2013 gardening attempts

No community gardens here, anywhere.

My sis' catnip is finally starting to grow. One plant is a foot high and the rest are now about 3 inches. Harvested ONE leaf for Bij, it will be at least another 2 weeks before any of the other plants are big enough to get a single leaf off of without hurting the plant. By Bij's reaction to the leaf I gave him yesterday: this is industrial strength nip we got going here this year!

That's great Fif, the nip I have in the hanging basket as lush as past
years. I did notice that it is coming back in the window box where I had
it last year.

My herb garden is FINALLY in!! I just hope there is enought time in the summer for everything to grow...we were still getting frost in this part of Michigan this last week! I bought some cayenne and lavender plants. Also I have planted some lavender seeds, oregano seeds, cilantro seeds and basil seeds. I'm so excited!! Oooh, and for my creatures...catnip and cat grass!

There should be plenty of time for herbs. They grow quickly. I need to get some basil seeds to go with the tomatoes.

My leeks have disappeared. I don't know where they went, but the row is completely empty.

that's awful.

Can't imagine a critter that would take that away!

The temperature around here is supposed to dip down to 39! Last time that happened...I saw frost...

What on earth besides us peoples who'd eat leeks?

If you take a look at my blog for yesterday, you'll see that I had mushrooms popping up next to my tomato plants. I told you we've had a lot of rain and gloom! I've sprouted MUSHROOMS!

I don't think anything ate them because there's no sign of anything poking around the garden. The shallots are still in and healthy. So, I figure that they just didn't make it. I'll try again in the fall. When the potatoes are harvested is about the right time to start the winter crop.

Wish I could plant a garden.....I'd love to have some zucchini, catnip, carrots, lettuce, and tomatoes fresh from the garden!

The tomato plants have set their first fruits. They're still tiny and green, but they are present! It's only about three weeks until the first harvest. Can't wait! I'll take pix when the paths have dried enough that I won't lose a shoe walking through the garden.

Mmmmm. Nothing like a sammich of sliced tomatoes on white bread slathered with plenty of mayo, whole thing sprinkled with a blizzard of salt!

Oh yeah! I like a little Durkee's dressing on my sandwich too. Maybe some chopped chives if I'm feeling fancy.

Mmmmmmm...............fresh tomatoes.

bpaquet wrote:Oh yeah! I like a little Durkee's dressing on my sandwich too. Maybe some chopped chives if I'm feeling fancy.

This is a clear violation of the purity of the classic 'mater sammich. What really upsets me is it sound really good!

I found mushrooms growing the basket with the catnip. We've had a fair
amount of rain but that's ridiculus.

We've had two days in a row here of very high heat--110 today and yesterday. Add the fact that we're on water restrictions here because of drought, and I almost lost a couple of tomato plants here. From now on I'm smuggling out water. Our water use here is way below anyone else's on this street anyway.

If you use non-toxic soap for your bath you can reuse your bathwater for the garden......as long as you have the strength to scoop it all up into a bucket and carry it out there or run a hose out there and try to siphon it out there.  The nontoxic soap won't hurt the plants or the veggies you're growing and it might help keep the bugs off!

You can also use drink bottles (2 liter works well) as watering vessels. Cut the bottoms off, drill a hole in the lid. Put lid on, and poke into the ground. Fill the bottomless bottle with water. It should give enough water for a day or maybe 2.

Well, my little tomato from seed bit the dust in last night's big storm. Maybe it got pelted by hail.   At least I bought an established Sweet 100 as extra insurance this year.

Bummer! I got home too late to see if all of mine survived today's huge wind and pelting rain.

I have spikes for the 2 liter bottles, and that works pretty well.  The tomatoes have their own red water reservoirs.  I don't mind hauling water, especially since we use rain barrels (when there's any rain), and the garden is pretty small.  I don't know about using bathwater.  We have to use liquid bath soap as we have very hard water and very old plumbing.  I don't know how that would work with plants.

Maybe we'll get a little rain today; there's a 40 percent chance.  Hoping for rain and not hail.

I had worked so hard to keep it safe too - it had been growing in the house and I would take it outside for some sun and outdoor breezes to strengthen it.  Just this past week I thought I'd better put it in the ground or it wouldn't have enough growing time in the garden to produce fruit.  I surrounded it with a coffee can that I had cut the bottom from, so that bunnies wouldn't nibble its tender leaves... And then the Wednesday night storm hit!  It was a whopper, with lots of wind and hail.