Whew!

Well, I am getting tired of the landlord damaging my raised bed frame when he mows the yard. So I have dug up and killed the grass in a 3 inch strip around the bed. Lets see if that stops the damage or I may end up needing a new frame after only one year.

On happier news, we have our first tomato forming! Looks like a single black berry on the bush too. More than we expected for the first year that's for sure. I got the support beams put in for the cukes, just need some twine or something to use to get it climbing up them. I've taken to breaking up the soil and digging the cuttup weeds into the soil instead of just pulling them and moving them away. Not sure if that will help anything at all.

The raspberry bush looks straight dead but I hold out hope that greenery will come up next spring. In the mean time I added epsom salt to the garden areas and have been watering roughly every 3 days with good results. Much better than last year so far. Fingers are crossed for good returns on all this effort.

Growth comes with the heat

The tomatoes we put in first are now over 2 feet tall and flowering, thats good. Our golden grape tomatoes are blooming as well. We have a new cane on the blackberries, and some of the onions are up now. All this and today it hit 101 degrees acording to some online weather sources, others said 97. Not sure which to believe but either way it was hot!

The Cucumbers are showing promise, the romas are almost a foot tall now, and the peppers are looking fairly well too. The raspberry bush got shocked and sits looking brown and dead but we will leave it until this time next year. I think that is giving it a good amount of time to recover.

The garden this year is a good deal smaller than I had hoped for but it will have to do. I feel its too late to put in anything else and have a chance of anything beyond greenery. All the rain we had last month really put a stop to breaking ground and planting. Its alright though. Next year the beds that are going now will not be that hard to prep so we will be faster to expand. Here's to a good growing season, a great harvest and a hopeful next year!

Rain, Rain Go Away. . .

For once the rain saddens me instead of invigorating me. I have an entire packet of watermelon seeds to plant, two packages of onion sets to plant as well as 2 pepper and 6 tomato plants I need to get in the ground. May is nearly over and this makes it frightening as to whether or not these will have time to grow and produce. Was this year's investment a waste? Time will tell. For now though I do have the blackberry bush in and it looks fairly good with some new growth on it already. It holds the promise of berries for next year. Perhaps a few this year. Who knows? The raspberry shocked and has gone brown and dry. Come autumn I shall cut it back and hope for the best for next year. Should it stay brown and dead looking I will have to pull it up and think of what to replace it with. Perhaps another blackberry bush? In the round raised bed I have my 3 tomatoes and 4 pepper plants. The peppers are being slow to grow but the tomatoes are over a foot tall now. Thick and not too leafy but leafy enough to have my hopes warmed by their progress. On the other hand my marrigolds are dying and I am at a loss as to why. I hope to pick up some epsom salts next week to add to the garden beds. This will give a little boost to the plants I think.

In the meantime I look out on a very gray and dismal world of rain.

Triumph!

Ah the sweet feeling of actually accomplishing things! Found an unadvertised low cost tomato plant sale at Walmart, 50 cents a plant! Scored 4 of those bad boys then hit Ace Hardware for the advertised topsoil for 4/$5. This filled up my one raised bed and I planted the tomatoes in it. If I get 4 more and one tomato cage I can have a nice little tomato bed and maybe plant strawberries as an edging. I have plans but its slow going when you are low income.

Will dig out my camera and get photos of the bed as soon as I can.

Happy Gardening everyone!

Bogged down

Its been rainning here and when it hasn't been rainning I have been busy. Whew! Tomorrow I should be picking up my first ever regular sized shovel so I can dig an in ground garden. Unfortunately filling my one raised bed has gone nowhere, so if I want to garden this year it must be using my natural not so great soil. ICK. Wish me luck on that one eh?

Ah lovely weather again!

W got out to the park today and the kids had a blast. We saw lots of robbins, some sparrows, some starlings and a hawk. We watched the water in the creek trickle by, and enjoyed the refreshing breeze which occassionally gusted into a full on wind.

I marvelled at how lovely it was until we were forced to leave by a suspicious truck that kept driving by very slowly and coming back again and again. Then on our way home we were disturbed by the repeated comments from a neighbor who kept telling us how beautiful and sweet our little girl was, especially in her cute little dress. So lovely. . .shiver. Telling someone they have a lovely child once is ok, but over and over. . .going from calling through an open window to opening your door and standing there calling. . . that is terrifying. I hope it was harmless admiration from a lonely lady, but these days you can never tell.

So, a quick warning to those of us with kids. Keep a keen eye on your kids while out enjoying the warm weather. Don't let little ones go to the park with their siblings without you. Don't let your preteens run off with groups of friends, and make sure your Teens have a cell or know every route to home. Its just not safe these days. And that is extremely sad.

It's a nice day, but I'm stuck inside! So here's some notes on compost.

Arg! It turned out to be a lovely day outside but we are finishing up some indoor spring cleaning which means I have to stay inside. Not that that is such a bad thing. See, my rabbit Chinny decided to give me a litter of 7 healthy kits! Makes me smile to see them each time I pass her cage. I use Chinny's droppings in the garden, so temporarily having 8 rabbits giving me poop is not a bad thing to me at all.

Rabbit manure is wonderful for the garden because it can be added straight to it at any time. Whether there are plants in the bed or not, mostly because it does not burn the plants. That is why it is called a "cold" manure. Unlike "hot" manures like horse or cow, which has to age before being added in.

Now if you prefer not to put manure straight in the garden, that is ok. Its fine in the compost pile too. I adore composting so if my beds are full everything will go into the compost pile to get broken down to be dug into the bed the next spring. All kinds of things can go into the compost pile. More than most people think can. Of course I am an oddball and do not compost in the traditional way. I take a 5 gallon rubbermaid tub and drill 8 holes in the bottom to allow drainage. I put a scoop of garden soil in and daily add stuff to it. I turn it each time I add to it, stirring it up similar to a cake mix, I want it well blended each day and after I turn it I pour on about 1/2 cup of water, once a week pouring in milk instead of water. This process fills the tub after about 9 days and then I have to setup another one. But I keep turning and adding water or milk to the old ones until they are done then they get added to a new raised bed or an old one that has had some settling during the growing season.

The only time I can not compost this way is during deep winter. This means temps that rarely get over 50 during the day or night. Night temps can be lower if it is warm during the day, but once day time temps get inconsistant composting takes a break.

That's my post for today. I'll be back!