More work in the garden

Saturday night Greg helped me work on the old pepper box from last year. We built it last year when our peppers were dying from the brutal wind. Then, at the end of the season I took the plastic off because it would have gotten all torn up through the winter anyway.


This year we made that bigger greenhouse and put the peppers there, so this year we're putting cantaloupe and honeydew melon in that box. It's fun to finally get to plant all my little starts in the ground. I started growing this cantaloupe about three and a half months ago in the window sill. I'm excited to watch the fruit grow and get to enjoy it.


This is the first bell pepper of the season. I don't know if it's going to turn yellow or red...I got the plants kind of mixed up when I first planted the seeds in their little peat moss cups. I'm anxious to see the peppers appear from all the other kinds of plants too. Growing food is just like magic!


I planted the tomatillos Saturday night too. I grew the smaller ones from seed, and the two bigger ones I bought at Ace just in case my little plants didn't come through. That's one of the most important ingredients in our salsa!


I also planted some pumpkins by the field. They take up so much space, and I'm expecting my squash plants to branch out and take up most of the garden, so I thought I'd try it outside of the garden. I pulled some weeds in that small area and stuck the pumpkin seeds in the clay and watered it well. I've been watering it a couple times a day since it gets so hot out there. Later I had the bright idea to put some potting soil over there. It has fertilizer beads that will help feed the pumpkins over time...I just don't know why I didn't think of that before I planted them. Oh well, they seem to be doing good out there.


When we get back from our vacation and I have a little time I'm going to go dig up the dirt around the pumpkins area and get some of the weeds out of there. I'm hoping the pumpkins will just take off and I can have a cool pumpkin patch out there. Maybe I will tell all my friends to buy their Halloween pumpkins from me for half the price of the store.


Out in the weeds there are some wild flowers growing that I like. There's lots of daisies (big and small), some yellow snap dragons, and this purple flower.


I don't know what it is but it looks pretty. Last year I tried growing wild flowers out in the weeds and field just by sprinkling tons of seeds all over. I had dug up the ground and gotten rid of a lot weeds, but the flowers never sprouted. This year I found all those purple flowers, and the snapdragons surprised me too. (They weren't there last year.) There are snapdragons growing out of the cement block wall next to the storage units, and out of the ground all along the perimeter of the property. It makes me want to try again to grow more wild flowers. I want to just spend a few days digging up the ground and planting seeds. The problem is that I don't have a good source of water over there. Last year I watered a large area by hand for awhile, but it didn't seem to work then.

Someday I'll have a house and my own yard and there will be the most beautiful flowers growing all around!

Planting time!

Just thought you'd like to see how the garden is coming along.

The green house is kind of an added bonus for the rest of the garden. I didn't realize until just the other day that it blocks a lot of wind for the rest of the garden too. I used some of the boards from Greg's school conference and the race track the guys built to help block a little more wind there. It looks kind of junky, but at least my plants are growing well. I'll probably take those boards down a little later once the plants are strong and well established.


It was a little tricky cutting into the black ground covering to plant the squash, but I think it turned out pretty good. Those patches of soil that are uncovered have carrots, onions and garlic growing there. I just wish that goofy fire hydrant wasn't right in the middle. I'm definitely not having a fire hydrant in the garden when we move into a house!

I found a friend....

....Who loves plants as much as I do! We made friends with a new young couple at church, and Mason knows all about plants. He studied horticulture and is going towards his masters right now. It's fun to ask him questions and let him tell me about different kinds of plants.

We had dinner at their house tonight. When I got there the first thing I noticed was the cool baskets of nicely arranged plants everywhere! He has a little business where he makes these baskets with a few types of plants that are complimentary arranged in baskets with decorative rock or moss. I would love to learn how to do that! Then at the end of dinner he gave me this one!





They are all succulents, and they just need to be watered about every two weeks. The Easter Cactus will flower eventually, and that taller one in the back will grow up big like a tree in about 20 years, says Mason. If you're still around then I'll post another picture for you.

Greg's out of school!

...for three weeks. This is one of the reasons I'm glad Greg is out of school.


It's also been great having help with dishes and laundry, the business, and he helped me with my homework too. We're both happier now that we can see each other for more than an hour a day. School will happen again, but I think from now on it's not going to be so crazy as it was when he was A.S.M.E. President and in charge of everything besides his regular school classes.
Now I'm the one in school with homework, but it's not too tough and I don't have to spend all that time at school like he did.

This is what happens when...

... you start making bread and forget to add the yeast...then add it at the last second and hope it works, and then let it rise for 10 minutes...and while it's rising the doorbell rings and you don't get back to your bread for 45 minutes....
That's what happens.
Good thing the lid locks down.

The Green house is done!

Well, mostly done. We might make some adjustments so it's easier to get into, but for now it's working to help harden off the plants and get them used to living outside. They seem to be doing well today, so I think it's OK and not too hot in there. I'm excited to do the planting in the ground.





We duct taped some boards inside the plastic to hold it down on the sides. Both ends are easy to open and you can crawl inside through the strings. I might make some cuts on the sides (covered in duct tape so it does rip) and make places where I can open the sides.

Next on the list is to cover the old pepper box from last year with plastic so I can plant the cantaloupe out there too. Fun!