Planting the Garden

It was cold up until last week, and so much pollen in the air that I was in no shape to go out and prep the planting bed. It rained most of last week also so I didn’t feel as guilty not being such a good gardener. Since the weather is warm enough now to garden, I tried to work several hours a day in the garden. This makes me wonder how other gardeners have time to blog.

I only have enough time to weed the planting bed area, once all the young plants are planted then I’ll have more time to weed the rest of the garden. My new boss gave me the bricks that were left over from her garage and I’ve used it to lay the walkway, hope this will cut down on my weeding time and I still have a big pile of bricks that I could use in the garden.

The tomatoes are in the ground, I didn’t have any luck with the seedling last year so I bought the young tomato plants this year.

The bell peppers and chili peppers are in the ground. I wanted to plant the jalapeno peppers but they were out at Lowes.

I got the young chili pepper plants from my sister.

The bell pepper plants were store bought.

The sloping land posted some problems last year when it rained, all the garden soil washed away. I’m trying something different this year, I like the idea of planting in a pot, but didn’t want it to be in the way so I planted them in the ground.

It makes it easy to water also.

My persimmon trees look promising this year. I know I said the same thing last year and didn’t have any fruit by harvest time.

Let just say that I’m hopeful this year. The garden came along further than what I’m posting here. I put down the Okra seeds, the cucumber seeds, and the string bean seeds today but didn’t have time to take the photo. I have to make time and hope to be able to blog on a regular basis now.

 

My Garden Update

It has been a week since I added more plants to my garden and the weather has gotten a lot warmer, I think we finally get over our cold spell. There is still a lot of work to be done, and I’ll be busy gardening in the next few weeks. The photos were taken early this morning, you know the saying ‘the early bird gets the worm.’ I guess in my case the early photographer catches the warm golden rays.

I planted the purple eggplants that I purchased from the local nursery. I’m hoping that my sister will plant the Thai eggplant seedlings or I might have to ask Bo’s mom for some young plants this year.

It’s Jalapeno peppers this year, I still have a lot of chili peppers in the freezer from last year so there is no need to plant more.

I planted both pickling cucumbers and regular cucumbers, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for any fury creatures out there.

I planted 3 cherry tomato plants, and this one has flowers already.

Lee is doing an herb garden this year, and she planted her Peppermint last week.

Her garden bed gets plenty of sun during the day.

The mixed vegetable seeds that I soiled last month took a growth spurt in the last week or so.  I think it must be the warmer weather in our area.

My Bok Choy plants are ready to harvest.

I’m glad the rabbit didn’t come back for more, these are the Romaine lettuces that’s left for me. I started harvesting some last week and they were crunchy and sweet.

Mint

Parsley

Grapevine

Rosemary

More Rosemary bush, I actually don’t cook with these and kind of odd to have them planted in a Lao garden since we don’t use it with our cooking.

The Water Hyacinth plant finally made it to the fishpond.

All photos were taken with 5DMkIII, Canon 24-105mm f/4L lens.

March Winds and April Showers

Last day of March and we have been getting a good steady rainfalls.  I like taking pictures in the morning but not so much in the rain and I didn’t have a rain sleeve for my camera. I had to use a plastic trash bag to protect my camera from this morning’s drizzle.  It works well, but not very pretty to look at.

I started planting early this year to utilize my garden space better and so far I have been enjoying eating fresh romaine lettuce. They are great for salad.

My mixed salad greens that I put down the seeds 2 weeks ago finally came up. I thought the birds ate it all but I see they left me some.

I planted beets because they are pretty and can tolerate cool weather.

CN commented on my blog last year of how her mom protects her young plants by using empty water bottles.  I thought it was a good idea at the time, and wanted to give it a try myself.  So far it’s working great.  I cut the bottom of the water bottles and cover over my pickle cucumber plants. This helps to protect the young plants from the cool weather at night, and harsh sun during the day.  Also I don’t have to be extra careful when watering them.

I planted these 2 days ago and the young pickle cucumber plants look very healthy.

My Gardenia plants are budding.

And so are my Knock-Out Roses.

This is a favorite hangout spot for the fish.  I think they are spawning or mating. Bo finally released the two long tail comets into the pond.

The season has changed but the colors of the Japanese maple leaves in our front yard remind me of the Fall colors.

Photos were taken with CanonT2i, EF50mm f/1.4 and EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens.