twigs hang down
• Put seed in, hang it up! DONE

This is our finished bird feeder. I didn't have time to take a picture of the other one we made. Aiden was in a big hurry to get it to his friend. :) Too cute.

We've been watching to see if any birds have been interested. Finally, this morning Robert saw a couple of birds eating out of it. When we let the dogs outside, Lola goes and sits under it, waiting for the birds. (She thinks she's a bird dog, loves to chase birds, guess we can't have an inside bird for a while) The dogs don't stay outside too long, so hopefully she won't scare the birds off.

Also, I found this website of things to do with a milk carton - evidently they sit in land fills forever, so if you don't recycle them the never go away. Or you can make crafty garden things out of them! http://www.plantea.com/milk-jug.htm

New Garden

We got the garden done this weekend!!

We went to Home Depot Saturday morning and bought bricks, dirt, plants and more. Then, came home and got to work. Poor mom and Robert did most of the work, I helped out when I could, but they didn't want me lifting and doing much. Lisa and I had fun planting in the afternoon.

We planted: Squash, Bell Peppers, Jalapenos, Basil, Parsley, Marigolds, Beans, and Lettuce (although it's not Lettuce time of year, but we are going to try anyway.) We also have some seedlings going inside to plant after they start sprouting (Tarragon, Thyme and Oregano).

We still have last year's garden. I really, really want to try cucumbers again, but am scared of all the cucumber horror stories. I might try some cucumbers and train them (Sounds funny) but you can train their vines on a wire or wire fencing so that they don't take over your house. With the cucs, I'm going to plant more jalapenos (keep away those bugs that eat cucs), garlic (can make the cucs garlic flavor, but also keep away aphids, which killed my cucs last year)

We also got two hanging baskets for Tomatoes and I am looking for mint to put in the top of the hanging baskets, but everyone seems to be out of mint. I'm going to try Mike's this week to see if they have any mint. Mint is supposed to keep away bugs that like tomatoes and give your tomatoes better flavoring!

I'm also in search of French or Mexican Marigolds. They are supposed to be smellier and keep more insects away.

Lastly, we will be buying ladybugs again this year! So fun last year. Might plant some geraniums, and cilantro to keep them around!!

Here are some pics of our new garden!

Sunday night I woke up and thought about how the dirt sitting on the fence wasn't such a good idea. I'm going to put brinks back there so it doesn't eat away at our fence. Will also help as a barrier from our neighbors grass and stuff.

Lettuce and Beans were started from seeds, we will see how that goes, that's a first for us.

Tomato hanging baskets, planning on planting plants on the top to help the tomatoes grow and to keep the dirt in the pots.

PS: I forgot to add that my mom and Robert did most of the work!! Lisa and I planted the plants, but they did all the back-breaking work. Aiden and Paul helped, too!