Straw Bale Garden - June 27th

Good day! I took some pics this morning so here is a quick update. :)

My huge mess of a garden is continuing to grow! (At least we finally mowed the lawn, am I right?!?!?!) You can see that the tomatoes are growing up the trellis to the right, falling into the lawn in the middle, and that zucchini, squash, and cantaloupe are taking over the right side of the trellis.

I should note that we did tie up the fallen tomatoes in the middle shortly after I took this picture. 

I'm not sure whether you can tell or not, but you can see a couple of the random "accidental" plants growing in this picture. Those are the plants that came up from the seeds my little Koala dropped around the place. Especially visible is the zucchini in the middle of my yard just above the cabbage in the center of the picture. 

There are also bean plants growing to the bottom right of those center tomato plants. She dropped those on the ground in front of the tomato bales. Apparently, those seeds like it there. ;)

Here are some of the plants from the right side of the garden. There is no trellis here. Maybe next year!

Spaghetti squash is across the back. Carrot seeds are to the front left. Bush beans (long green snapping beans) are center front, and the leaves of my broccoli plant are visible to the right. Not pictured are the potatoes which live deep inside the back of these bales. This is my first time planting potatoes. They have not come up yet. Fingers crossed!!

This looks like absolutely nothing, am I right? We mowed over several of the zucchini plants growing up out of the yard. Two are left. This is the second. There are also baby tomato plants in there. Can you see them? Those are probably also going to get mowed over. For now, they were gone around carefully with a weed-eater. 

My bell pepper plants (emerald and also california wonder) are finally growing for real. They seemed to struggle this entire spring. I have not yet figured out what to place in the bale beside them. I am looking for a good companion plant. (Hopefully something that will do well but will not vine off into my neighbor's yard!) 

You can also see that the different varieties of spinach are growing well in the foreground. ;) Giraffe planted those herself! They are in the planter we first grew tomatoes in on the small deck of our second story apartment. :)

My herbs are doing alright. The basil bolted, of course. Then a heavy rain came through and knocked it over sideways. :/ 

There is another plant growing in that straw between the green basil and the purple basil. It looks like a straight stick with greenish-reddish leaves. I have no clue what it is. I should probably pull it but I am curious to see what it grows into.

This is my Giraffe's tomato plant. She planted it in this bale away from the trellis. It got quite tall and heavy. now it has slumped forward down onto the lawn. I really need to get on it and stake the poor thing up somehow.

I didn't take a lot of pictures this morning. The strawberry is doing well. We planted it over by our lilac starts (which are also doing well). 

The lettuce varieties are all continuing to produce delicious treats. 

The celery continues to grow, unmolested and with little attention paid. We water and fertilize but otherwise leave it alone. 

Cabbages are doing great. The pumpkin and watermelon (or is it cucamelon) are growing. 

Cucumbers continue to disappoint. The vine is still single and the produce has been quite small. I need to seed in more of these little guys. Last year, we were up to our eyeballs in cukes. 

Spaghetti squash is off and running, with many little guys growing on the vine. The squash borers have already gotten to this vine. :( :( :( I'm hoping that it can put down additional roots in the grass and save itself. I am not sure that it can. :( 

Butternut squash has been planted for my Dad/in his memory. We have four wee plants setting root into bales right now.

I have yet to see the carrots sprout but I am sincerely hoping that they will. If not, I may have to give up on them for the year. I do know that bird are *really* fond of carrot sprouts. It is entirely possible that they are getting to my carrots before I am out to see if they've sprouted. I haven't been able to get a mesh plant cover yet. I really need to.

Anyway, that's what is growing in our neck of the woods. :) I have long since quit naming each variety of every plant that we have. If you are curious you can always check that link here. 

Happy summer, everyone! :)

My Big, Fat, Sloppy Garden - June 19th, 2017

I'm going to jump right in, okay? I planted my garden this year, in part to assuage some of the intense grief I have been experiencing. That same grief has made me lazy about doing what I need to make it a beautiful garden. For instance, there are posts and trellises which still aren't up. I need a new soaker hose installed and have yet to buy one. I need to tie tomatoes to the existing frame so they grow upward, rather than fall on the ground. 

Additionally, I sort of know where my plants are and sort of don't. The kids put them in so only the tomatoes are 'where they belong'. lol Add to the grief the fact that my blood sugar is wildly off. I have been crazy-dizzy and sleepy trying to bring it back down. There is a lot of work to be done and I have not had the oomph to do anything but let the dern thing grow! Hence the title, "My Big, Fat, Sloppy Garden". It is just that! Yikes! See for yourself!

A view from the front reveals tomato plants simultaneously growing up and falling over. Yipes! You can see that giraffe's zucchini (in the back bales) is massive. The spaghetti squash are growing down the side of the bales. Yes, even the lawn needs mowed! I couldn't afford it two weeks ago. I hope to this weekend but that is iffy.

This side is Koala's. She has cucumber, watermelon or cucamelon (we're not sure which is growing, since only one plant showed up), cucumber, zucchini, and beans. Giraffe's pumpkin is growing out to the rear right of the pine tree. That tree was tiny when we first moved in! I've been dropping our produce scraps under it every garden year. You can see it has taken off!

This is a rear view of my messy yard and garden. :) There are more tomatoes, zucchini, spaghetti squash, cantaloupe, zucchini, pumpkin... a variety, basically. I do not come down the hill at all. Giraffe 'owns' this entire side of the garden. :) She is quite proud of her work. Really, who can blame her? We started nearly all of this from seeds!

Our herbs continue to grow... even if our basil has completely bolted. You can see here that Giraffe's wild flowers are growing, as well. There are too many in the pot but they are pretty to look at, even so.

My cauliflower is pretty much covering everything small that I would show you in this photo. You can see that we have been hit with cabbage moths, butterflies, and worms. They are full-on happy to be living in our yard, let me tell you!

To the left is a green bucket full of lettuce. They are all up by the house because they need shade. Our sun is relentless from sunup to sundown. 

In front are two smaller buckets. The gray holds green romaine lettuce. The blue (under the cauliflower leaves) holds celery. I also have a tub full of radishes growing around the cauliflower plants.

This bucket was only supposed to hold my green acre and red acre cabbage. However, it is fairly obvious that my little Koala saw fit to tuck tomato seeds in there! I keep telling myself that I will murder this tomato plant and get it out of there! Then I take a look at the stellar thick stems and I lose heart. How can one murder such a strong plant? 

My three red acre cabbages all have these beautiful little heads now. They are (in my opinion) the most beautiful members of my garden!! 

The green acre cabbage is just now growing. I fear they will not have a good chance to really take root. The cabbage bugs have been brutal. Also, this morning when we were seeding carrots into an empty bale, I saw my little pie sneak a few into this container! CHILD!!! lol

You can see that my planter of spinach has really boomed over the last week. They so enjoyed the rain! I am clipping them off as I need them. I truly love baby spinach! 

You can barely peep my pepper plants in the bale behind the spinach. They are finally growing better. Fx'd!

I am including a couple of photos of my basil. yes, I know that it has bolted. Even so, you can see that a fuzzy bumble bee is happily pollinating each flower. 







Such a happy little guy, no? :)

This pic is a closer look at my red acre cabbage. Can you see the beautiful baby head? :) I have three total. They bring me *such* joy! The dirt in these planters were dead when I got them. I prayed for them to revive as I tenderly fertilized and worked the soil in each. My heart blooms like the plants each holds. I'm so glad that I could use them! I love you, Dad! I miss you! <3 

I know that I did not cover all of the varieties of veggies and fruit again. Let's be honest; that's not going to happen! lol Maybe I will get the energy (or stop being so dizzy) and go out to hit you with one plant at a time later. At this rate, I doubt it. My garden this year has a mind of its own. The plants are mixing and intertwining. Their only thought is to grow. Who am I to interfere with that? 

I'll leave you with this. It is the picture of only one of the zucchini plants growing 'wildly' in my yard. By wild, I mean that they do not belong there. haha My little Koala helped seed directly into bales after we had placed our other starts out there. Both zucchini and tomato plants are now adorning my lawn here and there. What did I expect to happen from one so small? Yes, my garden this year has a mind of its own. I am 100% okay with that. :) <3 :) <3 :) <3 :) <3 :) <3 

Garden/Spring Update June 11, 2017

Things are really growing in the small backyard of this small but contented family! <3 :) 

This is a bucket of lettuce. There are many kinds in here, as you can see. We have been consistently eating them and they are still booming! haha

I looove having these on sandwiches, tacos, burritos, as a salad, and any other thing you would add a 'green' to. 

The flavors and scents range from sweet to herbal. My daddy would be *so* pleased to see his buckets so full of life! There is not one bucket he gave us that is not booming!

Giraffe's zucchini plants have really taken off! We planted almost everything in our garden this year from seeds. It is extremely gratifying to watch them grow and produce!

The first zucchini came in from the garden the other day. (Not pictured.) It was at *least* around eleven inches long and was also nice and fat!

We cannot wait to share our bounty with our favorite neighbors! It is a highlight of our summers to share the bounty of our garden with them each year. They love zucchini the best. We're ON it!! :D

Tomatoes are also on the way. There are many little flowers blooming and a few tiny fruits themselves. :) 

Our markers got misplaced, moved, or weren't placed at all so each plant is going to be a surprise to us when they ripen. 

Will this one be red? Brown? Yellow? Yellow-red? Large? Medium? Tiny? Huge? It is hard to tell! 

It is late to add to our crop but I am eager to get more plants started. I want to make sure that every single variety is well represented! I am most eager to sample the steakhouse, sunrise bumblebee and big rainbow!

Some of the plants are small and just starting out. These were seeds sewn directly into the straw of the bales.

We kept an eye open for what was growing well and what wasn't. On my dad's birthday, little Koala and Giraffe went through the garden, adding seeds wherever we had empty spaces. Some of those are just now showing up. 

They planted everything from more watermelon to cucamelon, pumpkin to pole beans... you name it, we have seeds for it planted in here somewhere! :D This is SO much fun! We will continue the process of seeding and planting until the garden is nice and full. :)

My spinach is growing well and tastes delicious! I believe that we have a variety of four types of spinach this year. These were planted by Giraffe on the same day in which I planted all of the lettuce and the red cabbage into other buckets.

You can see that we need to thin it out a bit. That is exceptionally hard for me to do, though! lol I tend to eat the leaves when they are still small 'baby' spinach. I'm sure I will try to grow some guts and thin these beautiful babies out. 

I love the lettuce and spinach mix we have going this year! I know that I am a broken record about it, really, I do. This just brings me such joy, generally. This year, it brings much-needed relief to my heartache. 

My herbs are still growing well in the cast-off straw from last year's bale garden. 

You can see that my basil (far left) is starting to flower. This has never happened to me before. I need to look into that. 

Purple basil is in the middle and looks lovely. Parsley is far right. I am most enthusiastic about using this herb. :)

Cantaloupe and cucumbers also coming along. This year they are primarily growing out the back of the garden. I have two rows of bales, where last year I had just the one. 

I would still like to tie these up to the trellis. Last year, the cantaloupe and cucumbers helped hold up tomatoes. I never had a problem with one strangling the other. They made great trellis mates. I may have to go again.

Here is a better picture of some of our little cucumbers that are growing. Again, these came from seeds we planted! Yay!

I also have to tell you something else... these belong to my littlest little! She has two bales that are hers. In them, she is growing cucumber, zucchini, cucamelon, watermelon, and beans. 

I let her choose what to plant and where she wanted them. It has been both sweet and joyous, watching my little baby tend to the garden in her own little way! 

It is never too early to teach children the value of life... all life... and to encourage their love of cultivating it! <3 <3 <3 

My peppers are struggling, I'll be honest. I have two Sweet California Wonder. These are what you might recognize as the multi-colored bell pepper. There will be red, yellow, and green when they finally grow tall and well. 

I also have two Emerald Green bell peppers growing. I couldn't tell you which set of two this is. You can see that they are quite tiny. I am going to be fertilizing them soon and keeping a closer eye on their progress.

Peppers are meant to be planted two plants at a time, as companion plants. This helps them to flower and produce better, and provides them better protection. When they are larger, I will be staking or caging them, as well.

This is one of my Red Acre Cabbage plants. :) I planted these seeds much earlier than my Green Acre Cabbage so they are larger. 

I absolutely love the purple coloring and veins stretching through the leaves. I truly cannot wait to have entire heads of red and white cabbage! This is one of those 'first time' veggies that has me beside myself! hehe

This set of buckets contains another mix. There is celery growing in the small blue bucket. I keep telling myself that I will move that poor thing to a bale somewhere! lol 

The celery plant has been hidden by the massive leaves of my Snow Cauliflower. You can see that it is the star of the show in that particular green bucket. The bucket split but I am unwilling to lose it, since it was my dad's. I red-necked that thing together with some duct tape and am going to keep growing in it! haha

The smaller, lighter green leaves are from my radishes. I am growing these every three weeks. They do very well every time, so far!

I still have another 40-ish pictures. I won't be able to share every plant in the garden this year. 

I am going to end this by abruptly switching tracks on you. Okay? lol

We have continued to use our new popsicle molds, much to the children's delight! Mine too... who am I kidding?

This week we did some that were strawberry, some strawberry-peach (in strawberry-banana jello), and a special more diabetic-friendly combination for me. 

Instead of jello (with its high sugar content), I added peaches and strawberries (which have their own sugar) to blueberry tea. I found this to be an especially good idea for me. I will continue to make tea pops for myself through the summer, with and without fruit. :)

Father's Day is coming up. I am a wreck of emotions this year, given that I've just lost my dad in March. However, mixed in there is the deep love I have for my husband and partner in life. He is a million kinds of wonderful. I look up to him in a great many ways. 

He is kind, strong, compassionate, gentle, loving, assertive when he needs to be, and a strong defender of his family. We are best friends and lovers, individuals and equals. I am very secure with this man. That says a lot for me, as I struggle with feeling safe anywhere in general. 

God has been kind, in sending me someone to walk through both the beautiful and the ugly of this life. I recognize the great fortune I have in being his and do not take it lightly. From the bottom of my heart, I love you forever, Hubs! 

Happy Father's Day!<3 <3 <3