Garden update - three weeks after start

All right, I've had a frustrating gardening week. The birds were still ripping of the tender shoots as they came up, so I put bird netting over the whole thing on Tuesday. This has helped so much. I have to admit I bought six cucumber plants, as the birds had eaten my seeds. I also planted lettuce. The dill isn't up, but if I don't see it soon, I'll plant something else there. I'm not giving up!

Tomatoes and Radishes



Lettuce and Cilanto




Cucumbers

Presidents Day Celebration

On Monday, President's Day, I had invited to whole family (those who live here in Arizona) to come to Usery Park for a picnic and hike. Peggy was working and Jeff's family was not able to come either and we REALLY missed them all. Carson was very sad when he found out that Brigham would not be coming and of course the girls missed Zoe. Scott and Kari came later in the day and missed the hike :0( but we had a really good time. Even little Kai and Kam are able to hike the mountain and it was lots of fun! Towards afternoon it got chilly and windy, but we were still able to play some games while sitting in the sun. We missed you Utah families, too!

The Group - Riley, Warren, Ron, Trix
Angie, Kam, Justin, Carson, Klara, Kai
Charlotte



Kai



Charlotte and Riley



On top of the big 'mountain'



Charlotte, Carson and Riley 'tied' to the horse rail

Garden Update

OK, I'll admit gardening is not so easy. I have been fighting the birds and a cat. The cat has dug up much of the African Daisy seeds to make a soft sandbox. I am trying pepper flakes to discourage it. I hope it works. I have made six 'scarecrows' consisting of sticks with ribbons hanging down. This seems to be deterring the birds from digging up the seeds. I have had to re-seed in several areas due to bird appetite. I have radishes up; two different crops. The birds have eaten the beans as they have emerged from the ground, so I have re-seeded them and some of the yellow squash. The parsley, tomatoes and cilantro are doing well, as are the pansies and the 36 yellow snap dragons I planted. In addition, I found five penstimon volunteers that I have replanted in an organized manner. I have added dill seed and cucumbers. Wish me luck!
On Friday I helped Angie with her 'garden' for about five hours. I hope she has good luck with it. I hope you will have good luck with gardens of your own.

Pansies - two colors on one plant!



Cilantro




Tomatoes




Penstimon



As you can probably see, I do best with flowers. Too bad we can't eat them! ;0)

Garden Update

It has been 8 days since I sowed the first garden seeds. Today I noticed the radishes are finally beginning to sprout. No pictures, because they are so small and because it is pouring down rain. During the week I dug up two of my tomatoes because they were 'doubles'. I successfully separated them, replanted two and potted two for Angie's garden. I also sowed basil seeds and a second crop of radishes. I bought and planted 12 little purple pansies (touched with yellow gold, etc) Then I potted 10 tiny Alisum plants that sprouted from last year, which I rescued at the other end of the planter where I sowed two packets of African Daisey seeds. When the ground dries a little I will be able to plant the salvaged Alisum and Yellow Snapdragons where I want them. Pictures will follow soon, I hope. Happy Gardening!

My Garden

I have been planning to try my hand at 'square foot gardening', so yesterday I finally bought all the required ingredients. First of all I had to mix equal parts of peat moss, organic compost and vermiculite. That needs to be about six inches deep. Then Warren made me a grid. There are 24 12X12 grids in which to plant, plus some extra large ones at the end for the squash. So far I have 4 tomato plants, 2 squares of bush bean seeds, two of radishes, two of spinach and four mounds of yellow squash seeds. About two to three weeks after they sprout I will add a second crop of the above mentioned vegetables for a longer harvest time. I am also going to plant some herbs and lots of flowers in the rest of my 52 foot planter. In addition I rescued 35 yellow snapdragon starts that came up from seed. I planted those in little peat pots and will set them in the planter when I know what other flowers I need to got with them. That will happen in the next couple of weeks, I hope. I'll try to keep you posted on how my garden is doing. I'm excited to finally be giving it an honest try.
;0)

My Square Foot Garden



The Yellow Snapdragon Sets