Veggie Garden, year 2

I'll be honest, we didn't eat much from it last year.  The kids didn't like the carrots, the broccoli never materialized, the radishes were spicy, and neighborhood critters got into the rest before I had a chance to harvest it.  This year we are hopeful for better results having started from seedlings instead of seeds except for the pumpkin that a critter got as soon as the first leaves appeared.

This year's crop includes two varieties of tomato, two varieties of bell peppers, a cucumber, a zucchini, and green onions.  The tomatoes are going gangbusters, I think we will definitely plant them along the fence next year and train them up a trellis, yup-look at that pic again, definitely need to do that!  We have been enjoying those tomatoes regularly, every few days more are ripe and ready to eat.  Destructo-Boy loves to eat them fresh off the vine, I have to keep reminding him to hold them for me as I pick them instead of taking a bite out of each one I hand him. 

The cucumber isn't producing that much, but the two I've had were nice and juicy.  Likewise with the zucchini, not much is coming from it this year and the one I have harvesting was so tough I wasn't even able to cook it up.  Maybe I waited too long to harvest it?  Still waiting on peppers, one is growing off the chocolate beauty plant, and just the one.  I wonder if peppers are just hard to grow?

Tomatoes, yum, we will definitely keep doing those next year!

Veggie Garden, 2 months in

don't mind the overgrown grass, it'll get mown next week

See how everything has sprouted and is growing so good!?  The ones by the fence don't seem too happy about the shade they are getting for most of the day right now, but we are hopeful that as summer progresses they will get enough sun to grow better.  At least the plants further away from the fence are doing well.  I have no idea when to start harvesting the vegetables but boy do those lettuces look good!
 
About the only problem we have had so far (besides remembering to water daily!) is that something has been eating the cabbage leaves.  In fact every leaf was chewed off of one plant to the point only the stems were left.  It seems to be sprouting new leaves and hopefully will produce something.  I think I do need to thin out the squash though, there are 2 plants in two of the squares and they are soon going to be pretty squished (tee hee, squished squashes!).  The pepper from the back also should be moved into the square towards the front where the seeds didn't sprout at all.  Other than that I only have a few plants that didn't sprout.  Surprisingly the green onions haven't done too well even though they came highly recommended by our neighbor, The Child Whisperer, barely any of those sprouted, maybe I put the seeds to deep or too shallow?

cabbage trying to re grow leaves that were gnawed off

Veggies!

Yessirree, we are planting our first vegetable garden.  I am a complete novice at this so it will definitely be a learning experience to see what will thrive and what won't.  The idea first came to me last summer when the kids and I went along with The Child Whisperer as she needed to water a community garden she was part of.  It seemed like such a neat idea for the kids to see where food came from that I thought it might be nice to do it in our own yard.

There isn't much space left to put in planters for veggies so we are giving it a go in the side yard, it is a bit shady on one side due to the angle of the sun, but as the season progresses it will be less shady.  So Mister Vonkysmeed purchased a set of raised garden planters for us to start up our new garden in.  I requested assistance via Facebook from my friends and got the most responses (21) to a status update ever I think!  Everyone seemed to think squash, zucchini, various beans, and tomatoes were good bets.  I also had a few suggestions to check out Square Foot Gardening to make the most produce out of the least amount of space.

We ended up choosing broccoli, radishes, zucchini, carrots, green onion, cabbage, lettuce, mesclun (a variety of lettuces), chives, and green peppers for our garden.  the radishes had already been started from seed by Lil' Miss following her school field trip to a farm, but everything else we are trying to start directly from seed.  Since we don't have to worry about frost here is a Southern California beach city I am hoping they will be okay and we will see them sprouting in a few days, hopefully.

We are currently using white plastic knives for our plant markers (aren't they quite snazzy looking?) but will be upgrading to some kid painted cuter ones soon.  Mister Vonkysmeed will be making a few trips by the paint department of Home Depot to pick up paint stirrers, they should work perfectly!  Wish us luck as we start our own Victory Garden!

Garden Enhancement

I spent my Friday digging in the dirt to get all my new plants in the ground instead of updating my blog.  Sorry about that, if it makes you feel any better my hips are killing me after kneeling all morning bent over to get the plant holes dug.  This has it's roots in me wanting to not have to pull weeds anymore and grew to a pathway from the sidewalk to the top of the driveway with a new planter.  I just think it make for a much nicer approach to the house to walk up a path rather than up the driveway, I think it's called "curb appeal."  So my loving and sweet Mister Vonkysmeed spent a few weeks digging out sod to make room for this grand idea of mine.

To start with I had asked him to help me out with the grass weediness by our water spigot by the front door.  I just couldn't keep up with the damn weeds so asked if he could help me out with digging out some dirt, putting down some plastic and then lay pavers and river stones on top.  I liked it, a lot, and the project grew.  Next I asked for the evil vinca from heck on the other side of the front steps to be ripped out and the pavers and rocks put over there too.  With that change I would have a place for some pretty potted plants and a seating area, what fun!  Then I dropped the bomb on the poor man, I wanted a walkway, a new planting bed, and an arbor cut into the front lawn.  He sighed but agreed to the project.

After lots of measuring and figuring out the project on paper, and using his construction calculator he was off to the home improvement store to get the supplies and wow what a lot of supplies!  Who know we would need so much sand, or mulch, or an entire pallet of pavers, really!?  He really wanted the pavers set right next to each other but I just didn't like that look, I was going for a very specific feel, I wanted a little bit of the Mediterranean in my yard.  I have a couple of books on Mediterranean gardening and all the patios shown are either gravel surfaced, or a mix of pavers and gravel or stones.  Since solid gravel just doesn't do it for me a mix of the pavers and rocks it is.

Need I say the man worked his ash off?  He even managed to get his part of the project done before I had my wisdom teeth removed so he could devote his time to watching the ankle biters for me while I recovered.  So for about 3 weeks we have had about an acre and a half of mulch staring at us daring me to do something with it.  I already had an idea of what to plant as I have another planter nearby that was all finished, I just needed to settle on the arrangement.  Sometimes that seems to be the hardest for me, I like the instant jungle look so I tend to over-plant.  I learned this lesson the had way after having to remove 3 lavender, 2 rosemary, and a Mexican sage form my backyard that ended up in the pots by the front door.  Once I had finally settled on a layout we went out got the plants and put them in the ground the next day (I have finally learned about planting quickly too, after a few dead plants).

In case you are wondering the plants we ended up with are French lavender, dusty miller, English thyme, santolina, and two grapes, a Flame seedless and a Thompson seedless.  In the pots are roses, a Sunset Celebration and a Black Magic.  The big concrete pavers in the middle of the planter will eventually have a pot with a geranium and a large pot with a fruitless olive tree.  The geranium will go in within the next week or two but the olive will be awhile, those suckers are expensive, not to mention the pot to put it in!